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<blockquote data-quote="Voyageur" data-source="post: 1067434" data-attributes="member: 17953"><p>Most people don't see it. Your dad was an American hero. Task Force Smith took so many casualties. They were real fighting men. I had an old friend who was one of the Marines who was part of the march from Chosin Reservoir to safety. He lost a couple of fingers and a couple of toes to frostbite and suffered three wounds. Yet he made the march and spent a lot of time on ridges beside the column to keep the Chinese from ambushing the main column. His awards from the action were numerous. He never escaped the cold night sweats and visions that haunted him. Like me, he could never watch a war movie until one day when we sat down with a case of beer and watched Apocalypse Now. During the movie, we talked, and a lot of his demons came out and were driven away. I did nothing to make that happen, he did. He killed his own demons and helped me see where I was still having problems as well.</p><p></p><p>WWII, Korea, and Vietnam vets haven't been "allowed" to have PTSD. If we admitted having it and sought help, it was like putting a label on the person saying they were a "reject," and could not be trusted with jobs like police work, or anything dealing with interface with the public. Sad but true. I know of two guys who went from WWII vets, into police careers that lasted over 30 years. Both went through several marriages, and when they were finally forced out of police work into retirement, they couldn't handle it. Their whole focus and lives were in the work, and the only friends they had in this world was the blue circle which they were part of. When you leave the profession, you leave that circle and it closes behind you. Those old friends slowly drift away and eventually you never hear from them again. Both of these men ended up ending their own lives because of their demons.</p><p></p><p>I vowed that wouldn't happen to me, and I vowed the same thing for my son who served as a combat medic in Afghanistan and came home with a partial disability that he did not choose to have. When he was in Afghanistan, we skyped a minimum of 5 times a week and sometimes twice that often, depending on what he was doing at any given time. It really messed with my sleep because of the time difference between the Midwest and there but it was necessary. The entire time he was over there I kept my laptop turned on sitting beside my bed when I slept so I'd wake up whenever he contacted me. I also found a person who worked with a company that supplied product to dollar stores throughout Wisconsin, who gave me amazing amounts of candy, gum, and everything else that soldiers would want, and my wife and I would send anywhere from one to 4 boxes a week over to him to share with his mates. He showed a picture to me on Skype. It was in his aide room where he worked. Shelves covered with things from home that he shared with everyone at his firebase. We received dozens of thank you messages from members of his unit when they returned to the states. Like my son said, so many families didn't have the ability to put packages like that together and his fellow soldiers felt like it was shipments from their own families.</p><p></p><p>You understand the way trauma can cause a person pain and to go off the rails. You saw it up close and personal. I hope your dad finally found peace from all of it. By the way, he was right about how you pull a bayonet out of a person. It can wedge between ribs, and even the blade itself has an indent portion that will allow air to enter the cavity if you swing the rifle back and forth to let air in, so it isn't held there by the vacuum created when you pull it out. That's something that only combat vets would understand.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Voyageur, post: 1067434, member: 17953"] Most people don't see it. Your dad was an American hero. Task Force Smith took so many casualties. They were real fighting men. I had an old friend who was one of the Marines who was part of the march from Chosin Reservoir to safety. He lost a couple of fingers and a couple of toes to frostbite and suffered three wounds. Yet he made the march and spent a lot of time on ridges beside the column to keep the Chinese from ambushing the main column. His awards from the action were numerous. He never escaped the cold night sweats and visions that haunted him. Like me, he could never watch a war movie until one day when we sat down with a case of beer and watched Apocalypse Now. During the movie, we talked, and a lot of his demons came out and were driven away. I did nothing to make that happen, he did. He killed his own demons and helped me see where I was still having problems as well. WWII, Korea, and Vietnam vets haven't been "allowed" to have PTSD. If we admitted having it and sought help, it was like putting a label on the person saying they were a "reject," and could not be trusted with jobs like police work, or anything dealing with interface with the public. Sad but true. I know of two guys who went from WWII vets, into police careers that lasted over 30 years. Both went through several marriages, and when they were finally forced out of police work into retirement, they couldn't handle it. Their whole focus and lives were in the work, and the only friends they had in this world was the blue circle which they were part of. When you leave the profession, you leave that circle and it closes behind you. Those old friends slowly drift away and eventually you never hear from them again. Both of these men ended up ending their own lives because of their demons. I vowed that wouldn't happen to me, and I vowed the same thing for my son who served as a combat medic in Afghanistan and came home with a partial disability that he did not choose to have. When he was in Afghanistan, we skyped a minimum of 5 times a week and sometimes twice that often, depending on what he was doing at any given time. It really messed with my sleep because of the time difference between the Midwest and there but it was necessary. The entire time he was over there I kept my laptop turned on sitting beside my bed when I slept so I'd wake up whenever he contacted me. I also found a person who worked with a company that supplied product to dollar stores throughout Wisconsin, who gave me amazing amounts of candy, gum, and everything else that soldiers would want, and my wife and I would send anywhere from one to 4 boxes a week over to him to share with his mates. He showed a picture to me on Skype. It was in his aide room where he worked. Shelves covered with things from home that he shared with everyone at his firebase. We received dozens of thank you messages from members of his unit when they returned to the states. Like my son said, so many families didn't have the ability to put packages like that together and his fellow soldiers felt like it was shipments from their own families. You understand the way trauma can cause a person pain and to go off the rails. You saw it up close and personal. I hope your dad finally found peace from all of it. By the way, he was right about how you pull a bayonet out of a person. It can wedge between ribs, and even the blade itself has an indent portion that will allow air to enter the cavity if you swing the rifle back and forth to let air in, so it isn't held there by the vacuum created when you pull it out. That's something that only combat vets would understand. [/QUOTE]
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