If you really want someone to feel like a piece of dog shit for a long time, then be sure to recommend that they earn money for college and gain job experience by enlisting in the United States Army. Once they’re all contracted up and ready to ship out, a masochist’s dream world opens up to them, and no matter how dark and lonely the trip becomes, it can always get worse. Thinking that the loss of your legs and the ability to keep your mind focused long enough to order a cheeseburger at McDonald’s is the low point in your tragic life is the stupid reasoning of dog shit that thinks its special, and the essence of what I’m getting at here. Turn off your mind, panic, and work upstream – you’re still in the Army, and the Army still hates you.
To be so foolish as to assume that the actual injury and thousands of miles of transport and surgery after surgery constitute the worst of what your signature on that contract was in exchange for, is to undoubtedly be stupid enough to expect that because you’re in possession of that smart looking Purple Heart medal that you’ve been upgraded within the Army to something more consequential than the piece of dog shit you’ve been up to that point, and if the feeling you were taught to become one with as a fully capable soldier in your unit is something you consider a thing of the past, then see how you feel wheeling your broke ass down to formation in the rain, say for a year and a half or so.
You’re missing parts of your body and mind; still over in Iraq or Afghanistan somewhere, already been pissed on by people, livestock and rolled over by tires of trucks, seeing day and night looking up at whatever, wondering if their host is every coming back to pick them up. They won’t of course, but such soulful meditation, the cutting of ties, the acceptance of what’s lost, it’s all part of making it to 30 and then 40 and hopefully past that age right there, to a veteran it’s the new 70, and Hallmark might have a clue as to whether or not the poor bastard has things worked out even then with what to say or think about that part of them still being pissed on and rolled over on the other side of the world.
It’s on the top of the to-do list, but Army dog shit hasn’t yet earned the right to feel entitled to anything besides the constant reminder of what it is and what it is worth. In the rain you sit, because you have to, on account of having no legs, but above all that is the need for the Army to further shame and humiliate and break away that will to live…smear some Kiwi all over that unauthorized gloss from being called a hero, and sit there in that chair you’ll loathe forever hearing this asshole at the front of the formation talking to you and the rest of what’s left of the sorry fuckers soaking in the phantom sensations from toes that still wiggle when thought about for a second in the rain on a 30 degree morning, still ten minutes before the asshole stops talking and the five minute trek back to the moldy walls and seclusion of hell can be returned to.
Fifteen months of this and the paperwork is lost, tied up, incomplete…and so the guy down the hall figures he can bring back the booze for me along with his own, and just like in that book Misery, I’ll dump all that chemical dust into a few cocktails and this life can finally end. Just tell anyone you can to stay away and forget about all that hero bullshit everyone in the civilian world thinks exists in the Army. Before that though, check my room and see I’m collected and buried before these rodents get to biting on me. Just don’t let me get eaten by my roommates here, and we’ll be even. Hopefully I’ll smell enough dead like the Army has made me feel alive to attract someone who’ll wheel me out of here and get me one of those nice funerals with the gunfire and bagpipes. (Read the inspiration for this)
WRAMC slated for base realignment has proceeded with the scheduled force reduction, last I heard, regardless of the fact that it isn’t closing tomorrow (or even soon) and the fact that its patient population continues to rise.
This article sucks. It goes hand in hand in some ways with your post below about how the press fails to work. It’s a well-written expose (sort of) about just how shitty things are at WRAMC, but without any discussion of why. WHY are these soldiers allowed to languish and rot like this. WHO is responsible for the decisions regarding their treatment. WHERE is the money? WHERE is the staff? WHERE is the oversight?
Every year for the last 5 (that’s every year the GoP controlled congress and the White House during the Iraq Invasion and Occupation), the President and congress have either cut funding for veteran’s benefits and health care or maintained it at subsequently low levels. This year, W proposed to pay for some of the shortfall by charging larger fees-for-service.
It’s a shameful pattern. There’s always more money for recruitment, but there doesn’t seem to be any to fix them up after they’ve been injured. I guess it’s a lot easier to mint Purple Heart medals than it is to keep track of paperwork.
Suck it up, and drive on!
Great post. The Washington Post article really hit home. To the non-veteran, the article may seem a bit exaggerated. Or even to some, it may seem like another piece by the liberal media to ‘embolden the enemy’, like ‘the enemy’ is really paying attention to all of this bullshit. Yet, we all know that the truthiness of this story is accurate because why would the command even consider moving the morning formations from the bone-chilling outdoors into a warm, well-lighted structure? Well, for starters, they would have to charge a double amputee to clean the wooden floors of the Wagner gymnasium. And they can’t do that, so just suck it up…it’s only black ice.
When I was in Iraq, I never worried about dying: when I’m dead, I’m dead. No, it was the fear of coming back maimed in some horrific way. The article also accentuated another fear of being forgotten in a morass of an army bureaucracy. It’s hard enough to out-process from the service as un-injured soldier. Try returning a bloodied uniform; the supply clerks won’t accept it. The whole point of the article was to illustrate the argument that the most difficult part of being injured isn’t the genuine act of the injury, rather the aftermath: being left alone to die or rot on the government’s dime. Though, the worst trauma should only be experienced during the actual event of the injury, but the army insists that the suffering be extended indefinitely.
Some dude who got his legs blown off being told his food is at the chow hall on the other side of the post…THAT’S the Army I remember! This washington post article practically caused a flashback…my spine tingled with the sudden sound of windchimes from somewhere either inside or outside of the house, I couldn’t tell which…
Al and Bernie: That’s a 2-parter from the ‘Post. The second (1st?) is here.
Holy crap – Thanks dude! I’ve got the white rapper show on VH1 in about ten minutes…GO SHAMROCK!
I’m reading this the second it’s over. More fuel to the fire.
I’ve decided to say what I really feel about the Army from here on out. My experience was raw in a lot of ways, easy in a lot of ways…and it’s easy to just ignore what soldiers are dealing with today since I’m not one of them, but not anymore. One of my closest comrades is heading over there any day now, and as much as I search around at times, nobody is calling this shit what it is.
The US Army is simply a disaster in every way besides the weaponry creating holes and explosions…take away the weapons and it’s a clusterfuck from top to bottom.
Has to be said.
Read all of both parts on Walter Reed here in the middle of the night. What can you say? Sounds like a miserable existence. I never thought about how soliders continue to serve when they come back to the world. I just assumed that amputees would get released from service.
I rarely have anything good to say about the army. It is the world’s most lethargic bureaucracy and often does things that do not make sense. These two stories do not disprove my statements.
The second part was just as good of a read as the first, if not moreso. The visual I have of 18 months in the Army in that condition…it’s like something out of Dante’s Inferno.
I imagine slogging back and forth in the rain and dirty mud while in a wheelchair or using crutches, all the while still having to deal with some asshole, clueless NCO and crickety army procedures.
If you guys are interested, or haven’t seen it, Gary Trudeau, creator of Doonesbury, started a section of his site called “The Sandbox” where he posts original content from GWOT-types. A lot of it is pretty good.
That is very cool of him to have that up. I read a couple and will definitely go back as often as I can. Thanks dude!
The Trudeau spot is great, thanks for the linkage JIm.
Al..there is nothing I can add to your piece. I did one too. After readingWaPo’s expose, I just pray to GOD my niece doesn’t end up there, shes in Afghanistan now..all of 22 years and 98 lbs.
Great article Al!
As a Vet, I have seen this all too often. Great post and lets keep this thing in the news.
I wanna know what you have to do to get relieved of duty now?
I had a colleague that got relieved because one of his soldiers got severe frostbite in Korea.
They wanted to courtmartial General Karpinski after Abu Gharib.
700 soldiers abused at the crown jewel of Army Hospitals and what will happen?
I get fired up about this shit…
Here is what I wrote.
http://buildourparty.blogspot.com/2007/02/why-do-we-keep-screwing-our-veterans.html
LOL, I am fine with the language. As a matter of fact, I’m tired of playing nice. That shot was for my sister who comments on my language.
Keep up the great work!
One last one before I head into the cities and dodge a snowstorm.
I thought this had happened a few years ago and sure enough…
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1017-06.htm
Heads should roll.
The language thing has become a restraint I’m no longer interested in minding. No publication is going to pick up my writing whether there are 4-letter words or not. This is about something else altogether. I commend you on remaining active on your blog, on this topic in particular!
Well, just to throw a little gas on the fire…
Isn’t that what young folk are signing up for? Death, disfigurement, and then to be discarded? Maybe, maybe not. Kinda like playing craps at Vegas. Exciting one minute, and gut wrenching the next … “honey I have bad news”.
How many books, documentaries, movies have to become available before people go “oh yeah, it’s a shitty proposition.”?
Remember the Spartans, right?
Speaking of… 300
Carry on soldier.