How Do I Report Child Abuse???

[chill]

My mum never let my dad smack me as a child and i grew up to be undisciplined eccentric part dumbass part genius.

[Flashermac]

I think it's honorable to attempt to sort it out, but we're all carved from experiences and environment - much too vast a thing to control. Even though the illusion of it may help you through the night (see religion).

 

Still, you focus on the things you can do something about eh? Play your cards the best you can.

 

Nice heartfelt post Griffith.

 

It's always the 'well-adjusted' people that bother me, how could you possibly go through this life and not be at least a little bit crazy?

 

 

 

And how can combat vets ever be expected to get over it completely? I've got a buddy who still sleeps with a loaded .45 automatic under his pillow. (He was Special Forces for 2 1/2 years in the Mekong Delta.) Another friend woke up one night to find his father pulling him off his wife, whom he was trying to strangle during a nightmare! I still walk around certain spots and won't step on some places because it would be easy to put a mine or a boobie trap there. During the effing fireworks on Loy Krathong I was tensed and the adrenalin was flowing. The poor bastards coming back from Iraq and Afganistan have my respect and sympathy. At least they get to come back in units and ease back into the civilian life, not just get on a plane one day and be discharged the next.

 

So how come it's wrong to smack kids, but it's all right to send teenagers off to war?

 

 

[chuckwoww]

I would think teenagers readjust better than family men. If they can find jobs.

[Flashermac]

The guys who married young had a strange time readjusting. One said to me he had done a lot of growing up in one year, but when he got home his wife still acted like the teenager she was.

 

 

[dave32]

You came out alright Flash, don't worry. I was grateful when I met ya, nice thoughtful guy who took time to show me around (not to mention introducing me to some of the faculty of the Thai Studies program).

 

Aren't many people that show kindness like that to relative strangers. Gesture not forgotten.

 

[griffithvoice]

The guys who married young had a strange time readjusting. One said to me he had done a lot of growing up in one year, but when he got home his wife still acted like the teenager she was.

 

 

Thats pretty much what happened to me coming back from Afghanistan. I had grown up very quickly, even from being in my 20's but my partner at the time was the same. People around me also didnt appear the same because of all the inane conversations and complaining about stuff that doesnt matter.

 

It did take me a while to readjust but unfortunately that relationship didnt last. Experiences change a person, some for the good and some ofr the bad.

[TheCorinthian]

 

 

And how can combat vets ever be expected to get over it completely? I've got a buddy who still sleeps with a loaded .45 automatic under his pillow. (He was Special Forces for 2 1/2 years in the Mekong Delta.) Another friend woke up one night to find his father pulling him off his wife, whom he was trying to strangle during a nightmare!

 

 

You know none of my men and no one I even know reports suffering from this? Odd.

[Flashermac]

I think a lot of this was the way they yanked us out of a combat zone and showed us the door. The GIs in WWI, WWII and Korea came home by troop ship. They had time to talk to each other and ease out of their combat mode. You also had maybe a week or two in the States to readjust before you processed out.

 

In RVN you left your unit one day, got cleared and boarded a plane to the States, and were processed out on the next. I was one of the old timers in my company - over 13 months in country. No one else ETS'd or DEROS'd even the same month as I did. I fired my weapon for the last time the day I left. (Movement in the trees, no return fire.)

 

I rode a deuce and a half over the An Khe Pass down to Quin Nhon (carrying my weapon in case of ambush), cleared the battalion that afternoon, and then took a C-130 to Cam Ranh Bay. That evening my name was called to board the big silver bird. We arrived at Fort Lewis 20 hours later, got marched to an old WWII barracks building and were issued a proper Army greens uniform (they'd taken them from us when we left for RVN). An Army MD appeared and asked if we had anything wrong with us. If we did, they'd have to hold us over and examine us. Naturally, everyone said they were fine and he stamped our papers. Some final paperwork was completed, we turned in our military ID cards and got paid whatever was owed us. (They short changed one day but weren't about to argue.) They piled us onto buses to Seattle airport and abandoned us there to get home on our own. I remember groups of returnees staring at each other and looking at US civilian life in bewilderment. It took me a couple of months to realise I really was out, I kept half expecting a knock at the door with the FBI coming to haul me back to the active duty.

 

Since Desert Storm units have more or less served together, the old way. You are kept together as a unit for some time to get used to being back. It felt totally alien to us to be thrown into ordinary life again and wondering if you were just dreaming. Nobody said welcome home, no flags, no thank you or anything like that. If you were lucky, you were just ignored. If you were unlucky, you might be called a baby killer by some arsehole at the airport wearing black pajamas and waving a VC flag. Happened to one of my LTs. (I know a Marine who punched out a guy who spit at the coffin carrying a dead Marine he was escorting home. A cop saw him hit the guy and looked the other way.)

 

I eventually got over looking for ambushes on country roads and not driving over patched spots of the road in case they were mined. Some guys maybe haven't. Just different reactions.

 

 

 

[Old Hippie]

 

 

And how can combat vets ever be expected to get over it completely? I've got a buddy who still sleeps with a loaded .45 automatic under his pillow. (He was Special Forces for 2 1/2 years in the Mekong Delta.) Another friend woke up one night to find his father pulling him off his wife' date=' whom he was trying to strangle during a nightmare!

 

[/quote']

 

You know none of my men and no one I even know reports suffering from this? Odd.

 

 

It can often take years to hit you...a sound. smell or something just sets it off. Most people I know have no "real problems" but I seriously doubt anyone whose been through it is not effected by it in some way...

[Flashermac]

Christmas night I was walking down Sukhumwit and some idiot let loose with fireworks. Even now I still ducked and looked to see where it was coming from. Survival instincts don't go away.