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Firework displays are pretty but can stress veterans with PTSD
sheknows.com ^ | July 3, 2015 | Tanvier Peart

Posted on 07/03/2015 1:34:31 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper

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To: Chainmail
I never was in the military, but I did attend summer camp once about 45 years ago . Let me explain.

There was a 23 y.o. camp counselor recently back from a tour in Viet Nam. Rumor had it that in response to loud noises he could be made to "hit the deck" and the other cruel kids and I wanted to see. I don't remember if we used fire crackers or just banged the side of the tent platform in which slept, but we did something and it worked. He rolled out of bed and under his cot more than once that summer.

We felt like powerful little 14 year olds after that. I'm ashamed to have been a part of that.

21 posted on 07/03/2015 3:53:28 AM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

I seem to be detecting a massive steaming pile here.


22 posted on 07/03/2015 3:59:49 AM PDT by Desron13
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To: Chainmail

All I can say, as inadequate as it is, is thank you for your service and sacrifice. My response was directed solely at an organization which I believe is using veterans to advance a negative agenda.


23 posted on 07/03/2015 4:01:41 AM PDT by Flag_This (You can't spell "treason" without the "O".)
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To: DH

We have a treasonous media who makes a deal out of every suicide by vet that they didn’t do for previous wars. The news media outlets want us to fail, unless our military is completely liberalized.


24 posted on 07/03/2015 4:01:49 AM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: jkeith3213

Or I guess I should say seems to be a liar.


25 posted on 07/03/2015 4:01:58 AM PDT by jkeith3213
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To: Berlin_Freeper

This is understandable in a way I guess. However, I don’t recall such concern in my earlier years. Maybe the phenomenon of PTSD is just new or something (e.g., like they haven’t ever heard of shell-shock, etc.).

Regardless, one would think every veteran who ever put on a uniform would be aware of July 4 and what it entails and could act accordingly. Okay. This group put out the concern and it’s done now, right? Or is this a plea somehow to get money to ‘work this issue.’ It’s hard to say nowadays with all these concern groups.


26 posted on 07/03/2015 4:03:55 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: DH
It's the basis of the man, IMO

Our military BEGINS it's military stint at the average age of 18/19 ... WELL indoctrinated in 'the battle for his mind', and ever alert (even if subliminally)

The warrior of the past never experienced a childhood belabored with social questions ... just whether he liked that guy or not ... life was less complicated.

Today's combat vet, seasoned and matured has STILL a different 'upbringing' than the combat vet of 40 plus years ago

I believe there is a vast difference in the makeup of a man reared in the days and influence of Norman Rockwell as opposed to those reared in the influence of rock and roll and (the brand of) social turmoil today


my two cent's worth and God be with every man and woman that suffers

27 posted on 07/03/2015 4:09:17 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true .... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: lucky american

My grandfather saw combat in Korea including serious combat injuries during the war. He hated china, but loved fireworks, and explosives in general, especially on Independence day. He whipped our butts, when me and a cousin threw some under his chair, but that had nothing to do with him being a veteran.

I think it’s a mixture of psychology like you said, and a general wussification of our culture and especially the American male.


28 posted on 07/03/2015 4:23:43 AM PDT by jkeith3213
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To: Berlin_Freeper

The July,disability check should come with a warning!


29 posted on 07/03/2015 4:29:18 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus
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To: Chainmail

Thank you Chainmail.
I was about to send them a reply similar to yours.
I served 24 months in combat in Vietnam. I never experienced shell shock, but I saw some of my buddies come back with it. It’s odd, the event I think about the most was during a firefight when I shot a young VC woman, took away her AK47 and then got her to a MASH so that she wouldn’t die. People who’ve never been in combat cannot possibly know what it’s like.


30 posted on 07/03/2015 4:34:56 AM PDT by BuffaloJack (Political Correctness is Supression of Free Speech. Thank the Commies for Political Correctness.)
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To: Flag_This

I agree with your opposition to the Left’s agenda and I appreciate your warm words. We did what we were supposed to do and I was lucky enough to survive it.

The “shakes” as we used to call it, happened to everyone and sometimes could be funny. When I came back for a short leave in early ‘67, I went to visit a girlfriend who worked in a large department store. That store had large automatic sliding glass doors and just as I went in, a car backfired right behind me.

I hit the floor so fast I hurt my nose and the darn glass doors closed around my waist and I was caught like a fish. I lay there struggling for a bit and an older woman came up to me and asked me what was wrong.

I got up all red-faced and said “epilepsy, Ma’am” and escaped.


31 posted on 07/03/2015 4:36:10 AM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: EEGator

[“What the hell has happened to the new generation?”]

Part of it are sites like Wounded Warriors Project that profit from peddling pity.

Don’t ever tell a veteran on crutches because he lost a leg ‘I have such pity for you’ and you’ll know what it like to get your a$$ beaten by a crutch.


32 posted on 07/03/2015 4:39:23 AM PDT by RetSignman (Obama is the walking, talking middle finger in the face of America)
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To: billorites

Aw, you brat! My fellow factory workers used to do the same thing to me when I worked at Lockheed.

My kids used to think it was funny when they could make me dive under a table..

Semper Fi.


33 posted on 07/03/2015 4:39:27 AM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: BuffaloJack

Welcome home, buddy. It’s funny to read posts from some of our fellow Freepers implying that we are “wusses” because some of us came back with the flinches.

Love to put them through 24 hours of the real thing and see how they’d do.


34 posted on 07/03/2015 4:48:36 AM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: BreezyDog

Our kids friend was terrified of fireworks. Even as a small child. This is just this years attemp to get them banned.


35 posted on 07/03/2015 5:01:24 AM PDT by Mercat (Donate to Stop the HildeKraken PAC)
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To: jkeith3213
"I think it’s a mixture of psychology like you said, and a general wussification of our culture and especially the American male."

Really? And your vast experience is based on what? I guess it's easy for someone like you who has seen scores of war movies to call us wusses for coming back with the flinches.

Here's a clue for you: when a bullet hits someone, it makes a loud crack - just like a pine board breaking. Movies would have you believe that it makes a little, polite "wfft" sound but no, it's a loud bang.

I was standing talking to a Sergeant King in January 1967 at Hill 55 listening to him talk to me about his wife and kids when a sniper shot him through the lower part of his face mid-word. It was so loud that I thought that my slinged M-14 had gone off somehow but when I looked up from the ground I saw that Sgt King was lying in front of me, dead. That bullet had passed maybe an inch over my left shoulder to kill him.

As manly as I am sure you are, don't you think that might have made an impression on me, even after all these years?

Or how about that booby trap made of a dud 155mm round that was suspended above a trail as we approached Phong Tien and it detonated and killed and wounded 22 Marines from Foxtrot Company 2/1 a few hundred meters in front of us. I remember one young guy blown in half and screaming his life away. Any idea how that may have made you flinch each time you heard an unexpected bang?

Those of you who didn't experience these things have no right at all to denigrate what happened to those of us who did. Enjoy your damn fireworks but keep your insults to yourself.

36 posted on 07/03/2015 5:33:23 AM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: jkeith3213
"Apparently he caught the PTSD while he was in some sort of terrorism orientation course."
Good post. The author is a sea-going, valor stealing, 100% phoney. Go figure.
My wife's cousin was on a navy ship in the South China Sea in the late 60s. Never set foot in VN, yet believes he's eligible for VA healthcare coverage due to Agent Orange exposure.
37 posted on 07/03/2015 5:58:43 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: oh8eleven; jkeith3213
"I think it’s a mixture of psychology like you said, and a general wussification of our culture and especially the American male."

And you're OK with that statement from JKeith3213? I dare anyone to call me a wuss after a 27 year career in the Marines and the things I've survived.

38 posted on 07/03/2015 6:05:56 AM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: Chainmail
... and just as I went in, a car backfired right behind me.
Three days after leaving VN, I was driving across a large intersection with my future wife when a car backfired. I went flat across the front seat in a nanosecond.
Fortunately, she grabbed the wheel and we survived ... and we've been telling that story for 45 years.

BTW, back in the day, backfires happened often but you just drove on. Worst case you replaced a bad $2 spark plug.
Today, you get the dreaded check engine light, and a $200 bill from your mechanic. Ah, progress.
39 posted on 07/03/2015 6:13:12 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: Chainmail
And you're OK with that statement from JKeith3213?
A little quick on the trigger this morning? WTF is JKeith3213 and WTF called you a wuss?
40 posted on 07/03/2015 6:27:40 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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