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BucFan, thanks for posting! Just coming home from an overseas assignment during peacetime is an adjustment. I can't imagine all the challenges the men & women returning from combat today faced. My dad never talked about his experiences in WWII. Sometimes I wish we'd been closer and I'd been able to talk to him more. Especially after I enlisted. Military service, despite some support from the genearl population, is more of a forgotten, "out-of-sight, out-of-mind" thing today, I believe. I remember growing up in the 60's and for DAYS surrounding Memorial Day & Veterans Day, the media was filled with interviews with and articles about veterans. Rarely is that the case nowadays...
Even as a 23-year veteran who was lucky enough to never have deployed to anything more dangerous than South Korea, I still can't fully appreciate what it takes to endure combat or even being deployed to a forward location....
I retired military without ever seeing combat, of which I'm very grateful. However, the Active Duty Servicemembers I talk to now say they're subjected to DUI checks upon returning to base at the gate, medical screenings to discharge as many as possible, and loss of benefits. Our old saying was, "We take care of our own." Why don't military commands feel that way anymore? "Support Our Troops" for the rest of their lives! They've earned it.
medical screenings to discharge as many as possible, and loss of benefits.
It is a shame that unsubstantiated rumors like that are passed around. It helps no one. I have been hearing it while on active duty and since I retired. My wife works on a military base and has for 20+ years at various locations. Depending on the situation have spent zero to 60 hours per week doing volunteer work for veterans over the past 15 years...
There are a lot of resources that soldiers can access - the Army does take care of its own. And the saying about 10% of the Soldiers take 90% of the command's time holds very true. Commanders that I've dealt with in my recent 23 yrs all have really cared for the Soldiers under their command.
Back in Faluja 2004 some of my Marines were blown up.
I got to 2 of them and dragged them out of the ditch and worked on them until we could evacuate them.
They gave me a medal for it. (I was just doing my job, nothing special. I mention it to make a point)
YEARS later they had STILL not given one of those Marines a Purple heart (Despite giving him a 100% disability)
I wrote a letter to congress asking why I had a medal for saving his life if he wasn’t wounded that day and recounting the events of that day.
I asked if I should give my medal back.
They gave it to him over 2 years after the fact.
Today I attended the Funeral of the other Marine.
We had lost touch (We hadn’t exactly ever got along)
Despite being medical discharged and having had several back surgeries, shoulder surgery, (All paid for by the government, all due to the IED blast which I SAW throw him through the air and treated him for (I had been an EMT).) And suffering brain damage from the blast….
He had not been awarded a %, and was not receiving any money.
He had given up, and his mother was trying to keep up the fight.
On Monday he received yet another rejection letter, NOT asking for money, but asking for a brain-scan and other medical treatments.
They also screwed up his medical prescriptions.
On Tuesday he took his own life.
On Wednesday he would have been 28.
I didn’t know about it until yesterday. His mother gave me details today. I rode over 8 hours today to attend his funeral, he’s the 6th Marine we have lost since we returned, to say nothing of those who have had SERIOUS psyche modifications and ended up in jail.
Several of the other Marines there displayed (Privately) ‘things of concern’ (Similar vein… I’m tired forgive my lack of vocabulary) I am trying to help them.
This is not right.
I had to sit there with his parents (Whom I had never met) and tell them about their son. What a good Marine he was, what happened that day, and other stories. They will never have any more of their son, so I thought that I might give them what I could of him.
His mother was crying in my arms and blames herself.
I did what I could.
This is wrong.
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"Takes care of it's own"
