Posted on 09/21/2015 7:18:06 AM PDT by huldah1776
After the sixth suicide in his old battalion, Manny Bojorquez sank onto his bed. With a half-empty bottle of Jim Beam beside him and a pistol in his hand, he began to cry.
He had gone to Afghanistan at 19 as a machine-gunner in the Marine Corps. In the 18 months since leaving the military, he had grown long hair and a bushy mustache. It was 2012. He was working part time in a store selling baseball caps and going to community college while living with his parents in the suburbs of Phoenix. He rarely mentioned the war to friends and family, and he never mentioned his nightmares.
He thought he was getting used to suicides in his old infantry unit, but the latest one had hit him like a brick: Joshua Markel, a mentor from his fire team, who had seemed unshakable. In Afghanistan, Corporal Markel volunteered for extra patrols and joked during firefights. Back home Mr. Markel appeared solid: a job with a sheriff’s office, a new truck, a wife and time to hunt deer with his father. But that week, while watching football on TV with friends, he had wordlessly gone into his room, picked up a pistol and killed himself. He was 25.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Jesus Christ Came to Heal the Brokenhearted
http://www.defendproclaimthefaith.org/bind_broken_hearted.html
I read this lengthy article yesterday. My son is a combat vet, so I’m alert to their ongoing battles at home. I cannot begin to describe the incompetent actions and ways of the VA. It’s simply mindboggling.
These kids have been betrayed by the country they fought for.
The prior generations faced the same horrors as do these men and lived with it, so we have to identify what is the glaring difference.
I will offer that the main one is they return to a world where the cannot find work and a way to feel useful and purposeful again and they also see that everything they were told they were fighting for is a facade. The country is led by people who are actively undermining it at every turn. Realizing that their comrades in arms died for nothing. The very people they were told are our enemies and they killed are being let into this country in droves. That is a big paradox.
I do not understand some of the differences, both of my sons did 3 heavy combat tours in the Sangin valley and returned. We don’t talk much about their tours, none at all with mom (I was Corps so we do), but they both have moved on since leaving the Corps 2 years ago and are doing well. One working a great job and one back in school set to graduate in 18 months.
My hopes and prayers for your son.
I agree with your asessment. And I would add that they return from a world of structure, discipline, and honor to one without any of those virtues. The resultant anomie drives them to the margins of society and too often to suicide.
I agree and often wonder how “money” has much to do with it. If a guy is going to put a pistol to his head, drunk or sober, and pull the trigger, there’s simply nothing that can reasonably be done to stop that by anybody residing on earth.
We are also spending million of dollars and endless research on why a couple of transvestites kill themselves.
Without denigrating in any way those who do come back from combat with mental problems, what is the percentage? It was a left-wing lie that all Vietnam vets came back crazy. They’re starting it up again. Or maybe they never quit.
I don’t understand the differences either, not fully.
As you know- every war has later consequences but this rate of suicide and PTSD is alarming.
I grew up during Viet Nam, in my hometown two soldiers were KIA, one came back in such shock he never recovered, and the rest healed and moved on with life. My uncles from WWII had some difficulties readjusting, but in time they were fine too.
This just seems different. But maybe because I know many of these soldiers personally. They are simply terrific men.
Sometimes I wonder...if the way the culture has tried to force men to be more female...hard to articulate because none of these guys I know are anything but MEN...but the society is so changed.
My son has done four tours in I &A. I really think a major difference is the job opportunities. WW II vets moved on quickly and had family and American Dream. They also a high percentage of population so they had peers around.
They never quit. I notice Rats love to talk about mental health issues, real or imagined, of vets. Bush spent time with men and women who lost limbs. Obama and his cohorts go on about crazy mentally ill vets. Jill Biden, MO, & BO himself use vets as a prop. If they cared, we would not see things like the Bergdahl parents at the White House...
“The country is led by people who are actively undermining it at every turn. Realizing that their comrades in arms died for nothing. The very people they were told are our enemies and they killed are being let into this country in droves. That is a big paradox.”
Come home from that and have to get counseled by Major Hassan, or a military that would tolerate him, have to hear every day how wonderful islam is, etc.
No denigration. There are stats, of course, that reflect the overall percentage of PTS but I didn’t know until reading that the Marines do not track COMBAT vet suicide and I doubt the VA would do them justice. Generally it is 25% who suffer so if combat vet stats are compiled the percentage would be much higher. Finding them is crucial.
Betrayal and being left behind by the healthy upper echelon who do not understand the statistical bell curve is another issue that must be resolved. They are on one end and expect all to react as they did. NOT going to happen.
Learning to live with the memories in the right way, getting the remarkable brain to heal to react the right way is possible. The thing is, we are all unique and finding the way is complicated. The guys who suffer from IED’s probably also have TBIs. Multiple injuries, deeper scarring.
“If a guy is going to put a pistol to his head, drunk or sober, and pull the trigger, there’s simply nothing that can reasonably be done to stop that by anybody residing on earth.”
That’s not exactly true. Yes, there are determined people who will go through with it no matter what. But the huge majority can be interdicted if they can be delayed even by a few minutes. It’s very well documented and is the basis for suicide intervention. The very difficult thing is recognizing it in someone. Exceedingly difficult to see, especially since many of them seem to be doing better. And you cant know that means they already know their problems are all over.
Yes, He does heal. The truth does heal. Do you ever put on a bandaid? Do you wash your hands? Truth is part of the healing for betrayal and despair, but PTS and TBI are physical.
We are to love the LORD with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Not just our mind. Healing is emotional, spiritual, cognitive, and physical.
The commie NY TIMES relentlessly sells the “US military is bad, wrong, insane, weak” mantra.
The system is corrupt. Few get help if 90% don’t finish. I personally believe the VA hospitals should be sold. No Fed unions. No physicians assistants making life and death decisions. It’s a major &^%$# up. Can we really expect anything different from this administration?
We need specialists in holistic therapy, as I posted before, for heart, soul, mind and body.
How are you?
That is true. The ONLY time the military is liked is when they can be shown as victims.
US soldiers disciplined for stopping rape of children by Afghan police
I wonder if stories like that are just the tip of the iceberg of what our soldiers had to deal with daily then and there, and now in their thoughts and nightmares here at home.
Adding things like that to everything else that's completely FUBAR everywhere you look, no wonder their suicide rate is so outrageously high.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.