Army Tweets 'How Has Serving Impacted You?' Gets Thousands of Responses About the Horrors of War
"My cousin committed suicide while on duty at the armory after coming home from a tour abroad."
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
On Friday, the United States Army asked Twitter users how the service impacted their lives, likely as part of a Memorial Day campaign.
The sad responses are a poignant and timely reminder of the toll of war. Appropriate for the holiday, but probably not what the Army P.R. team intended.
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Read this this morning. Wanted to queue up "War Pigs" by Sabbath.
I prefer Disposable Heroes by Metallica. The lyrics are equally harsh.
Great song, one of my Favs. This band was never the same after Cliff though.
If you are looking for a song about the horrors of war then check out Paschendale by Iron Miaden.
The first casualty of war is innocence.
You never forget, you just cope as best you can.
After 26 years of service, the military treated me pretty good. It's the all the political bullshit that's killing me now. Politicians send us off to fight then pull funding for veterans programs, support illegals over veterans and treat us like garbage.
When have the GOP ever supported veterans when it cost them more than a $2.00 flag pin for their lapel and a few platitudes? Look at how Cadet Bone Spurs treated McCain and the Khan family?
During my career, most of the harmful cuts come under Democrat "rule".
And before you praise the traitor McCain, take a closer look at who voted for many of the cuts. His name is there.
Now that you mention the bone spur issue, think of it this way. He had to go to the Department of Defense to get the approval for that. Can we say the same about Barry? No. He just sat on his ass.
Such as?
Was "Barry" required to serve during peacetime?
Doesn't matter. In the end neither served.
It amounts to the same thing no matter how you try to rationalize it.
It does matter because of the existence of the draft when Trump got his multiple medical deferments. There was no requirement for "Barry" to serve because there was no draft in the early 1980s. If "Barry" hadn't served during a draft then they would be equal, but that is not the situation.
No it doesn't matter and like i said.
Feel free to rationalize your justifications to let Obama off the hook for not serving.
If it were up to me no one would qualify to run for POTUS without service in the military or civilian equivalent.
No one.
One lied multiple times to avoid service. The other didn't. Why are you justifying lying?
My mom is a USN veteran because of her service as a nurse during Korea and my older sister did 3 tours in the USAF. I enlisted in the USMC and got a medical discharge from basic because of my depression. Does that count to uber patriots like you?
I justified nothing. My point is simple
Neither served so neither has the high ground in that regard.
Period ... full stop.
I'm not the topic here. You've clearly got a chip on shoulders regarding this topic. Not sure why you have a need to make it personal.
The Marine Corps isn't for everyone. There is no shame in that .... never said there was.
That said, refer to post 4.1.8 if you still don't get where i stand regarding Trump and Obama on this topic.
You excused Trump from serving during the draft but attacked Obama because he didn't serve in peacetime. You also said that all potential POTUS candidates should service in some fashion. I was wondering if my very short time (<8 weeks) in the Marines was up to your patriotic standards?
Again, i excused no one.
Not sure how i can make more clear to you.
You really need to let that chip on your shoulders fall off. It's not helping you any now. In fact it appears to be still hurting you.
Hmmmm....Sarah Palin was a potential POTUS but I didn't see any of her followers giving a crap about her military service
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You gave Donald Trump a pass on wartime deferment because of claimed bone spurs, but then you attacked Obama for not serving in peacetime. Do you expect us to not notice that partisan discrepancy?
I hear ya and I'm not really.
But when folks try to hold up one POTUS over another regarding military service and neither served?
I'm calling BS on that every time.
Every time.
Bullshit!
Stop trying to put words in my mouth.
For the last time. I gave no one "a pass."
Your shtick is getting old, very old.
One faced a draft. He dodged it dishonestly. The other did not.
Equating the two is BS.
First of all, unlike others here, i'm not trying to defend anyone. Perhaps you need to reread this thread as well. Second and as previously noted several times, neither served in the US military. Trying to somehow elevate Obama's actions, higher than Trumps, when neither served is a non sequitur. So lastly, equating the two is exactly spot on in that regard. In that neither served.
Hard to understand the difficulty some are having with that.
And then, they always seem to forget little Billy Clinton, who also "dodged" the draft.
Neither served. One wasn't expected to. One was expected to, but wormed his way out of it. Odd that you don't see the difference there. Why the anger at those who do see the difference, and remark on it?
Lol ... anger? That would be funny if it wasn't so sad that you probably truly believe that when it is so offbase. So alrighty then ..... I guess you have a problem with people who don't share your opinion. Nothing new there .... SOSDD
We are done here. No point taking this conversation any further.
Hope you have a nice day!
Yes, your comments ooze calm, reason, and logic, and no anger or false equivalencies at all.
You have a good day, too.
Thanks!
I try to eat right, get enough sleep and exercise but darn it, sometimes i just can't find the time do it.
Sequestration because they couldn't come up with a budget. Military budgets cut resulted in the reduction of civilian medical support at most active duty locations. On top of that military budget cuts resulted in entire motorpools of vehicles and equipment serviceable. Meaning Soldiers went to combat without needed equipment or with faulty equipment because repair parts couldn't be ordered.
But I don't expect 99% of the population to understand it since they never served.
Did he make an attempt? No. Trump had an approved waiver from DoD. Barry had cowardice.
Veterans benefits were exempt from sequestration.
.
Trump refused to serve and made the excuse of bone spurs during the wartime draft. There was no draft in the early 1980s when Obama was 18-24. Was every able male supposed to serve during peacetime?
Do the facts matter to you?
Why do you make excuses for Trump refusing to serve during the draft, but you call Obama a coward?
I was active duty. There is a difference. Not that I expect you to know.
You mean like the fact Trump applied for the waiver and was approved?
Or do you mean Obama made no attempt at service.
I'm not making excuses. I'm stating facts that you just don't want to hear or accept.
You make the excuse that Obama didn't enlist in the military because there was no war. There was no war when I enlisted.
Trump applied for a medical waiver because of a bogus condition during wartime.
Buying a waiver is cowardice. Refusal to recognize it as such is disingenuous.
So you agree, Trump applied and was approved. Still far more than his predecessors record.
That one you will have to provide proof of.
The draft stopped in 1973 so no one has had to apply for a waiver since. (eye roll)
And I suppose you'll provide proof of Obama's cowardice?
Your extremely biased opinion doesn't count as proof.
And yet here we are talking about approved DoD waivers.
I never claimed a waiver was bought. And as a veteran, yes Obama's lack of even attempting to enlist, I can see as cowardice. Much like 99% of the population of this country.
I enlisted when there was no war. I served for 26 years. Deployed 10 times to various locations around the world for various reasons to include humanitarian missions, peace keeping missions and combat missions.
Every time there were issues with funding, manning cuts or excessive deployments was when Democrats, as Pelosi put it, "hold the purse strings."
And when a person who received a deferment becomes president and is NOT the "guaranteed win" we get what we see now - a whole political side pitching a fit claiming he's incompetent because he didn't serve in the military.
That is for someone who actually had bone spurs and not someone who bought a doctor's diagnosis.
That's a very arrogant view.
Because you're the one trying to make someone not receiving a waiver when waivers didn't exist relevant.
some people have a real problem with creating a false scenario they can comment on. I just went thru this with her when I stated there was gay Nazi's.
And here we go again. When you have something you can back up, come back. Until then your just talking out your 4th point of contact.
Veterans are losing their medical care left and right.
Now young people coming in won't even get a pension if they put in 20 years. They're given a 401K...which basically means they have to save for their own retirement, not a bad thing in itself, but no more pensions. That means the military will lose valuable experience. Most of these kids will do one tour of duty and call it quits
The military lost valuable military experience with the troop level cuts. Many units are undermanned causing problems.
Same here. Except for when I came back to the world from Southeast Asia. I spent 20 years in the military from 1972 through 1993 that went from Vietnam to the 1st Gulf War and am very proud of my service, but it was a double edged sword. I suffered from PTSD for decades from things I saw without treatment. I was very fortunate in that I eventually learned to control my inner demons instead of letting them control me. I was blessed with the love of a good woman who held me during the night when the nightmares came. If not for my late wife, there is a better than outside chance that I would have become nothing more than a statistic who put a bullet in his head. A lot of other spouses would have walked, but she did not. Whatever medals or awards I recieved, she deserved them more.
I'll cover your back any day Doc - any day.
Semper Fi.
A Vietnam veteran here. 68-69.
Some things never change. In 2003 the US launched a 'forever war' based on lies, fraud and waged for profit. It would be very interesting to audit the American taxpayers expenditures from 9-11-01 to the present. I wonder how much of it was simply stolen?
Not really something I wanted to read on a day like today so I will simply say:
To all my fellow vets and those that never came home, thanks for your service.
: )
Same to you MrFrost and all others.
Semper Fi
Thanks Frosty - Semper Fi.
My dad was in Vietnam. Any time we eat out, he has to sit with his back to a wall. He hates crowds. If you touch his shoulder from behind when he doesn't know you're there, you stand a good chance of getting punched. He doesn't mean to do it, in fact tries really hard not to do it, but it's hard to break a habit that probably saved your life a few times.
Mom told that 20 years after he came home, he still talked in his sleep, dreaming he was still at war.
He's never been treated for PTSD, but he definitely has it.
He might think that he is weak for taking about it or that the treatment would dredge up memories that he cannot bear to deal with. We don't deal with mental healthy very well in the US and people are killing themselves because of it.
People will tell you that they will pray for you. Just don't expect them to do anything to actually help people with PTSD because they aren't going to. I wish that I could say that it wasn't this way but even in the medical community mental heath is treated as a joke. I had a Dr's nurse tell me to think happy thoughts when she messed up a script. She said that she take care of it on Monday and I should just think happy thoughts until then. If that was a cardiologists nurse she would have been fired for her incompetence.
I've been told things by Drs and nurses that made me look around and wonder if Allen Funt was hiding behind a false wall because I was convinced that I was on Candid Camera. Things that are shocking stupid and even dangerous.
Drs put me on the wrong meds or meds that I had reactions to in the past and then when there was a problem he told me that it wasn't his fault. Apparently, I chose to have adverse reactions. I was in the hospital once because of a Dr's mistake and the moron who was treating me admitted that he never treated this condition and showed me the printout where he looked it up on Wikipedia before changing my dosage.
There was no treatment for decades after he came home, unless you had developed an addiction, which he never did. He toughed it out, and honestly coped with it fairly well, all things considered. No addictions. He has a temper, but wasn't violent, and even the temper has mellowed over time. No depression. He's 71 now, and is active, fairly healthy, and sociable and outgoing. Now, it's mostly the jumpiness and dislike of crowds and of having his back exposed, and those are pretty easy to deal with.
That nurse lacks empathy, and should consider another career. Mistakes are one thing. Telling a patient to think happy thoughts - hmph.
I told her what I thought of her job performance and I wasn't popular. I also ended up going to the ER on Friday night to get the proper script.
There isn't much that they do now for PTSD except medication and either EMDR or CBT. There is no cure for PTSD but you are helped to live with it and they try to help you deal with the stress, the triggers and the memories. They like to prescribe SSRIs but they aren't good for many people and can cause suicides. I am supposed to take Klonipin but many Drs don't like to prescribe because it can be very addictive.
My sister did a rotation in the VA when she was in physician assistant school, and a large part of her rotation involved treating vets with addictions, often self-medicating for PTSD. Even in the early 2000s, the focus was on detox, with little attention given to the underlying causes of their addictions. I'm not sure if that was because the number of vets with problems overwhelmed the VA system, or if it was due to lack of understanding of factors contributing to addiction, but the care just wasn't there. I'm sure it was worse when my dad came back from overseas.
He talks more about Vietnam than he used to, especially around Memorial and Veterans' Days, so maybe that helps.
I'm glad you got the medication you needed.
You just described a day in the life of an Alzheimer's patient. Intermittant at first, then at the end, every waking moment. Has dementia been ruled out?
I was fortunate to serve in a time where nothing that major "war wise" was going on. Some really bad things did happen, like the Beirut barracks bombing for instance but nothing like others times of war, etc. Like most Vets i've got complaints but they are VERY VERY MINOR in comparison to some experiences.
I have known and know many Vets scarred by their experiences. The one who sticks in my mind the most is an Uncle who served on Peleliu. To the day he died he could not be around anyone of Asian descent without getting visibly upset. The person could have been more American than him .... didn't matter ...... he was so damaged by his experience there. And God forbid you drove up in his driveway in a Japanese car .....
That said the human condition is a strange animal. One person goes through that same thing and comes home just as marked but never reacts like my uncle did. Another commits suicide. My uncle (like others have said here) just did the best he could. Like most do. You just never know.
The best those of us can do that didn't experience such horrors is to try and support those who have. That said there is nothing worse than the person who pays them lip service verbally while they are secretly spitting on them in their minds. I wish those people would just keep there mouths shut, not lie about caring and just go about their business.
In my experience, people die, get fucked up, and many lives altered for nothing. Wohoo OIF and OEF.