Chris Kyle dead.

[bwaites]

When Bill described the theoretical Marine above, I was thinking of several guys I know, and wondering which one he was talking about. One of them went to the clinic with his unit (yes, he had been hit with 2 VBIED's within 30 sec of each other on one day during OIF in 2005, held his dying brother in his arms on another day where a sniper in Ramadi shot his gunner through the neck, then almost drowned in an armored vehicle on another deployment to Afghanistan when it fell into a river).

He complained of all the symptoms Bill mentioned ver batim, and they told him he's good-to-go, and to stop coming to the clinic. They weren't going to give him a PTSD diagnosis if he ran in there butt-naked covered in MRE peanut butter. They did CAT Scans, MRI's, verbal interviews where he described the headaches, unprovoked fits of rage, aggression, and agitation. "Suck it up and drive on soldier, no diagnosis for you." He said they implied that he was faking to get out of deploying, and this kid actually loved to deploy, as long as he got to go outside the wire.

Now imagine taking someone from similar circumstances, with 2-6 combat deployments, and pulling them out of their comfort zone around other men, weapons, equipment, and real-world missions. Drop them into fairytale civilian life surrounded by millions of attention-deficit dipsticks who have no clue what the real world is like outside the US, where our "poverty bracket" lives with luxuries like bathtubs, obesity, and easy-access 24/7 entertainment, with no physical labor.

Even worse, have one of these types of people as a manager at your new place of employment, if you're blessed enough to even find a job, treating you like the part-timer straight out of high school, while you look at his/her "leadership style" and quietly reserve the series of images of the physical and verbal destruction sequences he or she would experience in the organization you just came from, where such incompetence would be squashed...extinguished for the pathetic weakness it is.

Then you see propaganda hit pieces on Pravda talking about what's going on with the wars, and wonder why you're back here, when you should be there next to America's finest professionals dishing out 5.56 & 7.62 into bugger-eaters' faces, and taking care of business. Then you realize how much you despise the careerist schmucks who suck off the camouflage welfare system, while padding their NCOERs and OERs to ensure the highest pay grade for retirement with minimal risk, and you feel like you don't belong in either place.

You can't talk with your family about living for weeks on-end in the same clothes, with cheesy crotch rot and no re-supply from your XO or 1SG, who forgot about you and your Squad's OP, and the conditions 3rd-world people live in who you lived off of. You speak a different language filled with a laundry list of acronyms, jargon, and nicknames peculiar to combat arms guys, and even more peculiar from one service to the next. Try editing your vocabulary after years of around-the-clock "F*** this, you f***ing f***, f***bag, motherf***ing, f***stick son of a f***ing f***!"

You could have been raised by nuns, and leave that environment with some serious life issues, but somebody has to do the job. My hat goes off to someone like Chris Kyle who is willing to do all he can to help guys like this rehabilitate back into society. If what they say is true about the perp, he might not have even been cognizant of his actions until later, when he allegedly told his sister, "I traded my soul for a truck today..."

It's all about taking calculated risks at the end of the day.

I know too many good guys who have these kinds of stories. I agree, its a travesty that we haven't figured this out better.

I have a clinic in a small town, but we have two criminal correction facilities, and ex-military guys seem drawn like flies. They get to still wear a uniform, get paid A LOT better, and have a regular schedule. BUT a fair number have some background issues. These stories are too common.

I still thank every one who comes in for their service, and we work on what we can.

Thanks to all the vets on this board for their service, too!

For those of you that don't know, LRRPF52 and I are good friends who very much enjoy each others company (Well, I enjoy his, at least!). We have some difference in age, and obviously, we have some difference in opinions about some things. BUT...I would trust him to the end of the world to cover my back. He is incredibly good at what he does. I respect his opinions, and I can argue with him without malice. We have different experiences, and that has given us different viewpoints, but I treasure and respect him. If it appears that we are after each other, its because we both know that we can trust the other to not take the attack personally, and also know that the other respects our opinion, even if it differs.

There is a story told about a boy who ask his dad what a "good ol boy" is. The father says, "Well, you know this gentlemen that I meet every week, the ones that are well educated and have done well? The ones who own their own businesses, or have made big businessess from little ones? The men who treat women with respect, honor their elders, and give lots of help to the poor and weak? The ones who make sure the widows have fire wood in the winter and ice in the summer? The ones who are always around when someone needs a helping hand, and always show up to funerals?" The boy says, "Yes, I see you with them, and I know some are judges and doctors and even lawyers." The father says, "That's right". The boys says, "So are those good ol' boys?" and the dad says. "Good old boys are a step above them!"

That's my opinion of LRRPF52 and few others that I've met here, they are good ol' boys from that mold!