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.”
I'm no stud and never claimed to be. My service time meant nothing compared to what this fellow soldier did during six tours in Afghanistan as a Master Sergeant. I'm just sticking up for a fellow soldier who you and your officer arrogance are condemning for his PTSD.......
You claim to have been an "Officer" but your comment is disgusting when it comes to an NCO who could have served under you and ultimately saved your ass but fortunately you never made it to Afghanistan...
I'm no stud dude but I did serve with actual combat veterans who ended up in my company following their return from Vietnam who were waiting to process out.
I also know real combat veterans of Vietnam who only served one tour who have been fucked up for life........
And you have the self righteous guts to condemn a 6 tour Afghanistan veteran who finally couldn't deal with the war that totally screwed him up?
I don't give a rat's ass about your rank or where you served but it's unlikely you ever had to deal with the daily threat of death that Master Sgt. Andrew Christian Marckesano had to deal with over 6 tours in a country where death and war has been a daily occurrence for decades.
Your sanctimonious attitude as an alleged "Officer" in the military reminds me of the same assholes who ultimately were fragged by their own troops in Vietnam..........
The military is filled with lifer officers such as you, nothing more than state side pencil pushers or overseas equally pushing pencils as we have witnessed in in Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman........
Sorry bro but you don't deserve my respect as an Army vet..........
Yeah I get the logic of what the shrink was attempting but a speech like that could be just an attempt to lock soldiers into a kind of moral straight jacket. It says...”we in the military high command absolve ourselves of any responsibility for any of the mental crap you have to deal with after fulfilling your duties as killing machines for sometimes errant foreign misadventures. You volunteered to be aholes for us and you’ll still be a-holes even if decide you can’t live with your week-kneed mamby pamby feelings...so take some of the hackneyed psych support we offer and get your self doped up but otherwise don’t blame us for your weakness...your moral choices are on you not us...you bit our apple now cover your guilt with our military fatigues!”
Suicide is indeed a selfish act as you have stated...but I think the shrink’s statement, if accurately portrayed by you, had the stench of a gaslighter’s torch!
Your disgusting comment certainly doesn't reinforce that commitment and in fact appears that you have no regard whatsoever over the mental health of Master Sgt. Andrew Christian Marckesano following his service to YOUR military.............
You're either legitimate in your claim to being a retired military officer and now a proven disgrace or you're a fraud............
It really doesn't matter.........
Having spent a tour at the Pentagon, I can almost understand ending it all.
The only reason I can think for anyone to say what Responsibility2nd said is because he experienced it up close and personal. It’s still a terrible thing to say.
I’ve lost a family member to suicide, so I know how painful it is, but I also know that my family member was in a depressed state, a way out of which he was unable to see.
” officer of the U.S. military is to insure the safety of the men under your command.......is it not?
Safety is not the object of the military. It is considered in peacetime, but in combat it is just a small part of the need of the mission. It is also not in the oath for a commissioned officer:
I ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
History is full of instances where safety was not even in the headlights. And yes, people died. But that need to accomplish the goal (mission) outweighed the overall safety of the troops and a gamble was accepted as the answer to the need.
And military members do that every day whether it’s charging gouks like in Vietnam, getting out of the craft at Normandy Beach, or climbing hills in Afghanistan. The chance of instant death is always there and in that business it always will be. It is an accepted part. Some accept the outcome, never easy, while others can’t accept the guilt over time. Those are the ones that can’t go on in life.
And you’re only hearing about the active member.Family members are also plagued with that fear and lose the ability to handle it. It is all a part of the mission and why it takes a special person to accomplish it for a career. Many can’t.
rwood
“Look at it this way. His PTSD problems are over. He passed them on to his wife and children. What a hero.”
Still MORE of a man than you’ll ever be chicken hawk.
“Could have been nagged into it.”
Yep.
She may have been cheating on him (happens a lot more in the military than people think). They may have had a fight and she threatened to get a divorce.
You can’t read or understand so I will leave it at that.
Just to be clear, I think it was selfish to kill himself in front of hiw wife and likely his three small children near by. You don’t.
“Killing yourself in front of your kids is a cowardly move unbecoming any soldier.
It is perhaps the ultimate display of poor character.
America’s boot-licking love affair with “warriors” trumps everything, though - including facts and achievements.”
Spoken like chicken sh*t coward.
committed suicide in front of his wife and he has three small children.....whatever he did while over seas, his ending was far from heroic....cowardly infact....
“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.”
Exactly! Add to that the democrats and their media lapdogs have vilified the mission and the military from day one, and then watch in despair during the eight years of the previous administration as all the gains were pissed away.
Then there are these idiotic “social” upheavals going on in the military such as gays openly serving, females in combat arms, consideration of others training, and singing that God awful “Baby Shark” as a cadence.
I agree with you, by the way. Devastating.
An old gold miner back in the woods once told me “ A split tail can disrupt the life of any man or men.”
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