Does this count as trauma?

[Workingonit]

I mostly used my secondary MOS (rescue swimmer) because Congress kept banning women from my primary MOS. Yanked off the line and sent back to CSchool for a new primary? (Aside from the shame filled, not rating, humiliation of it all? NOT a smart idea for mental health!!! In the field vs in school with baby marines??? BAD idea. Bad bad bad idea. Snort, although one of the stupidest, but easiest, was when I was switched from crew chief (because that was too ‘combat forward’ for women), and I was made a door gunner. No school needed, because crew chiefs are weapons trained, just switching positions. SNAFU.

You forgot your crayons to keep them busy didnt you? They get hungry you know. I'm just kidding having served with marines i can't imagine what they did to you. And btw I served with female medics in a forward capacity. One of them particularly was one of the best soldiers i knew. While I understand the militaries position from first hand experience. Sexism or any ism shouldn't exist in any capacity in the armed services or government. Either we get treated equally or we don't. I wish that wasn't so hard for people to understand.

 

[Workingonit]

I mostly used my secondary MOS (rescue swimmer) because Congress kept banning women from my primary MOS. Yanked off the line and sent back to CSchool for a new primary? (Aside from the shame filled, not rating, humiliation of it all? NOT a smart idea for mental health!!! In the field vs in school with baby marines??? BAD idea. Bad bad bad idea. Snort, although one of the stupidest, but easiest, was when I was switched from crew chief (because that was too ‘combat forward’ for women), and I was made a door gunner. No school needed, because crew chiefs are weapons trained, just switching positions. SNAFU.

At the very beginning of the iraq invasion all the rules kind of went out the window. There wasn't enough soldiers to go around.

 

[Workingonit]

@Friday Btw apaches are gnarly. We were pinned down taking fire from a tree line. The apaches came and wiped out the entire tree line in seconds. Some people from my unit actually got to be door gunners towards the end. Not me. Screw that. Never was a fan of heights. I see posts on the internet talking about how that never happened. People claiming to be door gunners as a different mos. I can 100% confirm that it did, in fact, happen. Quite frequently. They were taking volunteers.

 

[Workingonit]

@Friday did you save people as a rescue swimmer. I would really like to hear those stories.

 

[Workingonit]

@Friday Do you have the drive to save/help people? Does it mess with you mentally when you cant. Eat you up inside? Its so hard to explain to people. Apparently its part of CPTSD.

 

[Workingonit]

And when I shutdown I can't even help myself. I feel so worthless.

 

[Friday]

@Friday Do you have the drive to save/help people? Does it mess with you mentally when you cant. Eat you up inside? Its so hard to explain to people. Apparently its part of CPTSD.

It messes with me more with mercy… but yes. It’s why I went to school for my BSRN/PreMed later. It INFURIATES me when someone dies because I don’t know what to do. We had a navy medic on crew, swimmers just jump in, hook up, & winch for the most part… and then do what we’re told. (Stick your finger in this hole, your hand in that one, grab this, pinch that. Restore the breathing, stop the bleeding, check for wounds, and haul ass? Is reeeeeally basic. I could handle sucking chest wounds, and crunch tourniquets, and drilling IVs (we didn’t bother with finding a vein, we just drilled into the bone), but that was pretty much the extent on what I was trained on. BASIC keep someone alive long enough to get them to someone who knew how to save them. More of a hundred million dollar taxi service. And quit f*cking bleeding on my deck, motherf*cker.

The apaches came and wiped out the entire tree line in seconds

Cha. I was on 53e’s & 46s (phrogs). That’s something people who watch TV don’t get about the whole “did you kill someone?” thing… with the whole knowing the names & seeing the faces of everyone they’d ever killed kind of paradigm so romanticised in movies. Um. The first person (hundreds of people?) I killed? I was hundreds of feet away. Using a 30 or 50, belt fed. Praying to GOD I wasn’t hitting anyone I knew, just watching the tracers like fireflies all pretty and shit. ((Friendly fire? Isn’t. Air support? Reeeeeally doesn’t discriminate. Do NOT be where those guns directed. They can zipper a vehicle or a building (which is actually kind of fun) but target ID? Not a thing. That’s something snipers do. And grunts clearing structures. Air wing? Annihilates.))

The purple crayons taste best.

The red one should, but they just don’t.

It’s sad.

 

[Friday]

@Friday did you save people as a rescue swimmer. I would really like to hear those stories.

The fun ones are all when I f*cked up, somehow. MY favorite always makes people green (in part because showing off the scars ain’t exactly sexy, but it’s part of the story). So it’s not really something I talk about much. Because what I think is fun, others don’t. And what’s hard I don’t share, almost ever.

Disaster response (after I was discharged, I worked for various NGO’s) has a lot of fun stories. Also -far too often- involving scars. Like where the nun bit me!!! (Elbow). What’s more? She was something like 6,000 years old, 4 feet tall, and not even a buck soaking wet. Still got that scar, she took a CHUNK outta me. It was a ball crushing WTFO “don’t mess with nuns” / adrenaline is a thing, cautionary tale.

Seriously, though, I quit telling stories a long ass time ago. Ain’t personal.

 

[Workingonit]

The fun ones are all when I f*cked up, somehow. MY favorite always makes people green (in part because showing off the scars ain’t exactly sexy, but it’s part of the story). So it’s not really something I talk about much. Because what I think is fun, others don’t. And what’s hard I don’t share, almost ever.

Disaster response (after I was discharged, I worked for various NGO’s) has a lot of fun stories. Also involving scars. Like where the nun bit me!!! (Elbow). What’s more? She was something like 6,000 years old, 4 feet tall, and not even a buck soaking wet. Still got that scar, she took a CHUNK outta me. It was a ball crushing WTFO “don’t mess with nuns” / adrenaline is a thing, cautionary tale.

We were the ones, sicking you on them. Mostly we didn't even get to shoot back. They would hide in buildings or behind rocks or amongst civies. Small arms fire maybe a rocket and then gone. Nobody to shoot at. And ya f*ck the "did you kill anyone" question. Honestly, I don't know. My favorite response is "only the people who asked to many questions". We had some friendly fire. Not me personally but the tankers shot at one of our convoys. I remember hearing about it.

 

[Workingonit]

It messes with me more with mercy… but yes. It’s why I went to school for my BSRN/PreMed later. It INFURIATES me when someone dies because I don’t know what to do. We had a navy medic on crew, swimmers just jump in, hook up, & winch for the most part… and then do what we’re told. (Stick your finger in this hole, your hand in that one, grab this, pinch that. Restore the breathing, stop the bleeding, check for wounds, and haul ass? Is reeeeeally basic. I could handle sucking chest wounds, and crunch tourniquets, and drilling IVs (we didn’t bother with finding a vein, we just drilled into the bone), but that was pretty much the extent on what I was trained on. BASIC keep someone alive long enough to get them to someone who knew how to save them. More of a hundred million dollar taxi service. And quit f*cking bleeding on my deck, motherf*cker.


Cha. I was on 53e’s & 46s (phrogs). That’s something people who watch TV don’t get about the whole “did you kill someone?” thing… with the whole knowing the names & seeing the faces of everyone they’d ever killed kind of paradigm so romanticised in movies. Um. The first person (hundreds of people?) I killed? I was hundreds of feet away. Using a 30 or 50, belt fed. Praying to GOD I wasn’t hitting anyone I knew, just watching the tracers like fireflies all pretty and shit. ((Friendly fire? Isn’t. Air support? Reeeeeally doesn’t discriminate. Do NOT be where those guns directed. They can zipper a vehicle or a building (which is actually kind of fun) but target ID? Not a thing. That’s something snipers do. And grunts clearing structures. Air wing? Annihilates.))

The purple crayons taste best.

The red one should, but they just don’t.

It’s sad.

You don't watch TV either? For me its the commercials and alot of it I really just don't care about. The entire thing is infuriating.

 

[Workingonit]

What the f*ck over. I haven't heard that in a long time.

 

[Workingonit]

They can zipper a vehicle or a building

Can confirm.