Military PTSDers - A Couple Questions

[CCurry]

I have heard this many times from many family members. My dad once said that Hitler won the first time a good person saw a Jewish citizen being abused and did not step in to help.

My BF has said countless times that if we didn't stand up and defend, we'd all be speaking German right now.

Maybe that's a stretch but he firmly believes it.

 

[2quilt]

Evil will prevail if good men do not stand up...if we didn't stand up and defend, we'd all be speaking German right now.

I agree fully! And I do feel proud that I served even though my war, Desert Storm, was not even a small fraction of the hell that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are.

Fighting Hitler was clear-cut. We were fighting Nazis and their ideology. These wars...tell me again why we are there?

 

[Charon]

I'm a veteran of the Iraq War and while there I worked primarily in a morgue. Mostly I saw young soldiers who had been blown to pieces by IEDs (road side bombs) or who were burned alive. Its awful, God its awful looking at these dead young men, I was only 25 and I was older than most of them. Putting them in a body bag, fixing the American flag to their transfer case (its not a casket), and then that awful lonely ride to the airstrip in the back of an Army ambulance where I'd pick stray red threads from the blue Union because they deserved that.

Its so lonely back there, you can't help but think of all the potential a person has, all their dreams and hopes, all the good they could do, and how it just sucks that they died. Its like some genius decided to paint or compose something beautiful and then they tore it to pieces half way through.

Would I do it again? I am incredibly angry over the Iraq war. We had no reason to be there and I hate to say it but I don't care about spreading freedom to the Middle East, I care about my fellow country men, my nation, and the oath I took to defend the Constitution from all enemies both foreign and domestic. My feelings are muddled and the pride that I felt helping my brothers and sisters get back to their families has been sullied by a war that didn't need to be fought. God I'm so angry about it sometimes I feel like I can't take it.

I'd do it all over again. Even with the knowledge of the psychological trauma it has caused me, I'd do it and do it gladly. Better me than some poor young kid who hasn't seen the horror of war. I'd spill my blood and tear my mind apart a million times over for this country because I believe in America and her people and that is something worth defending.

 

[Manic11]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who helped answer my questions.
I was very worried of offending anyone.
I appreciate it!

Peace And Healing
Manic

 

[Paloma]

Military PTSD answers

Would I do it again? It wasn't the start of my PTSD but it sure took it to a new level. I was homeless and on the street when I joined so I was grateful for the opportunity. I was one of the first women to integrate a male job so I took a lot of abuse...from rape to assault to being in a fishbowl. That sucked. No offense to the combat guys...but it was hypervigilance and a type of combat...with the enemy within....every single dayfor six years. On the other hand, I held on to the belief that women could do the job and should be allowed and it was up to me to prove that. The actual job (aircraft mechanic) I loved. Would I do it again? I don't know.

Paloma