Posted on 07/10/2020 4:00:56 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Edited on 07/10/2020 4:01:44 PM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
The enemy could never break him, but what this decorated Green Beret eventually found was that his enemy was within. Friends who served with him in the military say he was the real “Captain America.”
Master Sgt. Andrew Christian Marckesano served six full tours in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne and the Ranger regiment and a half dozen more combat tours overseas. He rose to become a decorated Green Beret and a Silver Star recipient. He had just moved to Washington, D.C., to start a coveted job at the Pentagon. Two days after the Fourth of July on Monday night, after having dinner with his former battalion leader, Marckesano returned home from dinner in Old Town, Alexandria, and died by suicide in front of his wife. He had three small children and was still on active duty.
His death sent shock waves through the military. His friends, family and military leaders were at a loss. Many told Fox News that Marckesano never got over his tour in Afghanistan's Arghandab Valley in 2009 with the 2-508, a battalion that had one of the highest casualty rates of any unit during the war. “That deployment was like being in the ring with Mike Tyson for a year,” according to the battalion’s former Command Sgt Major Bert Puckett.
He sent a passionate appeal this week to the rest of the battalion: “Text me, I told you before my door is open... my phone is at hand. We did things that people make movies about and in some cases, writers and producers wouldn’t even try to write our story... the rucksack is heavy... and when it gets heavy we [&$#*] help each other, but you have to reach out... Don’t let the Valley win.”
RLTW
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Isa 6:11 Then I said, “Lord, how long will this go on?”..................
Which is better than my response would have been.
Prayers that the Loving arms of Jesus welcomed my brother in arms home. It is a difficult transition after so much intense purpose. For those who served alongside, peace. For those who will blame themselves, peace. Everyone thinks about it. It is not the answer and it destroys those who are most important.
Nice try, jag off.
L
Either you believe people have a right to their opinion, or you don't. No one said you had to like it.
Well said Lt.
RIP!
It was not necessary to serve that many tours. It’s not something everyone can walk away from, I’m guessing.
My son “Ace” flew Dash - 8s for the Army over there. He did two tours. I was never so thankful when he came home!
I would scrub floors in the Pentagon before I’d let him go back!
He was a hero until he chose to kill himself in the presence of his wife.
Suicide in a family is always traumatic to those remaining, but it's not as though it's beyond understanding. A close friends husband committed suicide without any clues it was coming. Took a long time for the family to work thru it and accept....but that never means you forget it. You just learn how to live with it as any traumatic event that leaves people shocked and traumatized.
A woman lost control of her vehicle which ran into one of our acquaintances yard where her 5 children were having been dropped off from school. Her car killed all five of our friends children, three were decapitated, and their mother saw it all....
There are terrible events that happen in life and we wonder how people ever get thru them and live life again. But they do..of and by Gods Grace and Love they do.
Very sad. It’s ridiculous that we ask a man to serve 6 tours in Afghanistan...not ask, but really that it’s possible to serve 6 tours there. End this useless war Mr. Trump.
I would guess a suicide like this is they type due to depression, in your mind, think you are retaliating with, like when your wife tells you shes is leaving and taking the kids. Had a close friend who did that same thing in front of his wife when she told him it was over. Devastating.
You serve twelve tours.
You come home and Americans are attacking statues of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
You risk your life alongside Americans of African Descent.
You come home and are told that you are a racist by people who think wearing a certain t-shirt is really risky.
If you are able,
save them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.
Major Michael Davis O’Donnell
KIA 1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam
__________________
Never know what someone is going through. A tragedy on many levels, but foremost for his wife. Heartbreaking.
Good point. Remember Terri.
I don’t think it’s reprehensible to offer the opinions given. Sure it may be glib, but so are comments like “hero”.
He was, and he had me....right up until the sentence about killing himself in front of his wife AND having young children left behind.
Yup, you had me right until then.
Absolutely right.
Good, smart response. Killing yourself in front of your wife and leaving three small kids is honorable?
Did his wife recently file for divorce?
Oh I think we do, and or we know what it is to live through a horrible traumatic experience requiring a way to live with it and continue with life......people learn how to live with it over time, at various degrees, and time it takes to reach a level where they can. And even after years and years something will occur that reminds them.....it is then they have to determine how long they'll be revisiting that event...but most can and do move ahead again in the stream of life.
No one is casting stones on the honorable service he gave to our country, It’s the follow up act that negates all the good. We used to say in the Army that one “ah Sh!t wipes out 10 attaboys.”
I think there was a movie made of that?
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