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.”
Both the active military and the VA have intense programs to save suicidal folks. All a person has to do is ask.
I didn’t think of that angle. It’s another possibility.
Insane ROE’s are leading to unnecessary casualties. Recalcitrant villages playing host to multiple rebel attacks should long ago have been rounded up and sent into exile, into the wastelands, Trail of Tears style. Villages with few incidents should have been awarded their land. Unfortunately, we are too politically-correct to do this kind of occupation. The only thing left to do is withdraw. Maybe when New York City is nuked by terrorists, American public opinion will develop a little more spine and respect for the life of the American fighting man, thanks to the literal removal of New Yorkers from the gene pool. Or maybe we need literal mutiny and a Franco-style revolution.
If 30 soldiers from the same battalion have committed suicide, the Army better get off its sorry PC a$$ and find out what is going on there.
Boot licking love affair with warriors? Go to he!!. (That’s from me and all the soldiers I worked with over a full career as an Army officer)
Battalion leader? Never heard it put that way. That could have been anyone up to and including the BN Commander.
I agree. And the Terri threads were brutal.
Suicide is pointless.
It’s to the point that you can be either an American or a Democrat.
You can’t be both anymore.
You don’t know Jack **** about him.
L
I wasn’t casting stones at his service either. But his wife will relive what she witnessed over and over. I hope she gets counseling.
Tell us about your time in uniform stud.
I am happy you admit there is a huge problem that is not being addressed and snide comments are unnecessary.
Good people are still here. Like Soldiers we have to endure. We win that way.
Navigate THAT in your head just how you'd fair......it's physiologically extremely difficult to even imagine let alone be and live it there.
I have a present for you. It is in honor of the American Spirit and American Soldiers. It is off topic in away but yet....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaxGNQE5ZLA
Some times the damage is so deep that it cannot be repaired.
I pray for him and him and his family. They are now victims of something they may never have any answers to. Just the pain.
He was no coward, he was just damaged from the life he was living. RIP sir.
For clarity....the battalion’s former Command Sgt Major Bert Puckett.
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