AlterNet continues their
"A Soldier Speaks" series today.
Jason Gunn is 26, and lives in Philadelphia. He joined in 1997, has finished his eight years with the Army and says he will never re-up. He now works for a catering company, attends Veterans for Peace meetings, and receives therapy for PTSD.
More below the fold...
When asked about what he was told when on the way over, Jason replies:
I was told we were going to Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein and to help the people of the new Iraq rebuild themselves and the new Iraq.
And when asked about how he made it through a hellish experience like Iraq while not believeing anything he was told about why he was there, he says:
I made it through because of my friends ... I lost three friends, including two really close friends. One was killed in my truck, when we were hit by an IED [Improvised Exploding Device]. I was out of Iraq for four months recovering in the hospital. And then they sent me back. It was just a lot of terrible things. When you see that much death -- you know, I've seen enough death to last a lifetime. No one should have to see that much.
All the soldiers in his unit felt the same way, expressed it - to each other - and most made it through. What kept them going? They "...had to do [our] work."
Gunn offers a warning to American society about returning soldiers - and this, to me, is one of the scariest aspects of our misadventures there:
It's weird driving down a street and not having to worry about someone shooting at you or an IED going off. It's the same thing when you're walking down the street looking at new people. You're constantly looking at their hands, and seeing who's around, and looking at buildings.
Tick...tick...tick...
How many of these walking (invisibly) wounded are going to go off at some indeterminate point?
And to close this diary out, again with a strong suggestion to go visit the actual AlterNet story, we see Gunn's comments on what is, and is not, being done to help the returning soldiers reintegrate into "normal life" back home:
They say they have the means to help soldiers transition back into the world but they don't. I do have someone [I see]. When I got hurt in Iraq -- the doctor told them that I needed to stay in Germany for treatment for my injuries and for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. My unit blew it off, and said I had to come back [to Iraq] now. And when I got there -- they said I had to write a letter saying I came back on my own will.
Go and read these stories. It's putting a human face on what's happening. Not everyone deals with things the same way, not everyone comes from the same starting points, we are creating tragedy in the truest sense of the term over there right now, and to my mind one of the important things we can do is listed, or read, as these bruised people have the chance to tell their personal stories. They are, after all, the fortunate ones. If they want to tell the story, they are still able to do that. Many are not.