I know he is away in a war zone. And I truly don’t expect him to find a way to call with his cellphone every weekend. But a weekend when the phone does not ring, and no email arrives, and he is not shown “up” online at all, and the news reports seven US military killed…..well, that is the sort of weekend that makes silence fall around your heart.

A silence and darkness full of monsters worthy of a child’s night time closet.

The Veterans Administration is not known for dazzling speed or efficiency. But seriously, when you jerk a man around who is disabled and dependent on VA disability payments by declaring him DEAD? That is a new low; is this the latest way to control costs?

And when you only fix it as the media prepares to break the story of how long and how repetitious the process was to prove you are alive….yeah, Cover Your Ass DOES seem to be Standard Operating Procedure.

Pity the veterans, folks. They have to deal with the Very Asshattish all the time.

You know, I am refusing to get in a lather over the fact that Glen Beck, a moron unfortunately from my home state, is disrespecting every American who ever got a Purple Heart by claiming he has a better idea to reward valor instead of victim-hood.

The man is a moron who did drugs and laid on his ass a lot instead of serving in the US military, so I figure that while a lot of us served to protect his right to free speech, none of us could provide him with the brains to say something intelligent.

Paging Dr. Frankenstein……

Oh, and Glen? Kiss it!

I was just notified by email that Circle Magazine’s fall 2010 issue will contain an article about the Walk of the Fallen!! At the urging of a couple persistent friends, I had sent photographs and a little written bit to Circle Sanctuary’s magazine editor a good while back.

I heard nothing back and completely forgot about it. I am flattered and amazed!

This needs to be read aloud to both houses of Congress.

And yes, I am ashamed, too. Disgusted and dismayed; for although I get called a liberal and admit to dripping fangs, I also get told that I have a deeply conservative core on some issues. (Say, governmental solvency, for one thing, and not fighting wars you can’t really pay for!)

So, yes….I am shamed and Barry Goldwater is likely spinning in his grave.

On the weekends, with luck, I get the opportunity to chat live online with my son in Afghanistan. He is fortunate in some ways, he is in a place that is not seeing humvees come back splattered with blood and body parts. But that is unfortunate in some ways, too. Because all he is seeing is the excitement and emotion of the guys driving out on patrol.

Last week, the convoy of a Coalition nation was hit when an IED explosion stopped it and an apparent ambush ensued….very near to the location of my militarily excitable boy. But he didn’t see it. It all still looks like GI Joe to him.

When he joined the Army a couple years back, we knew the day would come when he would go to the war zone. His older brother, already medically discharged and partially disabled (tho’ still waiting on a rating of that from the VA), advised him to get into his same line of work: transport. And he did. He went to the same stateside base for a while and did a stint in Korea.

Now, sitting restlessly in charge of loading trucks and setting up routes of supply movement, watching the guys go out on patrol and come back alright, he wants to apply for infantry school. So he can be the guy to go out on patrol. No amount of telling him every military job applies towards the mission changes his mind. His father and brother telling him being an “11-bullet stopper” is not the best idea did no good. I even invoked his dad’s service with Special Forces and the lure of Airborne life to no effect. I asked him, why, if he felt a need to do more, why he couldn’t consider becoming a linguist (which both his father and I were in the Army) and he discounted translator duty, too.

He is in the grip of emotion. So are we. But entirely different emotions.

The next time someone decries the wretched state of things and asks, “How did we come to this?” tell them to read THIS as answer.

Big thanks to Obsidian Wings!

The moon is brilliantly full overhead again. Remember, far away under that same moon, thousands of troops are still in harm’s way.
And not all homecomings connote relief and safety. And although the news has been filled with tales of the homecomings of the “last” combat units from Iraq; please remember that 50,000 US troops REMAIN in Iraq and at risk!

Two US Army men died Aug.17 in Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device caused a military vehicle roll-over.

PFC Benjamen G. Chisholm, 24, of Fort Worth, Texas.

Pvt. Charles M. High IV, 21, of Albuquerque, N.M.

US Army Staff Sgt. Derek J. Farley, 24, of Nassau, N.Y., died in Afghanistan on August 17, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated as he attempted to disarm it.

Navy Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Collin Thomas, 33, of Morehead, Ky., died Aug. 18 during a combat operation in eastern Afghanistan.

US Army Sgt. Martin A. Lugo, 24, of Tucson, Ariz., died Aug. 19 in Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire.

US Army Sgt. 1st Class Edgar N. Roberts, 39, of Hinesville, Ga., died Aug. 17 at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., of wounds sustained June 26 in Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device.

US Marine Lance Cpl. Kevin E. Oratowski, 23, of Wheaton, Ill., died Aug. 18 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Us Marine Cpl. Christopher J. Boyd, 22, of Palatine, Ill., died Aug. 19 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

US Marine Lance Cpl. Cody S. Childers, 19, of Chesapeake, Va., died Aug. 20 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan in an IED detonation.

US Army Spc. Christopher S. Wright, 23, of Tollesboro, Ky., died Aug. 19 in Pech, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire.

US Army PFC. Alexis V. Maldonado, 20, of Wichita Falls, Texas, died Aug. 21 in Afghanistan of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire in Zhari province, Afghanistan.

US Marine LCpl. Nathaniel J. A. Schultz, 19, of Safety Harbor, Fla., died Aug. 21 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan as a result of an IED explosion.

US Army Sgt. Brandon E. Maggart, 24, of Kirksville, Mo., died Aug. 22 at Iraq, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using indirect fire

Two US Army men died in Afghanistan on August 22 when insurgents attacked their unit with small arms and rocket propelled grenade fire:

Sgt. Steven J. Deluzio, 25, of South Glastonbury, Conn.

Spc. Tristan H. Southworth, 21, of West Danville, Vt.

US Army Spc. Pedro A. Millet Meletiche, 20, of Elizabeth, N.J., died Aug. 22 in Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device.

US Marine Sgt. Jason D. Calo, 23, of Lexington, Ky., died Aug. 22 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

US Marine Sgt. Ronald A. Rodriguez, 26, of Falls Church, Va., died Aug. 23 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

US Marine Lance Cpl. Robert J. Newton, 21, of Creve Coeur, Ill., died Aug. 23 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

US Army Pfc. Justin B. Shoecraft, 28, of Elkhart, Ind., died Aug. 24 in Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device .

And the losses of other Coalition Nations:


Flags courtesy of ITA’s
Flags of All Countries used with permission.

Two Australian Army Privates were killed in Afghanistan on August 20 when an IED detonated:
Pvt. Tomas Dale, 21, Reynella, Australia
Pvt. Grant Kirby, 35 of Brisbane, Australia

LCpl Jarod MacKinney, 28 of New South Wales, Australia was killed in Afghanistan on August 24 by hostile small arms fire.

LCpl Jordan D. Bancroft, 25, of Lancashire, England was killed in Afghanistan on August 21 by hostile small arms fire.

WO Judith Abraham Pappne , 32, of Sajozentpeter, Hungary was killed on August 23 in an attack near Mazar e Sharif in Northern Afghanistan.

Two members of the French Army were killed in Afghanistan on August 23 in an attack with small arms fire:

Lt. Lorenzo Mezzasalma, 43 of Paris
Cpl Jean-Nicolas Panezyck, 25

Lt. Abraham L. Bravo-Picallo, 34, of Vimanzo, Spain and
Capt. Jose Maria Galera-Cordoba of Albacet, Spain were killed in Afghanistan on August 24 when attacked with small arms fire.

And forgive a complete aside, but this week a very courageous man died. He was a young piper once upon a time and played to lift spirits as men stormed the beach at Normandy. Bill Millin piped the warriors ashore at the request of Scottish Lord Lovat, and strode the beach unarmed and contrary to English regulations.

Yes, you read that rightly. No, I am not normally hostile to the mental health care business—well, ok, not THAT hostile. But the latest bit of dumb-shittedness really so reeks of Brave New World-ist “Take your soma and be good, Sheeples” that I just want to slap someone. Or several someones.

It seems the newest mental disorder is bitterness. It is modeled on the post-traumatic stress disorder….but this “disorder” leaves you bitter and “seething for revenge” and it is entitled “post-traumatic embitterment disorder.” Imagine, righteous anger over being fucked sideways by life is now being considered a pathology!? Yet another way to sell us drugs that dull the pain instead of addressing the quite real causes of human suffering.

I agree with the writer of the linked article that it is utterly insulting to label people as mentally ill for their entirely justified fury at how badly things have been managed for the last several years. And the logic is so flawed…next do we label victims of crimes as being mentally ill when they want revenge or justice? I will keep my attitude problem, thank you. And yes, bitterly!

Always behind:

“The Army released suicide data today for the month of July. Among active-duty soldiers, there were 12 potential suicides: three were confirmed as suicides, and nine remain under investigation. For June, the Army reported 21 potential suicides among active-duty soldiers. Since the release of that report, 10 have been confirmed as suicides, and 11 remain under investigation.

During July 2010, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were 15 potential suicides. For June, among that same group, there were 11 suicides. Of those, five were confirmed as suicides and six are pending determination of the manner of death. ”

Is it only me, or do they dither a lot on those investigations—to try gaming the numbers of military men and women who decide to opt out of life? June was a very bad month for suicides. And perhaps that is why the Army chose to release a story saying that folks who joined the army were suicidal because they engaged in “risky behavior”.

No shit, Sherlock. People who join the military or stay in the military in time of war might be expected to be risk takers. But in spite of the statement : “There were 1,713 attempted suicides last year.”, they want us to know that the folks who killed themselves drank too much, took too many drugs (prescription or otherwise). Riiiight. That can’t be because the soldiers were overwhelmed with PTSD, or the feeling that their lives were no longer their own, right?

I’ve been around long enough to have known a lot of risk-taking people, a lot of drinkers, a lot of folks who abused prescription drugs to cope with pain of various sorts. Other than my own father, also a veteran, I don’t know ANY who committed suicide.

Course, if the Army and Marines want to sign up milquetoasts and base recruitment on the same sort of eight page psychological profiling job applications some high end department stores use to hire suitable sheeple, perhaps suicide would drop? Or perhaps, it just might sky-rocket when allegedly “normal” folks found out just how bad it is to be stuck in war where your actions change so damned little.

But then, mental health care in the military is as embattled as the combat troops. And just as overstretched. That is why many troops searching for help end up with chaplains, not psychologists or psychiatrists. And some of them think if the troop is not an evangelical Christian, that the problem is religious not mental.