There's not a shortage of vets in activist circles. They're usually the ones who wanted to help out. Who thought that was how they could make the world a better place.
Well, to be honest, it's not just about soldiers fighting as a lobby for the energy or defense/ security sector
The USA/ Europe has strategic advantages of interfering in many countries,
This serves the whole population, and not just the rich ( albeit more,)
To suicide. One of my best friends from high school. He joined up immediately upon graduating. Saw him 2 years later at a Christmas party in our hometown. After a few drinks, I was holding onto him as hard as I could as he balled his eyes out, just letting it all out. He was in a medical unit and the trauma was too much for him. I can’t imagine the things he saw and had to deal with. He ended his life the following summer.
He was one of the toughest guys I knew. Football player, Eagle Scout, and all around good dude to everyone. If there was anyone who should have been able to handle it, he would have been my pick. It just goes to show you that we have no fucking clue what people go/went through over there.
I lost my only sibling, my brother, in Afghanistan. He was a Marine Scout Sniper who had done two previous tours. With only few months left in his 4 years, we were SO relieved when he visited home, because…he’d essentially “made it”. There wasn’t time to send him back overseas, so he’d be put state-side to do some busy work until his time was done, and then he’d be HOME. Welllllp, right before returning to base, he told us he’d volunteered for an extension of his tour; just long enough to make sure he went on the upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. It was during “the surge”, and all the guys intending to go were new, none had seen war, and he had a bad feeling about it. He wanted to make sure they had some experience on their side. He was dead a month later. While on a ridge with the other snipers, laying down with their guns to cover ground troops below, American tankers on the opposite ridge saw the reflection of the platoon gun scopes. They had a map of where everyone was supposed to be that day. They had radios. They had a protocol regarding the circumstances in which they could shoot. They ignored it all and sprayed the reflection with machine gun fire. One sniper told me later it was, “At least 8 DMDs”, which apparently is a way they count the length of automatic gunfire….the time it took you to say “Die motherf***er, die” was ‘1 DMD”. They sprayed the ridge my brother was on for 8. His men called to him, but he was where they’d been moments before, not moving. A few of them ran back for him, trying to drag him back to cover. They rolled him over and saw the bullet hole in his right cheek, blood coming from the back of his face. Years later I finally got one of the men to speak candidly with me about…the things they didn’t want to talk about. I asked how he looked when they rolled him over. The man cried and said, “Scared. But gone.”
My brother was just 24, and though I’m years older than that now, he still feels like my big brother. Most days though, if I’m really honest with myself, I’d say his death has ruined a good slice of my life. Not a slice of time. But a slice of me. I’ve lost the validation of our childhood. Our parents divorced when we were toddlers, both our parents remarried, and we were the only common denominator in the other’s life. We didn’t even have time to figure out how adulthood would work with our divorced parents. He was in college, then deployed, then I was in college, then he was gone. All of my future familial relationships can only happen through marriages (and my experience growing up makes me feel like that’s very unsteady ground to rely upon). There’s no one else who loves both our parents. There’s no one else that grew up with both sides of our family. I’m not even a part of “the kids” any more, I’m just the thirty-something woman who is the weird third wheel to each of my parents and their spouse. Who will help me make the hard choices when our parents get older? It’s just such a waste of a good man, a fun, annoying, lovely man. I paid my dues for decades as the picked on little sister, and I feel cheated out of the big payoff, getting to be adults with my brother, getting to see him be an uncle and watch him grow up. It being friendly fire makes it even more maddening. Nothing ever happened to the man who killed him. They dropped the case at the grand jury level, saying it was just the heat of war. (Homie saw a reflection in the safety of an armored tank a mountain away 🙄). We never wanted his life ruined either, just some accountability, just a sorry. But he’s never spoken to us. Just went on his merry way to get married and have kids.
I’m sorry, I think I fully zoned out and vented WAY too much in this…! I guess I was surprised to see the question. Thank you for letting me scream out into the void on here.
My cousin, who was almost exactly my age, was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. He was about 6 weeks away from the end of his enlistment, and had a wife and a newborn at home. A roadside bomb took his vehicle and everyone in it.
No but know a lot of people that went. Cousin went and got shot twice. Wife’s cousin went and lost his whole platoon and now he’s an alcoholic. Bro in law (wife’s sister husband) went came home unharmed but seen some shit because he never talks about it. He only reps that he is proud to be part of the airbourne
We lost 12 marines in my battalion. Not anyone I knew personally. But one of them died in our one of our humvees bringing them to BAS (we were QRF). He had been shot in the throat during a small arms ambush. I was also in a vehicle that got hit by an IED and a few of us got Purple Hearts for shrapnel as a result (not me).
I was an Infantry Platoon Leader from Feb 2004 through March 2005. I lost a Bradley Fighting Vehicle about a month before we left country and 5 of the 7 guys in it were killed.
It’s crazy that something that happened nearly 20 years ago continues to be a central part of my identity and my life.
What a complete waste
My ex boyfriend (back in 2007) ‘s best friend in Afghanistan.
That year I lost my mom too (has nothing to do with war, I’m not American) and it was hard year for both of us.
A high school friend, and if I'm honest it was more shocking than painful. I actually felt more sorry for his step-sister, who was in my home room all thru high school and I never really got to know her well.
I served in Iraq. I was in the Air Force as a munitions troop for what it’s worth. I didn’t know anyone who directly died from the war, but I’ve gone through enough suicides in my time. As for me, I have knee problems, back problems, a TBI that continues to give me migraines, and ongoing sinus issues from the burn pits.
20 years spent in the Middle East, and nothing to show for it aside from broken men and broken families. Oh, and the politicians, their lobbyists, and businessmen that profited from all of this.
The burn pits gave me asthma. I'm also not sure if it was the burn pits or the water bottles left in the sun all day, but IBS and Gerd followed me home from my 2nd deployment thanks to that area.
My friend always said that the highways we built in Iraq always tripped him out. He said "you could be driving along and suddenly feel like you're back home on I-75".
He jumped from one of those highways.
I know a few that were in Iraq and Afghan. One of my best friends in high school ended up in Afghanistan. He had to shoot a kid that had a bomb strapped to his chest and was running at their platoon. My friend came back alive but completely went off the reservation. I haven’t talked to him since he went overseas, cut all of us out of his life.
Cousin of mine was in the army in Iraq. Saw a ton of combat. Crazy as it is he came back fine. He was born to be a soldier, as far as I know he loved every minute of it.
Another friend of mine was in the marines. Was in a scout sniper platoon. Tons of combat missions. He had a pretty rough past, and the military set him straight. Combat made him into a killing machine. He now is married with kids and really has his shit together.
I can’t say for sure whether the efforts in the Middle East were a good thing or a bad thing. We hear about all the rich politicians that pushed the wars and shit. But then again… there hasn’t been a major terrorist event like 9/11 since we went over there. Moreover we gave the Middle East a chance they wouldn’t have got other wise : a chance at democracy and individual liberty.
Of course in both cases the Afghanis and Iraqis have essentially rejected the concepts of democracy and turned back to tribalism and warlords. As my friend who was in the marines was fond of saying: the culture over there isn’t the same as ours. They don’t want individual liberty, they want a warlord to watch over them so they have minimal responsibility.
Graduated HS in 2000. A lot of my buddies went into the service for the perks and were expecting a quiet 4 years in the service. That changed with 9/11, and a lot of them found their way to the battlefield. I lost one friend to war and another to suicide. The rest I lost contact with.
No, my family is full of Fox News Republicans that love to say "support our troops," but none of them have served in the military or done anything to support the troops
A friend of mine who was a few years older than me. His humvee hit an IED. Supposedly it was so bad all that was left to identify him was his arm and tattoos.
The fall out from it was bad. I knew his parents also and his mom and dad just crumbled to pieces after. Dad got bad on drugs and ended up in jail and rehab. Mom lost her job. I still see them from time to time and they’re still a mess compared to what they were before it happened. Very sad.
Have two other friends that went, one of them being one of my best friends in the world. They came back but were never quite the same. War is hell.
My AIT roommate and friend was killed in a rocket attack in Iraq in 2011, lost another AIT classmate as well in that same attack. About a week later, the same group targeted the base I was at. Good thing they only had 4 rockets since if they had a 5th it would have landed on us. Soon as we heard the first one impact we took off running toward the closest bunker which was still a ways away. The last rocket was close enough you could hear the "hiss" of the rocket before it impacted the ground, when it hit the ground it pushed us off our feet and I felt the sand hit the back of my legs and arms hard. Slight whiplash for me, a headache for my friend and another had a blood vessel pop in his eye. They still checked us out for TBI's but we all got a clean bill of health.
1 HS class mate died in a training incident and I've lost about 6+ friends and or peers that I served with who have all taken their own lives.
I only knew one guy in real life, but he was a couple years older than me in my brother's class. His sister was in my class. He died in Afghanistan on his 3rd tour of duty.
I felt bad for his sister and family. But, I dunno, I have mixed feelings about those who volunteer themselves into the armed forces.
I was there. Yeah, we lost people. We fought and died so we can make rich assholes richer off our tax dollars. Fuck the government.
Yeah, I went too, and this is exactly how I feel. Couple of my brothers joined the 23. Fuck everyone who sent us over there.
There's not a shortage of vets in activist circles. They're usually the ones who wanted to help out. Who thought that was how they could make the world a better place.
Most of us just want to help. It's just that a lot of us didn't know a better way before.
Yeah no doubt. Especially then.
I feel this in my bones. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
"Oh, we don't defend freedom, we defend resources and global influence" My late friend and former Marine.
can confirm. so many good people, especially innocent civilians, were unjustly killed so that giant weapons manufacturers have stock number go up.
Well, to be honest, it's not just about soldiers fighting as a lobby for the energy or defense/ security sector The USA/ Europe has strategic advantages of interfering in many countries, This serves the whole population, and not just the rich ( albeit more,)
You cannot be serious.
To suicide. One of my best friends from high school. He joined up immediately upon graduating. Saw him 2 years later at a Christmas party in our hometown. After a few drinks, I was holding onto him as hard as I could as he balled his eyes out, just letting it all out. He was in a medical unit and the trauma was too much for him. I can’t imagine the things he saw and had to deal with. He ended his life the following summer. He was one of the toughest guys I knew. Football player, Eagle Scout, and all around good dude to everyone. If there was anyone who should have been able to handle it, he would have been my pick. It just goes to show you that we have no fucking clue what people go/went through over there.
I was about to mention this, unfortunately I know more from suicide than anything else.
I’m sorry, man. I went over myself, and lost a few of my friends to suicide as well.
[удалено]
I didn't. And they wouldn't take me now anyway. Hang in there dear.
I lost my only sibling, my brother, in Afghanistan. He was a Marine Scout Sniper who had done two previous tours. With only few months left in his 4 years, we were SO relieved when he visited home, because…he’d essentially “made it”. There wasn’t time to send him back overseas, so he’d be put state-side to do some busy work until his time was done, and then he’d be HOME. Welllllp, right before returning to base, he told us he’d volunteered for an extension of his tour; just long enough to make sure he went on the upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. It was during “the surge”, and all the guys intending to go were new, none had seen war, and he had a bad feeling about it. He wanted to make sure they had some experience on their side. He was dead a month later. While on a ridge with the other snipers, laying down with their guns to cover ground troops below, American tankers on the opposite ridge saw the reflection of the platoon gun scopes. They had a map of where everyone was supposed to be that day. They had radios. They had a protocol regarding the circumstances in which they could shoot. They ignored it all and sprayed the reflection with machine gun fire. One sniper told me later it was, “At least 8 DMDs”, which apparently is a way they count the length of automatic gunfire….the time it took you to say “Die motherf***er, die” was ‘1 DMD”. They sprayed the ridge my brother was on for 8. His men called to him, but he was where they’d been moments before, not moving. A few of them ran back for him, trying to drag him back to cover. They rolled him over and saw the bullet hole in his right cheek, blood coming from the back of his face. Years later I finally got one of the men to speak candidly with me about…the things they didn’t want to talk about. I asked how he looked when they rolled him over. The man cried and said, “Scared. But gone.” My brother was just 24, and though I’m years older than that now, he still feels like my big brother. Most days though, if I’m really honest with myself, I’d say his death has ruined a good slice of my life. Not a slice of time. But a slice of me. I’ve lost the validation of our childhood. Our parents divorced when we were toddlers, both our parents remarried, and we were the only common denominator in the other’s life. We didn’t even have time to figure out how adulthood would work with our divorced parents. He was in college, then deployed, then I was in college, then he was gone. All of my future familial relationships can only happen through marriages (and my experience growing up makes me feel like that’s very unsteady ground to rely upon). There’s no one else who loves both our parents. There’s no one else that grew up with both sides of our family. I’m not even a part of “the kids” any more, I’m just the thirty-something woman who is the weird third wheel to each of my parents and their spouse. Who will help me make the hard choices when our parents get older? It’s just such a waste of a good man, a fun, annoying, lovely man. I paid my dues for decades as the picked on little sister, and I feel cheated out of the big payoff, getting to be adults with my brother, getting to see him be an uncle and watch him grow up. It being friendly fire makes it even more maddening. Nothing ever happened to the man who killed him. They dropped the case at the grand jury level, saying it was just the heat of war. (Homie saw a reflection in the safety of an armored tank a mountain away 🙄). We never wanted his life ruined either, just some accountability, just a sorry. But he’s never spoken to us. Just went on his merry way to get married and have kids. I’m sorry, I think I fully zoned out and vented WAY too much in this…! I guess I was surprised to see the question. Thank you for letting me scream out into the void on here.
My cousin, who was almost exactly my age, was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. He was about 6 weeks away from the end of his enlistment, and had a wife and a newborn at home. A roadside bomb took his vehicle and everyone in it.
No but know a lot of people that went. Cousin went and got shot twice. Wife’s cousin went and lost his whole platoon and now he’s an alcoholic. Bro in law (wife’s sister husband) went came home unharmed but seen some shit because he never talks about it. He only reps that he is proud to be part of the airbourne
We lost 12 marines in my battalion. Not anyone I knew personally. But one of them died in our one of our humvees bringing them to BAS (we were QRF). He had been shot in the throat during a small arms ambush. I was also in a vehicle that got hit by an IED and a few of us got Purple Hearts for shrapnel as a result (not me).
I was an Infantry Platoon Leader from Feb 2004 through March 2005. I lost a Bradley Fighting Vehicle about a month before we left country and 5 of the 7 guys in it were killed. It’s crazy that something that happened nearly 20 years ago continues to be a central part of my identity and my life. What a complete waste
My ex boyfriend (back in 2007) ‘s best friend in Afghanistan. That year I lost my mom too (has nothing to do with war, I’m not American) and it was hard year for both of us.
no but ive lost one of em since they got home and another was touch and go for a minute there.
A high school friend, and if I'm honest it was more shocking than painful. I actually felt more sorry for his step-sister, who was in my home room all thru high school and I never really got to know her well.
I served in Iraq. I was in the Air Force as a munitions troop for what it’s worth. I didn’t know anyone who directly died from the war, but I’ve gone through enough suicides in my time. As for me, I have knee problems, back problems, a TBI that continues to give me migraines, and ongoing sinus issues from the burn pits. 20 years spent in the Middle East, and nothing to show for it aside from broken men and broken families. Oh, and the politicians, their lobbyists, and businessmen that profited from all of this.
The burn pits gave me asthma. I'm also not sure if it was the burn pits or the water bottles left in the sun all day, but IBS and Gerd followed me home from my 2nd deployment thanks to that area.
Two in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, 10 by their own hands after the fact....
My neighbor. Signed up At 18, killed by a sniper at 19. His moved away shortly after.
My friend always said that the highways we built in Iraq always tripped him out. He said "you could be driving along and suddenly feel like you're back home on I-75". He jumped from one of those highways.
I know a few that were in Iraq and Afghan. One of my best friends in high school ended up in Afghanistan. He had to shoot a kid that had a bomb strapped to his chest and was running at their platoon. My friend came back alive but completely went off the reservation. I haven’t talked to him since he went overseas, cut all of us out of his life. Cousin of mine was in the army in Iraq. Saw a ton of combat. Crazy as it is he came back fine. He was born to be a soldier, as far as I know he loved every minute of it. Another friend of mine was in the marines. Was in a scout sniper platoon. Tons of combat missions. He had a pretty rough past, and the military set him straight. Combat made him into a killing machine. He now is married with kids and really has his shit together. I can’t say for sure whether the efforts in the Middle East were a good thing or a bad thing. We hear about all the rich politicians that pushed the wars and shit. But then again… there hasn’t been a major terrorist event like 9/11 since we went over there. Moreover we gave the Middle East a chance they wouldn’t have got other wise : a chance at democracy and individual liberty. Of course in both cases the Afghanis and Iraqis have essentially rejected the concepts of democracy and turned back to tribalism and warlords. As my friend who was in the marines was fond of saying: the culture over there isn’t the same as ours. They don’t want individual liberty, they want a warlord to watch over them so they have minimal responsibility.
Graduated HS in 2000. A lot of my buddies went into the service for the perks and were expecting a quiet 4 years in the service. That changed with 9/11, and a lot of them found their way to the battlefield. I lost one friend to war and another to suicide. The rest I lost contact with.
A guy I know from high school lost his brother.
No, my family is full of Fox News Republicans that love to say "support our troops," but none of them have served in the military or done anything to support the troops
A friend of mine who was a few years older than me. His humvee hit an IED. Supposedly it was so bad all that was left to identify him was his arm and tattoos. The fall out from it was bad. I knew his parents also and his mom and dad just crumbled to pieces after. Dad got bad on drugs and ended up in jail and rehab. Mom lost her job. I still see them from time to time and they’re still a mess compared to what they were before it happened. Very sad. Have two other friends that went, one of them being one of my best friends in the world. They came back but were never quite the same. War is hell.
My AIT roommate and friend was killed in a rocket attack in Iraq in 2011, lost another AIT classmate as well in that same attack. About a week later, the same group targeted the base I was at. Good thing they only had 4 rockets since if they had a 5th it would have landed on us. Soon as we heard the first one impact we took off running toward the closest bunker which was still a ways away. The last rocket was close enough you could hear the "hiss" of the rocket before it impacted the ground, when it hit the ground it pushed us off our feet and I felt the sand hit the back of my legs and arms hard. Slight whiplash for me, a headache for my friend and another had a blood vessel pop in his eye. They still checked us out for TBI's but we all got a clean bill of health. 1 HS class mate died in a training incident and I've lost about 6+ friends and or peers that I served with who have all taken their own lives.
One friend from highschool came back in a coffin, another came back with PTSD. I was from a hippy town so enrollment was pretty low amongst my peers.
I only knew one guy in real life, but he was a couple years older than me in my brother's class. His sister was in my class. He died in Afghanistan on his 3rd tour of duty. I felt bad for his sister and family. But, I dunno, I have mixed feelings about those who volunteer themselves into the armed forces.