Posted on 09/23/2017 12:07:03 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Mike Goski stared into the steel casket at his twin brother’s body, dressed for eternity in a deep-blue Marine Corps jacket with red piping and brass buttons. It was like looking into a cruel mirror, Chris’s face, so like his own, distorted by a wound the mortician couldn’t conceal. Alone together for the last time, Mike slipped a knife into his brother’s hand, a weapon for Valhalla, the mythical refuge for fallen warriors. ...“Chris had only one fear that I’m aware of, and it was not death,” Mike said as he stood beside the coffin that held his twin. “He feared providing anything less than absolutely perfect close air support for his brothers. He feared failing them when they needed him the most.” ors.” . ...On June 8, Chris reclined on the guest bed at his friend’s house. On his laptop, he entered a search for post-traumatic stress disorder.... Then Chris raised the .45-caliber pistol his brother had given him, put it to his right ear and pulled the trigger. He was 31 years old. ...The next day, Mike drove back to his apartment in Clarksville, Tenn. He stripped to his undershorts and T-shirt and settled onto a camouflaged poncho liner on the bare mattress. He put a Glock pistol next to his pillow.
Then Mike put the nozzle of a Dust-Off can in his mouth. Police found his body five days later....
On July 18, 2016, the Goskis buried Mike’s casket atop of Chris’s, one brother’s name chiseled into the front of the grave marker, the other’s name chiseled into the back.
“That’s how they came into the world,” Tim said. “And that’s how they left.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
America's best.
...The brothers visited each other whenever possible. Mike once showed up in civilian clothes at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Chris’s home base. An officer there, thinking it was Chris, yelled, “Goski! What are you doing out of uniform?” Mike performed a lazy stretch and said, “I didn’t feel like putting it on today.”
...Mike won a spot in the Special Forces selection course. A third of the class gave up after standing in formation for hours in a cold North Carolina rain. He trained as an explosives expert, graduating in 2008 to become a Green Beret.
...Like his brother, Chris moved to an elite force. In August 2009, he earned a spot in the 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, the Marine Corps equivalent of the Green Berets. Mike gave him a .45-caliber Springfield 1911 pistol to mark the promotion
I can’t get the full story at WSJ.com
.
Paywall?
http://www.cetusnews.com/life/Brothers-in-Arms--The-Tragedy-in-Small-Town-America.Bkms2OszoZ.html
Yes, thank you.
See link in #4 provided by moovova.
A good read, well worth the time.
You should be able to see the video. We’re going to be paying a tremendous price in blood for our damn politicians trying to do things on the cheap. Five, six deployments per person over the length of a career and not expect the guys to pay the price in PTSD, TBIs, blown knees, depression and everything that comes with it? Not to count the stress it places on families.
I read the entire column. I wish I hadn’t.
Thanks to both of you——I read the article and watched the video.
Brutal.
My grandsons are military age and I cannot imagine them gong through what these 2 young men went through.
We take better care of swarms of refugees than we do for our own military.
Disgraceful.
Also due to the fact that we’ve largely forgotten since WWII how to actually win a war. That we are still actively fighting in Afghanistan 16 years after 9/11 says much, and it isn’t good.
Yes, Sir. There was a reason why you could never get the guys who crossed the Pacific Islands to talk about their experiences! Actually, if you look at the number of Japanese defenders vs prisoners taken itself tells the story. People have been brainwashed into believing wars can be fought without killing the enemy. Dresden also comes to mind. I have smelled fear and cordite but fortunately you can not smell the blood from 1000 feet. I have utmost respect for the guys who have smelled all three at the same time.
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. God Himself is not secure, having given man dominion over His works! Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. Faith alone defends. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.” HK
That it is not a cure-all and not for everyone.
But for the chosen few, an experience beyond compare.
And that is true from the tip of the spear to the very last REMF.
We hope and pray the tempo slows, so our men can catch their breath.
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