The other battle: coming home (Don't read this if you get scared easily)

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0709/p01s03-usmi.html

By Ann Scott Tyson | Special correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

FORT STEWART, GA. – On his first weekend home from Iraq, Sgt. 1st Class Michael Gilmartin was driving down a sunny highway in Kissimee, Fla., when something suddenly felt very wrong.

In a panic, Sergeant Gilmartin stepped on the brakes of his black Dodge Dakota pickup, jumped out in the middle of the six-lane road and started searching around the truck. Then it registered: He was looking for his M-16 rifle.

"I had basically an anxiety attack," Gilmartin recalled. "I was missing something and needed to do something." A policeman who had served in Vietnam approached Gilmartin and took him to the side of the road to sit for a while.

Gilmartin, who returned here June 3 with his 3rd Infantry Division artillery battalion, is among the first American GIs to trickle back from the war zone. The troubles he recounts - anxiety, sleepless nights, depression - represent the mental and emotional toll experienced by many of those who fought in the Iraq war.

more

[morningglory]

1. My sister just emailed me that a man has shot himself in the head

in front of the WalMart. We have 2 military bases here. I wonder...

[WhataBildeberger]

2. He's very lucky

he ran across a cop who knew. I can think of any number of really bad outcomes if this poor guy was found by the wrong kind of cop.

Does the military not even screen these guys for psych issues when they come out of combat? The term "height of irresponsibility" comes to mind.

[Nottingham]

3. Oh this is so sad! You wonder what mental conditioning is going on here

:bounce: These poor men & women!

[northernsoul]

4. who counts the walking wounded?

How many of these brave young souls are coming home without a physical scratch to show for their ordeal, but have gaping wounds in their psyches?

How many will end up addicted, violent, homeless, insane, or suicided?

How many, George, how many?

[NNN0LHI]

7. Don't remember the exact numbers from the Vietnam days...

...but there was a whole lot of guys like this. I knew and worked with many of them. Some are still not right.

Don

[JackSwift]

5. There is going to be a lot of this

and the vets are going to need lots of counseling and group therapy to help them deal with this. Let's hope that we can help them get it.

[Adamocrat]

6. My Brother-In-Law

My brother-in-law, a reservist MP, had a strange habit of sneaking into the bath tub or the utility room to sleep after returning from Gulf War I. It took quite a while for him to return to normalcy. His best friend, also a GWI vet, blew his head off in front of his wife and kids.

War is just evil and stupid, which is why it fits with the Bush and Republican worldview so well.

-A

[ze_dscherman]

8. Not ONE syllable about the trauma Iraqis have had to suffer

As good as this article is, showing what war does to humans, THERE IS NOT ONE F***ING syllable about what Iraqis still have to go through.

These men have become victims - but they are soldiers - hired to kill, made to kill.

But MILLIONS of Iraqis had no choice but suffer the hell of bombing, the killing of their kin, the terrible wounds. The majority of victims are CHILDREN. Beside the physical suffering, tens of thousands will carry the invisible scars of war trauma.

I am fuming at this, because right now our local peace group does fundraising to support the building of social centers in Iraq for war-traumatized children. The doctors we support have done this work in the Balkans, some also work with refugees, and they very well know what wars do to the soul of innocents.

But few seem to care.

Added: And what really wants to make me puke is the patriotic stance on the end of this article:

"You appreciate being an American. You appreciate freedom. It's kind of like a rebirth."

[xchrom]

9. they are both discarded

bush doesn't need them now -- so who cares.
and america has never had any shame in it's game -- remember your history and the rape of africa and the very near extermination of the first nations here.
as long as americans are not too put out by what goes on they don't care -- cash those paychecks and get the fuck out of my way is too often our motto for living.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. You got it

I saw a video the other day of American troops pulling a family out of their home. They were taking the men and arresting them and holding automatic weapons on the mother and her children. One of them was a beautiful little girl, about 5 or 6 who was totally terrified. She was shaking and clutching onto her mother's skirts.

It's ashame that these troops will have to come home and live with nightmares for the rest of their lives but if it's bad for them, imagine how much worse it is for the children who experienced first hand what Shock and Awe really means. They are going to have a lot of nightmares, too. And unlike someone who volunteers for the military, these kids had no choice in the matter.

[prolesunited]

16. But everybody loves a happy ending!

I thought it did a good job in covering the perspective of the American soldier, but the ending really made me wince. I guess the moral of the story is that it was all worth it.

I would love to see them do a companion piece on what the Iraqi families are going through.

[loyalsister]

19. Enough sanctimony

It's well known that empathy is a different from sympathy. People are concerned with empathy currently because it COULD BE THEIR OWN husband, brother, son, or brother. Some may say this is selfish, however I disagree. Most people aren't equipped to do both. Everyday life closely consumes the maximum level of emotional stress that most lives can tolerate.
I think that the human condition is what it is and sympathy on a larger scale will kick in when empathy for the potential of such massive amounts grief has become less of an issue. I think it is fair to cut the marjority some slack and give credit to who are equipped to do both.

[Mountainman]

11. I had similar experiences

The week I came home from Vietnam we went to a lake and I was sleeping on the edge when they had the start of a sailboat race. There was a loud shotgun sound and at first I didn't know I was home. I jumped up and started to yell at everyone to take cover.

I also could not sit in a chair unless my back was to the wall.

[Cheswick2.0]

12. THIS IS WHY!!!

This is why you don't fight an unjust war. Then men who came back from WW2 at least had the knowlege that they were doing something, to protect the US from Japan and to help liberate Europe from Hitler. But these guys, what will they tell themselves to justify what they have seen and done?

There must be a special place in hell for rich men who foist this kind of horror on the world.
Osama and bush......what is the difference?

[Tansy_Gold]

13. Even when war is "just," it leaves its mark

My dad is a WW2 vet. He saw no combat, but was among the first troops to enter the German concentration camps after the Nazis left and the survivors had been evacuated.

He has never spoken a word of his experiences to anyone in the family, not to my mom or any of the children. He may have talked to some of his American Legion buddies over the years, but if so, we've never heard about it.

Later in 1945 and 46, he helped run an R&R station at a ski resort in Garmisch. He talks about that occasionally, but never ever ever anything else.

[prolesunited]

17. My Dad was stationed in France

and saw a lot of action. He never talked about it at all. About two years ago, he admitted that he almost committed suicide when he came back. I'm sure there were many more like him and those who succeeded, but we'll never know because that wasn't a topic of discussion or something people admitted back then.

[Heddi]

14. you said it all right there

I agree with you 100%

[LiberalLibra]

15. OMG, I feel so sorry for this guy!!!! At least the policeman...

...that stopped knew how to handle it.

Does this make anyone else wish certain acts was legal for all the right reasons??

OMG, but I loathe Bush with everything in me.

Mods: I am trying REAL HARD to adhere to the rules but with stories like this it is so hard.

[Generic Other]

18. And he'll be told to "Get Over It" by his country when it moves on

I am sad to know that a lot of soldiers and their families will struggle for years to do just that.

[Jacobin]

20. Tim McVeigh multiplied by a hundred

That's what'll happen. These guys get their brains twisted into thinking that Iraqis are their "enemy" and go over there, kill them, kill women and children, figure out we have no business there and then they have to twist their brains into justifying what they have just done.

If they aren't amoral, and don't get lots of counseling and pharma help, they will snap.

Get ready for the next few years of domestic terrorists. BTW, don't call the VA for a medical appointment....there is a one year wait for doc visits.

:mad:

[Hobarticus]

21. THAT is a war crime in itself

A YEAR?!?