Is it easier to accept a Wounded Warrior as one that is visibly wounded than those of us whose wounds can't be seen?
Is it easier to offer help to someone in a wheelchair compared to helping someone who is having a flashback?
Is it easier to understand the frustration of new limitations than fears of everyday things?
What will you do when we jump into the bushes when we hear fireworks? When we can't sit still, relax, let our guard down? When we say we can't go out tonight because we're afraid that it'll be too crowded? When we wake up in the middle of the night screaming?
This is our reality. Can you accept it?
They asked for volunteers, so I volunteered. I deployed and spent a year in the sandbox. I came home. The Army decided I was too broken to serve any longer and gave me temporary medical retirement. I'm a civilian again and married right back in. My husband is gearing to deploy. In the meantime, I have a strange love-hate relationship with the Army. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it doesn't.
About Me
- Techno
- I'm a contradiction all by myself. Soldier and student. Stargazer and computer geek. Boots and music. Paper pusher and globetrotter. It all works out in the end.
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A bit of history...
There was a call for volunteers to deploy in Spring of 2006. I volunteered, was selected, passed the screening process, and was sent to reclassification training to go from being a bandsman to a human resource specialist. After graduation, I was home for roughly a month. I met the rest of my new unit right before we were sent to mobilization training. Once validated, we were sent overseas in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
I left university, quit my job, dumped my foreign boyfriend, and said a few very painful goodbyes. But I don't regret it one bit.
In early August, I was MEDEVAC'd out of the desert. My unit was just a few weeks away from going home. Now my only job is to get better. The irony is that they returned to their homes before I did.The Army has offered me disability and temporary retirement pay. I'm taking it. Bye bye combat boots.
1 comment:
The problem is not the condition - it is the fact that you "chose" to be there. Just like anyone else who has experienced war, you react the same way. Unfortunately, you are supposed to be made of stronger stuff than that, as per say "be all that you can be in the army." Nevermind that reality has nothing to do with it.
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