Sacrifices Of Veterans Largely Unappreciated

In this account of a veteran with PTSD, which he suffers from thanks to his military experience, you get a sense for how difficult it can be for returning veterans. And in many cases they live with these problems (missing limbs, psychological trauma, etc.) for the rest of their lives. We owe these guys a lot for what they do and did for our country. We need to more widely discuss how they are having difficulty when they return (drugs, homelessness, etc.), and what services they need. Excerpt:

'We hear 28 died in a mine, but we don’t even say 28 men, we might say 28 coal minors. We say 8 soldiers died today. Not eight MALE soldiers, just 8 soldiers. If a bombing kills “just men” we give a number, “32″ died, but if women die we say “including 2 women” because women dying make the story more “special”. MRA’s (Men’s rights activists) have noticed this for years. In my dream I got closer and noticed each face more closely, so young. Too young to die which is what I thought of the “boys” who got out of basic training with me in 1966? Silly boys, funny boys, some mean and some kind boys but all trying to be tough soldiers. I was a tough soldier. I grew up as a tough boy.
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I don’t want to read about young boys training to be warriors in foreign countries while our sons are getting fat drinking beer, eating chips and playing video games and flunking out of class no good for work or war. At heart I am still a warrior who remembers the boys from basic training who went to war and then came home to colleges where they learned that warriors were scum and men are pigs and women don’t beat children or each other or men. America is being educated by liars and they end up running the country, for however much longer we have a country. Memorial day. Those who don’t remember their history are doomed to repeat it. Here’s to you Lewis Puller, your brothers, and the tens of thousands valient warriors who gave their live for us. You are in our hearts and prayers this Memorial Day 2010.'