At the risk of insulting you, have you ever been to war? I’m going to jump out in front and assume that you have, so you have probably seen some pretty terrible things, just as I have.
I remember when I was going through SERE school as part of my aircrew training. We were taught a lot of survival skills and spent the last 24 hours of the school in a simulated POW camp. Simulated. 24 hours. I was shocked by the number of guys who “broke” during “interogation” by the camp guards (school instructors).
Months later, I realized that what we had experienced was kindergarten compared to what a week in the Hanoi Hilton would have been like. And, yet, guys broke and we were in the state of California with no one shooting at us!
I don’t condone what SSgt. Bales did, but I also can’t and won’t hold him solely responsible. As I said before, I hold his superiors as much or more responsible for sending a man who had suffered a brain injury back into a war zone on his 4th deployment. We all have our breaking points and I believe that SSgt. Bales hit his.
What happened to those civilians should not be completely heaped on him, even though he alledgedly acted alone. There’s PLENTY of blame to be handed out in Washington!!
Back in the mid ‘70’s, I was at the AF Academy. Every one of us was required to go through SERE during the summer following our doolie (freshman) year. The POW phase was NOT fun.
What you described about people snapping during such training is dead on. I know, because the next two years I was actually a SERE instructor; an “interrogator” in the POW camp.
Know that the AF Academy’s SERE school/training was, by far, the largest in the US military. It was very, very good and very, very thorough.
I was trained by professional military interrogators....and I learned well. We had oversight by men who, up until recently (at the time) were “guests” at the Hanoi Hilton. Yep....the real deal; guys who had recently lived it and kept us on track: they helped us ensure realism, yet made sure things stayed in line. When I was later leading a team of interrogators myself, I understood the importance of what we were doing (TRAINING these guys, and hopefully teaching them things that would save their lives later).
I personally made people snap; completely lose it....like most could not believe. We had one very hard case; a West Pointer going through our SERE on an exchange program for the summer. Big, mean, and a total asshole. John Wayne reincarnate, if you will. When it came time to do his “hard sell” interrogation, my team and the officer leadership insisted that I do it (let’s just say I had a reputation by then).
Hand to God as my witness.....within 20 minutes....count ‘em, 20.....in that little interrogation room with him, one on one.....I had him blubbering like a toddler. He wouldn’t look at himself in a mirror; he couldn’t. He was a complete and total wreck. Completely destroyed psychologically.
Twenty minutes.
I spent the rest of the hour we had scheduled calling what was known as an “academic situation”, a sort of “time out; stop projecting and rejoin the real world; let’s talk about this”. I had to literally talk him back up to feeling human again, let alone a man and soldier.
I emphasized to him that he had nothing to be ashamed of; that, in fact, he just learned something very valuable as a future combat leader that could save his life.
I’ve never forgotten that and other similar occurrences during my time as an interrogator in that God-awful POW camp. The “real” former POW’s used to tell me how they hated my guts after watching me interrogate.....which they meant as a compliment; they knew what the real thing was like. Yet, it showed me just how fragile the human psyche really is. The gung-ho badasses were by far the easiest to break.....every time.
As for Bales....I’ll say this and this only at this point: If Future Snake Eater vouches for the man and speaks highly of his character, that’s good enough for me. FSE is my oldest son. I’ll take his word over any asshole’s in the media any day, any time, any issue, anywhere.
Prayers up for all involved.