Homeless Iraq & Afghan war veteran: "People come back from war different"

[sabra]

http://www.kcby.com/news/national/13945632.html


Veteran of the Afghan and Iraq wars Peter Mohan cries while speaking about a friend of his who was killed in combat in Iraq.

<snip>

Peter Mohan never did find a steady job after he left Iraq. He lost his wife - a judge granted their divorce this fall - and he lost his friends and he lost his home, and now he is here, in a shelter.

He is 28 years old. "People come back from war different," he offers by way of a summary.

...



Iraq veterans are less likely to have substance abuse problems but more likely to suffer mental illness, particularly post-traumatic stress, according to the Veterans Administration. And that stress by itself can trigger substance abuse.

...

Take Mike Lally. He thinks back now to the long stretches in the stifling Iraq heat, nothing to do but play Spades and count flies, and about the day insurgents killed the friendly shop owner who sold his battalion Pringles and candy bars.

He thinks about crouching in the back of a Humvee watching bullets crash into fuel tanks during his first firefight, and about waiting back at base for the vodka his mother sent him, dyed blue and concealed in bottles of Scope mouthwash.

It was a little maddening, he supposes, every piece of it, but Lally is fairly sure that what finally cracked him was the bodies. Unloading the dead from ambulances and loading them onto helicopters. That was his job.

"I guess I loaded at least 20," he says. "Always a couple at a time. And you knew who it was. You always knew who it was."

:cry:

[Sugar Smack]

1. From epluribusmedia: on PTSD

September 16, 2005 - 1 kidnapping, robbery, and rape
A 25-year old Army Sergeant (unclear if a combat veteran from this report) based at Fort Campbell, TN kidnapped his former girlfriend at gunpoint, forced her to drive to an ATM to withdraw money, and then returned to her home to rape her. After being placed under house arrest at the base, he stole a vehicle and left the post. He was later arrested.


September 7, 2005 - 2 murders
A 22-year old Fort Lewis, WA soldier was arrested and held on $2 million bond in connection with the shooting deaths of a fellow soldier and a woman shot multiple times as they sat in their car outside a tavern. Police suspected the crime was a botched burglary attempt. The military refused to give any information regarding the soldier, so it's unknown if he'd served overseas or not.


August 27, 2005 - 1 murder
A 23-year old Army specialist and Afghanistan combat engineer "(assigned to Echo Company, 1st Battalion of the 12th Calvary Regiment, 1st Calvary Division) was charged with first-degree murder by a court in Hamilton, Texas after he stabbed a white male in the lung in an apparent gang brawl." The suspect says he retrieved his blade and stabbed the victim (who died 4 days later) in self-defense.


August 12, 2005 - 2 injuries
A soldier named `Marine of the Year' for his Iraq service was arrested after firing upon a 15-year old girl and 20-year old man leaving a Massachusetts night club. The soldier's wife told police that her husband had been drinking and they'd been arguing shortly before the shooting. The couple have two children. The soldier was being held on $100,000 bail.


August 3, 2005 - 1 murder, 1 suicide
A 35-year old Fort Carson, CO 2nd Brigade Combat Team soldier who 9 days earlier had arrived stateside after being sent into combat in Iraq for a year from a South Korea base, shot his wife five times in the head and neck with a pistol before killing himself with a shotgun blast to the head. The couple were the parents of a toddler; neighbors said the soldier had signed up with the Army in Jan. 2004 for access to health benefits because his wife was expecting a baby.


August 2, 2005 - 1 murder, 1 injury
A 20-year old Iraqi veteran (who'd served in the 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood, TX and sought treatment for PTSD after his return), was arrested for the shooting death of a man and woman in a Las Vegas alley. The returning soldier was on a 1 am beer run to a 7-Eleven, wearing a black coat with an assault rifle tucked under his arm. The couple had apparently yelled at him to get out of an alley. After firing on them, the young soldier fled the scene and returned to his apartment for more ammunition.


July 29, 2005 - 1 possible suicide (death from natural causes?)
A Fort Riley, KS soldier was found dead in his quarters; no foul play is expected. The soldier was assigned to the 82nd Medical Company of the 541st Maintenance Battalion, and had served two stints in Iraq.


July 28, 2005 - 1 murder, 1 suicide
A 20-year old Marine based out of Camp Lejeune, NC and mysteriously, but honorably, discharged in February (and as of yet not a confirmed combat veteran - the military blaming a `disjointed database and filing system' for the delay in confirmation), killed his newly-enlisted 18-year old girlfriend with a shot to the back and then turned the shotgun on himself in Washington State.



It's a bit of history that happened a few years ago but which is illustrative of what war can do to people.

[tuckessee]

2. I bet it's just as tough for the Iraqis.

They didn't volunteer to be bad ass warriors. Especially the children.

I wonder why we don't see any stories about the trauma the truly innocent are suffering?

Are brown civilians immune from PTSD?

[Sugar Smack]

3. Perhaps I could google it & find the stories,

although you can bet there won't be that many, because of the overall lack of English-speaking media attention. There'd have to be some serious translation.

[Sugar Smack]

6. 5 million orphans from the Iraq war.

God, & too many articles about that to count. Jesus.

[gratuitous]

4. Oh sure

Have compassion for the victimes of our unprovoked aggression. Just because they'e never done anything to us, can't fight back and can't get away, you make it sound like they deserve some sort of consideration or something. I mean, who knew that soldiers come back from war changed? Nobody could have warned us, you know? It's not like there were millions of people marching in the street.

[Elspeth]

5. So many of these folks are homeless, too.

K & R

[Rageneau]

7. HOO-AH!!!

Let's see some more flags and ribbons and well-fed troops on TV. Let's hear some more about how we're gonna go kick some ass of whoever it is needs their ass kicked.

We've no idea why, but -- HOO-AH!! We're ready to kill!

[kineneb]

8. Vietnam, all over again. sigh.

The surviving vets from that engagement are still suffering. PTSD, homelessness, substance abuse, and unknown illnesses from chemical exposure abound. We never did help them much, just let them spiral down in their pain.

Now we have just added a new batch from Iraq and Afghanistan. Here we go again, with new forms of mental problems, homelessness, substance abuse, and more unknown illnesses(how is depleted uranium going to affect them?).

"...when will we ever learn,
when will we ever learn."

(Where have all the Flowers Gone)