Why blog monster, why? Why must there be yet another of your offspring for the world to fight? Oh right, the sins.
Call me Murphy. Once upon a time, I served as a foot soldier. A few thrilling moments, and twenty years later, and I ended up a 100-percent service-connected disabled combat-veteran with industrial-strength Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Try and say that three times fast. Go ahead and try; I’ll go grab a cup of tea while I’m waiting.
Recently, it occurred to me that passing along some of the things that I have learned about dealing with both the Veteran’s Administration and life after wartime might be good for my soul. That thing really could use a good scrubbing. Deadly sin stains are hell to shift, get them out right away or they set and stay forever.
What with these endless wars and all, I’m sure we will have no shortage of soldiers struggling with their wartime experiences in the next few decades. I would like to think that some of them might find their way here. Don’t laugh, it could happen. If anyone does, I want to tell you that there is some good news.
Old vets help young vets. They always have, and I hope they always will. Lord knows I wouldn’t be where I am now without a lot of help from a lot of old warriors. Once you leave the military, if you have any kind of problem, the system seems to be working against you.
There are, however, some tricks to navigating these shark infested waters. We have to pass on the knowing from one to another. I’ll try to post anything that I think might be helpful to either someone just back from the wars or to someone who is about to head downrange.
Please know that if you are a wounded warrior, you have brothers that want to help. You may feel like you are lost in an endless swamp inside your mind. You are really just wandering in a wilderness that the soldiers who came before you have walked through since the beginning of time. Did you think you were the first person to feel bad about killing a whole bunch of people?
For the ground pounder, war never changes. Killing is killing. Take weapon, find bad guy, kill same, rinse and repeat.
Once you hang up your tools and try to re-enter polite society, you are bound to stumble a bit. Some of us don’t so much stumble as fall off a cliff. Did I mention that at the bottom of the cliff is a pit full of fire and alligators? No, I don’t know who put the alligators in the pit or why they don’t burn up in the fire, just go with it.
It might take ten years or more, but the ghosts catch up with everyone eventually.
Well, enough of this stuff and fluff. Without further ado; please to be welcome to this blog. Come on down and sit a spell. Maybe I can help you avoid some of the mistakes that I made. I have heard it said that smart people learn from their mistakes; wise people learn from other people’s mistakes. You can then go out and make all new ones.