Posted on 11/05/2023 10:26:22 AM PST by Mariner
When then-Lance Cpl. Javier Ortiz came home from a secret mission in Syria, the ghost of a dead girl appeared to him in his kitchen. She was pale and covered in chalky dust, as if hit by an explosion, and her eyes stared at him with a glare as dark and heavy as oil.
The 21-year-old Marine was part of an artillery gun crew that fought against the Islamic State group, and he knew that his unit’s huge cannons had killed hundreds of enemy fighters. The ghost, he was sure, was their revenge.
A shiver went through him. He backed into another room in his apartment near Camp Pendleton in California and flicked on the lights, certain that he was imagining things. She was still there.
A few days later, in the barracks not far away, a 22-year-old Marine, Lance Cpl. Austin Powell, pounded on his neighbor’s door in tears and stammered, “There’s something in my room! I’m hearing something in my room!”
His neighbor, Lance Cpl. Brady Zipoy, 20, searched the room but found nothing.
“It’s all right; I’ve been having problems, too,” Zipoy said, tapping his head. The day before, he bent down to tie his boots and was floored by a sudden avalanche of emotion so overwhelming and bizarre that he had no words for it. “We’ll go see the doc,” he told his friend. “We’ll get help.”
All through their unit — Alpha Battery, 1st Battalion, 11th Marines — troops came home feeling cursed. And the same thing was happening in other Marine and Army artillery units.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
NYT and Yahoo? We’re talking “not believing a single word” raised to the billionth power. There may be a story there, but whatever it is, it’ll be two or three alternate universes separated from ours. Eff both organizations and the DemocRAT sewer they daily ooze from.
Has a Jacob’s Ladder sound to it. Might be a feeler to a movie script. Would make an interesting one. Only one way to clean yourself of that kind of guilt one might be feeling.
How do I know this is story is true? Sorry to be cynical, but it’s The NY Times. One has to ask what their motivations are.
+100%
It's not the shoot-er who gets beat up by the shock wave, it's the shoot-ee. For the shooter-er, all it is is muzzle blast (which ordinarily will have a shock wave associated with it). It's a pretty good thump but it's also directional. The bulk of it goes down-range along with the round. The crew standing behind the gun only get a secondary effect.
The largest artillery barrages in history were in WWI, some of which lasted months. If the gunners were susceptible, it should have showed up then. But it din't. Shell shock generally only gets to the guys on the receiving end.
It’s sad that the VA didn’t recognize PTSD decades ago.
“fictional”
I haven’t heard of ghosts before. But mental trauma among combat troops, including artillery units is real. But for most there is a God-given mechanism called memory loss that properly heals.
I’ve stood near the 5” on destroyers and cruisers. The shock wave is significant. Being perpendicular to the muzzle, or beyond, even more so.
George Carlin was usually spot on. It is a real shame that he’s not with us today.
Here’s his talk on how the brutally honest term “shell shock” morphed into the gentler-sounding “PTSD”.
https://youtu.be/hSp8IyaKCs0?si=U24ym0zNunjpSfV7
Hi.
PTSD. Know many soldiers with it.
I was never in combat, but 1st ID tank quals on the range near Custer Hill will rattle your cage.
5.56mm
I hate the nyt slime balls. Such bs. All made up cognitive dissonance.
Yes, during the testing in 80’s guys had blown ear drums, blood running from their faces, etc., just from the concussion of firing. They had limits of the amount of rounds you fire, like one a minute and such. Eventually they got the shock absorbed from the cannon, but in peacetime their is a limit on how many rounds a crew can fire.
NBC News:
Russia is firing a staggering 20,000 artillery rounds per day, a senior U.S. defense official estimated, while Ukraine is firing from 4,000 to 7,000 rounds daily.
We had bureaucrats lie to our face about the numbers of troops in Syria, and to the President, and nobody cared. Congress failed to hold them accountable, nor has Trump admonished them. Who knows what really takes place in Syria.
What a fantastic plot for a movie.
I didn’t know the NYT previewed treatments within their pages labeled as ‘news’.
Er... /s
Good point.
I’ve fired both the M2 and a single shot Armalite .50 caliber. I wire plugs and electronic muffs. While you can dampen the sound to safe levels the concussion from the muzzle will literally shake your entire body like a bowl of Jello.
L
With a US keyboard, I would have spelled it Grafenwoehr.
Can’t find any umlauts!
From Wikipedia: the Danish/Norwegian Ø is like the German Ö a development of OE, to be compared with the French Œ.
Fiction, fantasy, fooling the masses with outright lies, the NYT has done that for a long time. I had a two semester course that REQUIRED each of us to subscribe to the NYT.
It was during the time that Fidel Castro and company were killing their way to Havana. Hiding in the mountains but openly rooted for by the New York Times.
Subtle, but as plain as can be.
The Times has been communist club flunkies for a long time.
I have not read the paper for a long time. The paper is better used for insulation or starting small fires and barbecues.
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.