I had only been scanning the headlines as they crossed my news reader, but when they showed up back-to-back, it occurred to me that it had been a rough time for veterans in eastern Indiana.
In Muncie, a young veteran took his life in a movie theater in Muncie. Jacob Sexton was on leave from Afghanistan, went to see a movie in Muncie, and apparently had an exchange with the manager about whether he was old enough. He said something about having shot 18 people but showed the manager his ID and was allowed into the theater. While in the movie:
Jeremiah said Jacob asked for his gun, a 9 mm Taurus, which he played around with as they were watching the zombie killer movie.
“He did not say anything,” said Jeremiah on Tuesday.
Jacob then told Keagy to duck, grabbed his head, pushed it down and then shot himself.
In Winchester, Iraq War veteran, Andrew S. Ward is accused of opening fire on Randolph County Sheriff’s deputies.
According to authorities, Ward fired four shots from a shotgun at three deputies as the officers responded to a 911 call at Ward’s sister’s house, 7651 Boundary Pike.
Ward had allegedly broke into her home, battered a baby-sitter and threatened to kill his sister.
Alcohol was apparently involved in both situations as well. I don’t know that any particular conclusions can be drawn from two isolated incidents, but a movie quote is leaping to mind:
The Schofield Kid: [after killing a man for the first time] It don’t seem real… how he ain’t gonna never breathe again, ever… how he’s dead. And the other one too. All on account of pulling a trigger.
Will Munny: It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have.
The Schofield Kid: Yeah, well, I guess they had it coming.
Will Munny: We all got it coming, kid.
I will, however, go way out on a limb to say that we should make sure our veterans are getting good mental health care and to say that alcohol and firearms are a bad combination.
As a Veteran with PTSD, I can assure you that the VA & Military could care less about PTSD. To the VA, it’s always a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder pre-service to keep them from having to pay Disability to the Veteran. To the Military, you’re a used-up Soldier who is no longer a “force multiplier”.
Substance abuse is rampant in all PTSD Veterans, which leads to suicides, violence, and homelessness. Veterans DO NOT get the treatment they deserve from a government, Military, and civilian population that throws them away after they have “served their purpose”.
Nobody cares for Veterans like their fellow Veterans, and that’s a sorry fact we have to live with. Ignoring the needs of any of our Veterans with PTSD is the exact same thing as spitting on them at the airport when they came home from VietNam.
America’s government and people are keeping up the traditions of the anti-VietNam War movement from the 60’s.
Last time this argument came around, there weren’t any actual police reports, media reports, or photos, etc., documenting “spitting on veterans at airports” as they returned home from Vietnam. Despite that, the apparent myth persists.
There are parallels between treatment of veterans returning from Vietnam, and from the present wars. Both wars have been long ones. They’ve both been wars where the public wasn’t fully mobilized for the purpose (in contrast to WWII and even Desert Storm), and where life as gone on pretty much uninterrupted stateside. For many, the war has had no impact on our lives, really. New recruits leave, veterans return, and these movements largely go unnoticed. But like the veterans returning from Vietnam, there are gaps in medical and especially psychiatric care, probably not enough help with job placement, etc, but no literal spitting.
“Myth” & “no literal spitting”?! I have family members and family friends who Honorably served in VietNam who were spit on, slapped in the face, and had feces thrown at them at airports when returning from VietNam.
I challenge you to spout your ideas of the so-called “myth” to the face of any VietNam Veteran.
Unfortunately, I know you won’t because you don’t even have the testicular (or ovarian) fortitude to comment with your name, e-mail, or website address. You are exactly the worthless civilian scum that I commented about, who relish what the blood of Soldiers has given you, but are too self-involved to sacrifice anything of yourself in return.
Enjoy the Blanket of Freedom you sleep under, that we have paid for with our health, blood, and lives.
Easy, Mac. “T” is a veteran himself.
The back story is that we have had prior discussions around here about how a “stabbed in the back” mythology has grown up around Viet Nam and why we lost there. Anecdotal stories — usually, but I guess not always, third hand — about veterans being spit on have been magnified to support the broader notion that it was the Dirty Fucking Hippies back home who lost Viet Nam for us. The reality, in my mind, is that poor strategy and poor leadership led to the result in Viet Nam.
In any case, feel free to express any opinion or cite any fact you want about Viet Nam, Iraq, veterans, or really anything else being discussed. But, my goal as the host of this corner of cyberspace is to keep ad hominem, personal points of attack to a dull roar.
Not a problem Doug, & Thank You for your Service “T”. I just “saw red” after seeing “myth” & knowing what happened to people I care about.
I don’t believe in ANY political involvement in our wars. The government is turning Iraq & The ‘Stan into our 2nd VietNam(s).
I knew Sexton, that is to say one of my family members that is in his same unit in Afghanistan now introduced me to him and we often played games online together while chatting.
We can’t know why he did this. It could have been the war, or something completely unrelated. I’m asking everyone to please consider what you type, as his friends may read what you say. It is easy to forget that your words on here are perminant and real.
I’ll let Sexton’s C.O. say it much better as he did on the Muncie newspaper website:
Thanks for that, Jason.
Didn’t mean to stir up anything. I just don’t understand how widespread assaults on veterans never resulted in arrests, counter-assaults, news items, etc. In the typical story, the returning veteran just kind of takes it. Which doesn’t sound like how anyone I served with would have handled it. During my service (88-94), I served with probably twenty or more Vietnam veterans, and don’t recall any such stories. I do have pretty clear recollections that when we had a homecoming parade after the end of our Desert Storm service, some said that a similar welcome after Vietnam would have been nice.
Political involvement in war in necessary. That’s why the founders made it so. The Commander-In-Chief is an elected politician. Our elected representatives write the checks with our money on our behalf, and provide oversight on our, and the soldiers’ behalf. Banana Republics don’t do it this way.
Anyway, that’s off on a tangent. May as many of our soldiers as possible return home safely, and find peace of mind and fulfilling lives on their returns.
Didn’t mean to stir up anything. I just don’t understand how widespread assaults on veterans never resulted in arrests, counter-assaults, news items, etc. In the typical story, the returning veteran just kind of takes it. Which doesn’t sound like how anyone I served with would have handled it. During my service (88-94), I served with probably twenty or more Vietnam veterans, and don’t recall any such stories. I do have pretty clear recollections that when we had a homecoming parade after the end of our Desert Storm service, some said that a similar welcome after Vietnam would have been nice.
Political involvement in war in necessary. That’s why the founders made it so. The Commander-In-Chief is an elected politician. Our elected representatives write the checks with our money on our behalf, and provide oversight on our, and the soldiers’ behalf. Banana Republics don’t do it this way.
Anyway, that’s off on a tangent. May as many of our soldiers as possible return home safely, and find peace of mind and fulfilling lives on their returns. And may our government and citizens do what’s necessary to insure that happens.
Sorry for double post. Satellite internet + rain = slow and unsure performance.