U.S. Military Veterans are People Too!

by Peter Macdonald, Staff Writer

USA Today writes an article on Broken Families concerning returning U.S. Military Troops.  This is one of the best articles that I have read on the subject of the mental drawbacks inflicted on children whom become Military Veterans.  There are so many (know it alls) that write such as “casualties of war” and other phrases to catch the eye. 

The true meaning is can you understand the mental state of someone returning with survivor instants of war.  How does one grasp the need to set your emotions aside and never be able to acquire them back?       Can the constant threat of death be replaced by the mind becoming complacent with death?  How does one describe to family how you disregarded a buddy dying beside you to continue killing others with out reflection?  A bold reporter for USA truly tells the troops side but softens the facts of reality with helping both sides in the marriage cope.

The thoughts and images never leave you, once you have been there!  We can suppress the damaging thoughts but never leave them behind.  Showing emotions is easy with a sad or crying eye or compassionate word released.  This is a false expression to allow the other side to accept what we must hide.  We endure a life of surviving combat to come home to rejoin those we care about.  Our descriptions are soon turned against us by a society that cannot accept the uncivilized acts that we learned to inflict so casually in our every day lives.  

Placing our backs to the wall when we enter a room or the drop to the ground if an unexpected loud noise intrudes our ears.  A survivor of one life may not be able to re-enter that old safe society that has a hand out to help but a mind that will not accept what we did.  Slowly the images and thoughts become silent demons invading our space to erode the once joyous reception for our service to a forgotten veteran now ignored.  The once child with a promising future become societies looser.  The helping hand is with drawn to reach out to the next returning veteran from the next war.

Society believes treating the mental state of the returning military with medication will allow these silent demons to be healed.  Discussion group administered by doctors whom have never been there, believe education and open discussion allows accept ants.  I have no memory of my life before the USMC.  I came back to a society where nothing is real.  The other day my nose bled as the head and body pain engulfed me.   My wife took me to Montreal to forget.  A Canadian sitting beside us in a bar had the VT on the Internet.  

Having a USMC baseball cap on brought a question from this man.  I showed him some articles published on the VT that I wrote.  He then showed me the article in USA Today on returning war veterans.  He wanted to know about my life before and after but I explained my lack of memory from a car accident right out of boot camp took that part of my life. 

This college student had no idea (revealed by his comments) about the mental state of returning veterans.  The USA Today article intrigued his mind enough that he went to VT on the web to learn more.  Society wants to learn but just cannot accept a cruel and inhuman as we may have been?  U.S. Military Veterans are people also.  We only ask that you respect what we did it for!

Our Constitution.

Peter Macdonald Sgt USMC Semper Fi