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.”
Two days after the 4th of July on Monday night, after having dinner with ‘his former battalion leader’, Marckesano returned home from dinner and died by suicide in front of his wife???
What happened at dinner with his former battalion leader???? i think there’s a whole lot to his story we don’t know.
I’m probably going to get flamed for saying this, but I’ve been blasted this entire thread so here goes.
The reason for so many suicides among our veterans goes back to the fact there are so few men these days; so few families and so few fathers in the home along with mom raising children.
This has had a terribly drastic impact, not just on American society but our Armed Forces as well. So many of our fighting warriors are victims of broken homes and American schools. Is it any wonder soldiers are committing suicide on a daily basis? We will not fix their problems, until we fix our societal problems.
Can’t wait for your obit.
No one will give a sh......
You are the pathetic SOB, not him.
He had just met with his former Commander? I tend to think he had reached out then....this is very sad.
Is his opinion not worth consideration?
Did he go on that persons family face book page and pontificate on what he believes is a cowardly act?
Did I relate any egregious memory, or just what the Doc said?
Appropriate? It's an opinion, doesn't cause any angst, in me. But I don't let things that other people say influence me or get butthurt over.
I have to agree...
That a disgusting repulsive comment.
>> ... coward
>> ... selfish
Pointless
Well obviously you don't know enough about those demons "officer". How many of the tens of thousands of ex military personnel committed suicide actually did seek help and in most case were undergoing therapy at the time of their deaths?
Considering the fact that your own home page says you retired from the military in the mid 90's, I think it's safe to say you were nothing but a dumbass desk officer that never saw a day of actual combat in your life.....Let alone the 6 tours this poor soul served in Afghanistan.........
I have about as much respect for you as I do that fat ass desk jockey Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman..........SPIT!!!
How do you now what was said between his former commander he had dinner with just before?......What if she was cheating on him or wanted a divorce? Never wise to jump ahead of the facts.
I knew an acquaintence who suffered greatly from the war in Vietnam after just one turn of duty there. Horrible and beyond imagining what he saw the enemy do to his battalion. War leaves more than scars....lots more...flash backs are a terrible thing to endure even with help. He ended up at a lake cabin by himself, lost his family and all he once knew himself to be.
That’s what I first thought,...Or even what he shared with the battalion officer.... that could have been the trip wire.
Responsibility 2nd: You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Andy: Sua Sponte.
RLTW.
It's a pathetic example of how far this website has devolved in terms of compassion for poor tormented people who have taken their own lives, especially military personnel........
I don't like it here anymore.......
If strong men like this break, then lesser men are sure to break sooner. This is why we need to keep our involvement in foreign wars to an absolute minimum. We are darkening the souls of our countrymen when we send them to war too long.
If the moderators won’t take action, you might want to delete this thread since some of the comments here represent the most reprehensible comments about the tragic suicide of a military hero that I have ever witnessed on this site before...........What have we become?
The Pastor of our church was a medic in Vietnam....front lines. He shared that the public can’t understand what our military goes through in war overseas because they envision the enemy fights like our soldiers do.....they don’t. HE said it wasn’t just seeing blow out bodies lying around ...it was seeing our soldiers deboweled by the enemy after shooting them, and finding them with their intestines in a pile next to their bodies while still alive..as a small example.
Those Afghanistan rag tag troops are even worse...they’re practicing Islamists who abuse their own people so we cannot imagine what they do to our soldiers....and wht are soldiers see..
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