Posted on 06/11/2010 10:21:11 AM PDT by SandRat
His suicide had nothing to do with the military. He was nuts.
It won’t matter. The country he served was doomed and so was his family. It simply doesn’t matter if we live or die anymore.
Unfortunately, he lost the final bout.
WTF is that?
Speak for yourself. I will fight to the end.
Yes, it is unfortunate. I’ve known 3 people that have killed themselves. And they all had a screw missing that led them to self loathing.
Sad story.
Poor grammer. Pictures are hung
People are hanged. John hanged himself.
You got that right.
She is fine now, went back to school, got away from her drug friends and met a nice stable young man. We have just been invited to their wedding.
Sounds like this poor soldier was dealing with similar issues.
Dude... Get help. Fast.
When you hear something weird at night, and walk into the bathroom of your home to find your teenaged child barely moving after taking a handful of pills...
I can tell you it is the most helpless feeling in the world.
No previous signs. A stupid break up with an idiot boyfriend.
People that do this are not ALL nuts. Sometimes they simply get sick of carrying the load and they do not think anyone else will be able to help them.
Okay heroes (sandrat and pissant), time to tell us how you served and suffered losses/regrets for having to do what was required and how you cope with the tragedies you are party to, justified or not? Or do you just denigrate others who bear a burden differnty than you (maybe)?
I fear for many of my comrades in arms-young, old seasoned alike, my self as well. We are all capable of great violence and compassion, as we have been required to prove.
Too many of our young and old warriors lose to depression and anxiety. I thank God for my life, and mourn the loss of those who fell beside me, and the ones who fall after the battle is over, knowing that but for the grace of God and love of my family and community, there go I.
Best;
“Too many of our young and old warriors lose to depression and anxiety”.
At no higher rate than many other occupations, my friend. Don’t blame their military service. Our warriors are not victims. That is dem speak. Depression can be hereditary, or based upon childhood trauma or based upon chemical imbalances and hormonal malfunctions.
I’ll say. That’s more appropriate for DU, not FR
Please don’t spread your ignorance here!
I just spent the last couple years trying to support a friend with PTSD, via long distance.
She’d been an Army Reserve nurse during the 1st Gulf War.
She’d been 1st on scene of many multi-casualty attacks.
Then came the Embassey bombing, with so many severely injured that she couldn’t act, and never got the episode out of her mind.
Later, stateside, she cared for her mother, during a long suffering illness, until her death.
Her cyclical depression ended a few weeks ago in her tragic death.
It’s easy to be skeptical of PTSD until you get close to somebody trying to deal with it.
“At no higher rate than many other occupations”
You’re simply wrong PA!
These folks see and experience things that no other occupation has to deal with on the scale that they do.
Yes, cops & rescue have difficult encounters with death and suffering. But not on the scale that the military do, and seldom do they feel they are responsible for the pain and suffering.
Do some homework and quit embarassing yourself.
I’m sorry for your loss. Thank you for supporting your friend. I know she appreciated it despite her final decision to take her life.
Had they been scorning the subject of this article, I’d have agreed with you completely. But in fact, they were reacting to a response which is IMHO legitimately alarming in its own right.
Soldiers are not "victims". They are by and large proud to serve their country and happy to have provided the service of killing our enemies, even though they saw fallen comrades.
Gunny Pop has a great take on it. As does Duncan Hunter, who saw combat in Vietnam, whose dad saw combat and as a WWII Marine, and who has two combat vets as offspring:
The answer is just that they put a bunch of psychiatrists in a big forum and stir them like scrambled eggs, then apply them to our soldiers. There is no benefit coming out of these so-called ‘counseling’ sessions.
They ought to be listening to guys like Jim Mattis, General Jim Mattis of the First Marine Division who said “when you kill these jihadists who are trying to kill our people, these Al Qaeda, you are doing the RIGHT thing!” I'm reminded that General Kelly had to take one of his chaplains aside who was kind assuring all his Marines that they were all “victims” of the war. He had to pull this guy aside and he (Gen. Kelly) finished the session to the Marines.
AJM: A counseling session?
DH: It wasn’t a counseling session, it was an address to the Marines, and he had this nitwit chaplain who started going off on the “we are all victims” route, and Kelly jumped in and said “listen, you’re all great Americans. You are doing the right thing. Feel good about what you are doing.”
If these psychiatrists that are telling these guys that they are victims, that we are all victims, and beyond that - they are wrong, that makes you wonder about this guys colleagues! What are they doing? Are they a bunch of potted plants?
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