Mentally ill troops forced into combat

[thaiboxerken]

In either case, please see my sig lines.........................

Yes, that person you quote in your sig is inspirational. Never have I seen such eloquence, brilliance and wisdom tiny quips like that.

 

[Huntster]

Yes, that person you quote in your sig is inspirational.....

Actually, when you see a statement like "I'm always right" with your own name behind it, I suppose someone like you would find it "inspirational".

...Never have I seen such eloquence, brilliance and wisdom tiny quips like that.

I've never seen it either.

Still haven't.

But it's sure funny as hell!

 

[ImaginalDisc]

Wow more hypocritical gibberish from you, how shocking.

Thx for all your worthy contributions to the discussion. Once again, they speak volumes.

"Hypocritical?" When have I ever behaved in a manner inconsistent with the priniples above?

 

[a_unique_person]

True.

Unfortunately, until you told us of your 1st-hand experience, your arguments had no merit as you didn't back them up with anything whatsoever.

That is not the whole story, until he said his experience, he was repeatedly abused. What right do you have to abuse him for stating his opinions?

 

[Luke T.]

I'm back here on page 1. Haven't read to the end of the topic yet. Just want to comment on what I've seen so far.

Zig, the number is roughly double that of the general population. CDC predicts 12 per 100,000 for 20-24 y/o -- an age representing the vast majority of those on station. There were 120,000 troops during that time frame.

I still don't find it surprising. War is a very, very stressful and depressing thing.

I'm retired military. We had a high suicide rate during peacetime. I think what we need to see is a comparison between peacetime military suicide rates and wartime military suicide rates.

What I do find surprising is that the military actually issues anti-depressants now. Used to be they did not. Just "buck-up" soldier. Go talk to the Chaplin, yada.

I was prescribed antidepressants in 1996 in the military.

 

[Luke T.]

Well, this is a revoltin' development. CNN Reports that people with diagnosed mental illness, some of them on anti-depressants, are being forced to fight in Iraq.
There have been twenty-two suicides, one fifth of all non-combat deaths.

During 1990-1994, suicide accounted for 23% of all deaths among active duty U.S. Air Force (USAF) personnel and was the second leading cause of death (after unintentional injuries) (Table 1). During those years, the annual suicide rate among active duty USAF personnel increased significantly (p less than 0.01) from 10.0 to 16.4 suicides per 100,000 members (Figure 1).

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4846a1.htm

 

[Luke T.]

I believe thaiboxer was in the Navy. I was in the nuke program my first enlistment and every word of what he said is accurate.

And my first re-enlistment was under almost the exact same conditions as his.

I stayed for the full 20, and regret it. But I think calling an enlisted man a "slave" is pushing it a little too far. Yeah, you get BOHICA'd on a regular basis, and you can be forgiven for ignorance during the first enlistment, but after you re-enlist (whether or not you've been to the fleet), it's all on you. So I sold myself into "slavery" over and over.

I am proud of the role I played for my country. We did some real good out there. Stuff nobody ever hears about or notices. But real world things that made an impact on world events. None of the fellas back home can ever say that unless they get elected to a high office.

And, dammit, I do get tears in my eyes when the flag passes by in a parade. Even though I feel like I was a total sucker for doing 20.

Shipboard life sucks. Sucks really, really bad. I pity anyone else who does it. I pity them the way only someone else who has been there can.

 

[Luke T.]

One last thing, and I'm outta here.

There are two kinds of reactions when going into a combat situation. Those who are jacked, and those who are depressed. I worried more about those who were jacked. It just isn't normal to be excited about the prospect of getting to kill other people, or the prospect of being killed.

ETA: That is why training is so important. Train, train, train. Then when the real thing goes down, you react how you were trained, regardless of how you felt about it five minutes ago.

 

[bigred]

I'm back here on page 1. Haven't read to the end of the topic yet.

Don't bother; I can summarize and save you a lot of time:

thai: "enlisting = slavery" (PS thai my bad on thinking you were Army/USMC - misread that particular post)

ImaginaryMind: "ad hominem ad hominem ad hominem (etc)"

Rob: "thai is wrong and a liar and full of it and not a nice person (etc)"



There are a few tidbits of actual discussion here and there, but that pretty much covers most of the last couple of pages.



Done w/this thread but hey Luke feel free to PM if you want to talk about it.

 

[ImaginalDisc]

"ad hominem ad hominem ad hominem (etc)"

Objecting to someone else's logical fallacy is not a personal attack. A personal attack would be, for example, telling someone to shut up, because you falsely think they have never served in the military.