Yet Again

[ballroommarine1]

I am quite tired of being belittled for this PTSD. But I did what I'm sure the lot of us have done and blamed my anger outburst on it. :mad: I had another reaction to a loud noise, while on a date non-the-less, perfect timing right?! So what happens? I take cover under the damn table at a bar because the bartender dropped a bottle, causing it to shatter. He looked at me like I was crazy. I sheepishly told him I have PTSD, and what does he do? "But your a girl, you didn't go through what the MEN do" emphasis on the men I might add.... so I clocked him across the head, and had a bouncer on my ass faster than I could blink. But sir, it was the PTSD. Walked away scott free while that f*cker sat there dumb founded. Oops.:sneaky:

 

[Jimmy1]

I am hearing you.

It's the line I really hate. What is wrong with you???? I am not missing a limb, I am not horribly disfigured, ugly, but not disfigured. I don't even have a pronounced limp. On the inside though, I have had part of my large bowel removed, abdominal surgery, both shoulders, a knee, and two disc in by back replaced and fused. Add to that PTSD and I just don;t know how to answer. Most of the time I say my back is fused and knee's f*cked, that gets me away from most. Someone once told me that if the person asking you what is wrong you don't know real well, then turn around and ask them if they like it up the arse. If they say that is personal, well so is PTSD.

 

[dutchiedelta]

"But yoy're a girl and didn't go through what men went through" is enough to walk out and never look back.
I know that pissing match only too well. Some cannot believe you as a female can have ptsd cos all you did was sit and be pretty in an office somewhere.
If he is a vet himself, more shame to him.
Hoping it was an uninformed civilian.
Mind you, plenty of vets out there who think it ought to be men only anyway.
To expand the up the arse metaphor... Tell them to take a large piece of paper. Scrunch it up so it has a lot of sharp edges and corners and fill in the rest.

Just don't let anyone belittle you or have to ventilate an uninformed opinion on ptsd.

 

[ballroommarine1]

He was a civilian, who had an uncle in the Navy and cousin in the Airforce. Or the other way around.. but either way he had family serve. All they expect us to do is sit around and be pretty in an office. But what about the FET? I was the last push with them, since we brought around female infantry... which I'm still impartial to. But anyway that's besides the point. It does sadden me that they just don't know, but it also angers me that they have the balls to speak like an idiot towards us who have the mental scarring.

 

[dutchiedelta]

Ignorance is hard to deal with. If any comfort at all, he was uninformed.
We try to educate people in small ways what PTSD is about but at the end of the day our own healing takes first place.

 

[Friday]

Shit. Even when I was in, women "couldn't" be "in combat".... But anything airwing? Done.
- Door Gunners (Check it ODG. Apparently congress in the 90s thought door gunners live in the land of unicorns and rainbows, playing spades, not giving a f*ck.).
- Crew Chiefs
- Pilots
- Expeditionary Airfield / EAF or ATC
- Rescue Swimmers
- Ordnance
- etc.
And there were solid workarounds for most ground jobs (All of the non 0311 jobs, attached to 0311 units ... radio operators, EOD, motor-T, MPs, translators, etc.) So women went through SERE, Buds (the crew chief part), Dive school, (I'm only familiar with air-schools, which is funny since we borrowed half of those from the Navy), and half the ones for ground. Then (gasp) did their jobs. Penny pinching sombitches making it so they did their jobs without combat pay, and half the time without hazard or hardship pay. Because women "couldn't" be in combat. Roll. Eyes.

There's be periodic bans of women in certain jobs (for some reason they kept banning women from phrogs/CH46s, but not the CH53s. What kind of sense that makes, f*ck me if I know), and then they'd get lifted, or a ban would be somewhere else. f*cktards.

And that's even assuming (wrongly) that you can only get PTSD from direct contact (like our Navy doesn't f*cking fight, or something? I am required by law to give the Navy a hard time, but we need those floating death tubes, and all the idiots who signed on to live on f*cking targets 24/7 aren't just fighting, they're living on f*cking targets 24/7! That their own planes crash into, things blow up for no damn reason, the head is always 3 miles that way, while sleeping on top of nuclear f*cking bombs. That someone else is driving. Who does that? Crazy ass motherf*ckers. That's who.).

This is what stupid people have brought me to. Defending the Navy. Chaseus f*cking Keeryest. (Redacted rant on moronic sexist pricks. May their legs all grow together.)

 

[dutchiedelta]

The first Lebanon war was the first one where women were in positions of active duty in warzones. At least where I was at the time.

Your civilian date Ballroommarine, might want to brush up on his military history.

Heck I know a woman who was in bootcamp for two weeks (USA army). Fell off a tank (not kidding) and was sexually harrassed.
Got a bad case of PTSD and does every mistake by the book.

Whatever the reason is, don't expect people to "get it" just like that.
Seems a fair few of the men here have good marriages but I bet even their loving supportive wives who can understand it, will never know what it feels like.
Mental scarring is hard to grasp. For us, for the experts (har de har har) and most of all for the general public.

 

[Sapper1]

I am quite tired of being belittled for this PTSD. But I did what I'm sure the lot of us have done and blamed my anger outburst on it. :mad: I had another reaction to a loud noise, while on a date non-the-less, perfect timing right?! So what happens? I take cover under the damn table at a bar because the bartender dropped a bottle, causing it to shatter. He looked at me like I was crazy. I sheepishly told him I have PTSD, and what does he do? "But your a girl, you didn't go through what the MEN do" emphasis on the men I might add.... so I clocked him across the head, and had a bouncer on my ass faster than I could blink. But sir, it was the PTSD. Walked away scott free while that f*cker sat there dumb founded. Oops.:sneaky:

Sorry but that's some funny shit! Not laughing at u but with u! I've done shit like that but not on a date! I'm glad u punched that cocksucker. I think you ladies on here are kick ass! I was attached to a group over in the stan for a week to pull some route clearance and security for a small group of 3 MI. One being a female. We got ambushed the one day and as far as I can remember, we didn't call a f*cking time out so she could retreat to a safe place so we could fight. I'd rather had her or any other female soldier or marine watch my back then some of my good buddies back home!

 

[ballroommarine1]

Thanks yall. Again you guys never cease to make me get a good chuckle out of a bad situation.

 

[OldDoorGunner]

This was a good read.....I wish I knew I had PTSD 40 some years ago. I just come up with a good line to use in the bars.

Whats wrong with me? I have PTSD, would you like to see how it works?????;););)

J R

 

[Raven]

Don't date civs.

 

[dutchiedelta]

Raven, even military men who never been deployed might not have a clue.
Perhaps more understanding but from my generation when there was a draft, all they did was paint trucks and dig holes.
In the country where I served, quite another story but no way I'm ever going there again.

Ballroommarine, it's not a bad idea to look for men who can understand you.