We didn't have such a diagnosis back then. The disorder did not exist in the literature until 1952 (as "gross stress reaction"), and then disappeared from the DSM in 1968. It did not exist under the current name PTSD until 1980. In any event, like ADHD, it seems to be diagnosed as a medical condition (under whatever name) with far more frequency today than it was half a century ago, but I don't want to engage in speculation as to why this is so since that isn't relevant to the problem at hand (FAA medical certification of someone with that diagnosis).Makes me wonder where commercial aviation would be if we treated WWII Vets/pilots with a diagnosis like this.
In Vietnam, it was often less than 24 hours from the rice paddies to the streets of home. And the American public didn't help matters by treating them as pariahs, not to mention zero recognition of the condition by the VA.
It's not the label that's the problem, it's the manifestations of the underlying mental disorder. See the VA's web page on that, and think about how some of those symptoms in a pilot could compromise safety. That's why the FAA wants a full psych eval on anyone who's been so diagnosed before they're allowed back in the cockpit. My personal feeling is that if this is a result of military service, it ought to be on the VA's nickel (or the military's if you're still in), but that's another story and I don't know whether that's done or not.
My late Uncle Wilbur was a waist gunner on a B-17 shot down over Germany and spent a year in a Stalag -- much he didn't like to talk about, but he did say Stalag 17 soft-pedaled it some. My other Uncle Murray was a gunner on an A-20 which crash-landed and caught fire at their base on a Pacific island -- only survivor, with serious burns (you can still see the scars on his neck and disfigured ear). It was fifty years before he would talk about it at all, and even today at age 89 is reticent about it, and mention of the rest of the crew chokes him up and brings tears to his eyes, and all he ever remembered is being on final approach and then waking up in the burn unit
And you know who today are the ones who say "Thank you for your service" to the old folks like us when they find out we served? The kids now in uniform, not our contemporaries.
Unless I missed something in the regs (Part 65 Subpart C or Part 121 Subpart P, there is no requirement for any medical certificate to act as a dispatcher, even in Part 121 operations, and the OP specifically said a First Class medical is the goal.
I think the answer should be obvious ($$$), OTOH like you say...that's not relevant to the problem at hand.
I had an older cousin in the Navy in the pacific in WWII, his boat (destoyer I think?) was hit by a Japanese Kamakzi and barely limped into friendly port taking on water faster than they could pump it out. He was always a little (well, maybe a lot) paranoid as I remember him in later years, spent most of the later years as an outpatient/inpatient in the mental ward of the VA hospital at Sheridan, WY. Last time I saw him a few years before he passed was at his mothers (my aunts) funeral........I'm not too sure he even knew what planet he was on? Sad case indeed. OTOH, I've known two members of the older generation that were captured by the Japanese in the Philippines early in the war and were unwilling participants in the infamous Bataan death march followed by a POW camp 'til they were liberated eventually by advancing friendly forces. They both went on to lead long and fruitful civilian lives, so why do some retain their sanity while others snap? I don't pretend to know.
