molson_golden2002 Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080417/ap_on_...s_mental_health Sad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justnzane Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080417/ap_on_...s_mental_health Sad Maybe it's just me, but isn't this common sense? Some people can't deal with the emotional trauma of watching their friends get shot or blown up, and others go through trauma for killing someone. This is one of the reasons why many Vietnam era vets turned to drugs when the got home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsWatch Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Both the Vietnam War and The Second Iraq War are type of wars which will create these type of problems. The service people are fighting an entrenched hidden foes, their "supporters" there have hidden agendas and are willing to switch sides while we are providing the weapons, they are in many cases being forced to go / be extended in combat zone and there are lots of medical issues due to environment. Very depressing unless you are making hundreds of thousands as a contractor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Darin Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Both the Vietnam War and The Second Iraq War are type of wars which will create these type of problems. The service people are fighting an entrenched hidden foes, their "supporters" there have hidden agendas and are willing to switch sides while we are providing the weapons, they are in many cases being forced to go / be extended in combat zone and there are lots of medical issues due to environment. Very depressing unless you are making hundreds of thousands as a contractor. Yeah, because the size of your paycheck has anything to do with your mental health. Jesus Christ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsWatch Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 Yeah, because the size of your paycheck has anything to do with your mental health. Jesus Christ. It makes a BIG difference if it is your choice or being involuntarily extended yes. I did not say it was only factor. Lots of vets are worried about families at home paying bills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wacka Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 People are acting like the extention of tours of duty are new. I has happened in every war that lasted more than a few weeks. My father was lucky enough to be stationed at Pearl Harbor during the Korean War. About a month before he was to get out, Truman added a year to everyone's service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 People are acting like the extention of tours of duty are new. I has happened in every war that lasted more than a few weeks. My father was lucky enough to be stationed at Pearl Harbor during the Korean War. About a month before he was to get out, Truman added a year to everyone's service. The hell you say. Truman wouldn't have done that. He was a man of peace! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 I bet 1 in 3 Americans suffers depression. I guess more should join the Army. JK about joining the Army-not kidding about my assessment of depression in America Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VABills Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 I bet 1 in 3 Americans suffers depression. I guess more should join the Army. JK about joining the Army-not kidding about my assessment of depression in America Actually if you go to NIMH, 1 in 4 Americans suffer mental disorders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molson_golden2002 Posted April 18, 2008 Author Share Posted April 18, 2008 The hell you say. Truman wouldn't have done that. He was a man of peace! http://myfragranceheaven.com/library/2Obsession.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blzrul Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 Maybe it's just me, but isn't this common sense? Some people can't deal with the emotional trauma of watching their friends get shot or blown up, and others go through trauma for killing someone. This is one of the reasons why many Vietnam era vets turned to drugs when the got home. Sadly quite a few of them didn't WAIT until they got home. It only got worse once they were stateside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ieatcrayonz Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 Actually if you go to NIMH, 1 in 4 Americans suffer mental disorders. Is boring a mental disorder? If so, 1 in every 1 Belgium suffers from a mental disorder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted April 24, 2008 Share Posted April 24, 2008 I wasn't going to reply, but what the heck... This is what gets me (semi-rant): Obviously money and finances is a big deal... Getting hurt, disabled, even killed has to way on one's mind and worrying how the family back home will make ends meet... Given the low pay even makes it worse I suppose. Then there is somebody like me, a DoD civilian employee... I am wage grade (not GS) federal employee that makes a decent workingman's wage (even better when on OT and shift differential)... I am just a working slob on a hourly rate... Yet, I can go to Iraq tommorrow and earn a semi-King's ransom, stay realtively safe and make out financially in the end... My question is, why the phuck can't they pay the soldiers actually doing the hard work? What the phuck is wrong with this country? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCinBuffalo Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 I wasn't going to reply, but what the heck... This is what gets me (semi-rant): Obviously money and finances is a big deal... Getting hurt, disabled, even killed has to way on one's mind and worrying how the family back home will make ends meet... Given the low pay even makes it worse I suppose. Then there is somebody like me, a DoD civilian employee... I am wage grade (not GS) federal employee that makes a decent workingman's wage (even better when on OT and shift differential)... I am just a working slob on a hourly rate... Yet, I can go to Iraq tommorrow and earn a semi-King's ransom, stay realtively safe and make out financially in the end... My question is, why the phuck can't they pay the soldiers actually doing the hard work? What the phuck is wrong with this country? This is gonna sound nuts but the more I think about it, the more this contractor thing resembles FA in football. Stay with me for a second, let's assume there is a guy named Bob. Bob went to Ranger school, he's worked with some Delta, basically one of the guys in Blackhawk Down. Needless to say, Bob is one of the elite, but Bob is still essentially getting paid his rookie contract scale(enlisted pay). Bob takes a look around and realizes that he's in Iraq and there are other guys a few years older than him who are making 100k for doing the same kind of work he is, and just like any other elite player, says "I'm better than that guy and I should be getting paid as much if not more than him". So Bob gets out and signs his new FA contract with a contractor, after all he can get just as dead as a contractor as in the Rangers, kinda like a Football player can get hurt any time, so he might as well grab all the cash he can while he can. I guess I can't blame Bob. And, if you think about it, as far as effectiveness goes, just like FA vs. the draft, you'd rather have a proven guy like Bob out there than hoping to replace him with a new recruit, that hopefully you can develop and train and maybe he gets to Bob's level in a few years. I'm just saying, this scenario works out infinitely better for Bob, and gives the military a way to retain Bob, rather than losing him to some other career. Besides, they'd rather pay Bob a lot more, because they know what they are getting, just like a proven elite FA, rather than having to constantly pay for all the schooling that Bob's replacement needs = same as recycling draft picks, and Bob is a "right now" solution. I haven't thought enough about this to decide whether this is a good idea or not, but it seems clear that this is the dynamic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 This is gonna sound nuts but the more I think about it, the more this contractor thing resembles FA in football. Stay with me for a second, let's assume there is a guy named Bob. Bob went to Ranger school, he's worked with some Delta, basically one of the guys in Blackhawk Down. Needless to say, Bob is one of the elite, but Bob is still essentially getting paid his rookie contract scale(enlisted pay). Bob takes a look around and realizes that he's in Iraq and there are other guys a few years older than him who are making 100k for doing the same kind of work he is, and just like any other elite player, says "I'm better than that guy and I should be getting paid as much if not more than him". So Bob gets out and signs his new FA contract with a contractor, after all he can get just as dead as a contractor as in the Rangers, kinda like a Football player can get hurt any time, so he might as well grab all the cash he can while he can. I guess I can't blame Bob. And, if you think about it, as far as effectiveness goes, just like FA vs. the draft, you'd rather have a proven guy like Bob out there than hoping to replace him with a new recruit, that hopefully you can develop and train and maybe he gets to Bob's level in a few years. I'm just saying, this scenario works out infinitely better for Bob, and gives the military a way to retain Bob, rather than losing him to some other career. Besides, they'd rather pay Bob a lot more, because they know what they are getting, just like a proven elite FA, rather than having to constantly pay for all the schooling that Bob's replacement needs = same as recycling draft picks, and Bob is a "right now" solution. I haven't thought enough about this to decide whether this is a good idea or not, but it seems clear that this is the dynamic. Ya, but I am NOT with a contractor... The DoD and Department of the Army is also paying me. If the Army is paying me a decent blue collar wage that is is adjusted with cost of living and what not, why not give the soldier the same? I work directly with the USACE, they want bodies... Some here have gone 2-3 times and made a killing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UConn James Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 My brother was diagnosed with PTSD after coming back from Afghanistan last year, his third tour in the GWOT after also serving in Bosnia, etc. There were marital problems before he even got back.... We tried to reach out to his now-ex-wife during the deployment and rarely got a response and it turned out she'd been cheating --- the third-oldest story in the book. She complained that he didn't call her enough and othersuch bullsh-- like that (he was stuck eating goat in villages where no one had ever seen an American before... some people really don't ing get it!), trying to rationalize her selfishness (which was only confirmed by her --- out of the blue --- withdrawing his entire savings account balance "to protect herself" and further in the divorce negotiations). You can talk all you want about $, but the most weighing thing on the men and women serving 'over there' is leaving their lives in limbo back here and not being able to do much of a damn thing about it. It's a hell of a thing to come back and be a stranger in your own home. Combine that with all the things he had to do like shooting people who didn't pull their cars over for convoys, drawing O+ on every piece of your clothing, that mental state you get in when you can imagine what your own death might be like, including days when he, as an E-8 volunteered for Humvee gunner duty, actually hoped to die.... This sh-- stays with you. You don't just shake it off. Same damn thing actually happened to a guy in his unit. At the funeral the wife and kids cried, etc. but the quotes from them in the newspapers just seemed off-color, like 'Oh well. These things happen.' I remember myself thinking it very odd at the time and then got the full story when my brother returned home that this KIA was tantamount to suicide. People back here, even in the families of the soldiers, have NO CLUE. A 20-year non-comm who'd somehow never been deployed before asked him what to expect... Ninety percent of the guys in his unit have been divorced w/in a year of returning from a deployment, many of whom have small children and are getting utterly shafted in divorces. 11 out of 15 of the kids in his old platoon failed a drug test last month. It's unbelievable the human toll that's being levied. I have taken to just listening to what he has to say. Speaking, writing about what he went through that got him to where he is now is probably the best therapy there is. So I listen. He stayed here off-and-on for about 2 months while he was closing on a new house. He broke a halogen lamp during one flashback nightmare, would often shout in his sleep (at 4 a.m., mind you... when he did manage any sleep), and he's making gross mistakes in his personal life --- drinking, trying to reclaim/replace what he had with his wife including the same kind of dog (which he was not ready to take care of) and dating someone who was her spitting image, then moving to her place, moving out, then back in, then back out, then back in, then back out. I try not to judge and to just be there for him. At times it's like watching the seconds before a car accident, and you want to scream out to prevent it but they just won't hear you. Things now seem to be getting back on track, tho, but it's a daily struggle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCinBuffalo Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 Ya, but I am NOT with a contractor... The DoD and Department of the Army is also paying me. If the Army is paying me a decent blue collar wage that is is adjusted with cost of living and what not, why not give the soldier the same? I work directly with the USACE, they want bodies... Some here have gone 2-3 times and made a killing... See that's the thing that makes this analogy go: just like football, you pay your rookies as rookies and your journeymen as journeymen, but, your stars get the chance to make the big money. Officers have their own way of making bank when they get out, and I know this from seeing it personally. These contractor jobs are the equivalent of the enlisted guys hitting the big time, and all I am pointing out is that I doubt it's an accident that they are doing things this way. I know a couple of them as well and I have yet to hear any complaints, especially when I see the one guy's new boat. Funny that you don't hear much from the wives, either. Again, not saying right or wrong, just making an observation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 The sad part is that the soldiers are doing the most important part, yet are being paid from the bottom of the barrel. There is a reason why anybody doing something MAJOR is paid accordingly. Do you want your heart surgeon in the middle of your surgery wonder if he paid the electric bill for the month? You get what you pay for and this case it is ass backwards. Yet, to send a civilian there to do a job on base, get a meal card and collect overtime and hazard pay is an abomination while the grunt is out ther mopping up doing the dirty work EVEN protecting the "star" players, contractors, or what not. Where is our decency? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erynthered Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 Nice. 1 in 3 on the TSW are !@#$ing retards. Though, they're Government workers, which makes it OK. Maybe some of them should be shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted April 26, 2008 Share Posted April 26, 2008 Nice. 1 in 3 on the TSW are !@#$ing retards. Though, they're Government workers, which makes it OK. Maybe some of them should be shot. So you think it is right to pay soldiers crap pay? I might be a phucking retard, but you see them as cheap paid tools and then hold them high on a pedestal, what gives?... They should be getting paid a lot more than my lazy gov't ass gets... But, you don't think so! At least kiss them first Eryn before you eff them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts