A few days ago I was hanging out with Scott, aka "Tiny Tim" who was injured in Iraq awhile back and enjoying ourselves as usual, but I noticed something different about him this time.
I no longer saw the gung-ho ready to die for his country ass kickin' marine I saw a few weeks earlier. In his place, was a rather bitter, cynical and critical young man. What I had feared was true… he HAD seen a lot of things most of us could never imagine. He told me stories about seeing dead women and children and mangled bodies strewn all over the street.
He also told me that he's seen several of his friends killed or severely wounded.. In fact, during the ambush that injured him, his friend got his leg blown off as well as losing an eye.
He also expressed frustration on the way the war is fought, telling me about having to radio in for permission to return fire even when the enemy is shooting at them. Letting terrorists get away because of bullshit rules of engagement, not having enough equipment at times, doing bullshit photo ops for the media (he was on TV!) the list goes on. I reminded him that he wasn't allowed to talk about these things and he just said, "I'm going back to Iraq. What else can they do to me?"
Unlike a lot of the soldiers stationed in Iraq, he was right in the middle of some of the bloodiest fighting in the war and I fear he hasn't emerged unscathed...I mean how could he NOT be after all that.
They have mandatory psyche evaluations for returning soldiers, but I think they aren't doing a very good job at it. I'm worried about the long term mental affects this will have on my friend.
Sigh... so much for relying of good 'ol Tiny Tim to lift my spirits during my own emotional funk.
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