The Extreme (Part two)

(Part one here)

"It is not the meaning nor within the compass of this Address, to detail the hardships peculiarly incident to our Service, or to discribe the distresses which in several instances have resulted from the extremes of hunger and nakedness, combined with the rigors of an inclement season. Nor is it necessary to dwell on the dark side of our past affairs. Every American Officer and Soldier must now console himself for any unpleasant circumstances which may have occurred, by a recollection of the uncommon scenes in which he has been called to act, no inglorious part; and the astonishing Events of which he has been a witness."

General George Washington's farewell address to his Army, 2 November 1783

"CJ at A Soldier's Perspective had made a comment regarding the troops but I just could not write fast enough and have a poor memory," wrote Mrs Greyhawk of their September, 2007 visit with the President of the United States. "Seems CJ could not remember his question either, but for good reason."

"I'm Nothing Special," writes CJ. "I just happen to be a blogger."

I started They Have Names because of a specific person, CPT James "Alex" Funkhouser, but he was just the catalyst that brought together the various reactants of losing friends and feeling like no one else cared about it. The hardest one to accept has been the loss of SSG Stevon Booker, a friend and fellow Tusker who was killed during the first Thunder Run into Baghdad on 5 April 2003. He was a combat proven veteran of Operation Desert Storm in the early nineties and knew his stuff. He cared deeply for his Soldiers and died trying to protect them. But, you won't find Booker's story on THN yet. I still can't write it, but one day I will. Earlier this year a building at Aberdeen Test Center was renamed after his memory. I write so that people don't forget people like Booker.

And when you read a quote like this one, you know it's from someone who knows what he's talking about, and means what he says: "I know [CJ] loves what he's doing," said Lt. Col. Kevin Arata, the Army's point man for social media issues, who has known Grisham's name for years. And "any time we lose someone of that caliber, there's a certain amount of loss for the Army." A different sort of loss - CJ is alive, if not fine - lose in that statement just means the bastards have ground him down - at least enough. For now.

"Blogging is no longer worth the trouble," Grisham recently wrote on his blog, A Soldier's Perspective, under the headline "ASP Closed for Business."

Wired magazine's Danger Room: "Not surprisingly, Grisham has finally decided to stop posting on his site. But be sure to read this story of how this soldier went from highly-praised veteran to pariah, because he spoke up on his blog."

WorldNet Daily: "Grisham's photo is overlaid with the headline: 'The Rise and Fall of a Military Blogger - Army Master Sgt. C.J. Grisham didn't mince words. His readers loved it. His command hated it.' Grisham is in a new kind of fight after taking down a squad of Iraqis when his counterintelligence detachment was pinned down in an ambush and earning a Bronze Star with 'V' after rushing through the gunfire by himself with just a 9mm pistol and a hand grenade."

"Even as the type of dominant news stories changed in 2008, 'durability,' a measure of the staying power for particular news stories, did not... For the military, this phenomenon is a challenge and an opportunity. Although coverage of ongoing conflicts may not persist, bad news stories seem to display less than traditional staying power... at least for the present, it seems less likely that a particular event of a less than positive nature will trigger a lasting scandal or backlash against the military, particularly in the fast-changing new media world."

Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell IV, U.S. Army, Lieutenant Colonel Shawn Stroud, U.S. Army, and Mr. Anton Menning: Fostering a Culture of Engagement, Military Review, September - October 2009

"During the invasion of Iraq, Grisham took down a squad of Iraqis when his counterintelligence detachment got pinned down in an ambush. He earned the Bronze Star with "V" after rushing through the gunfire by himself with just a 9mm pistol and a hand grenade."

Here's another story from the man who did that - and who saw his good friend SSG Stevon Booker die in front of him in Iraq:

There is nothing worse than when a Soldier is called upon to take the life of an innocent person. While the media and anti-war goons get a kick out of broadcasting how uncaring we are when innocents are killed, I think the fact is that anytime a Soldier realizes his actions contributed to the death of innocent people it kills that Soldier inside. Our purpose is to protect the innocent. We take great pains, many times at our own peril, to protect the innocent. But, sometimes, we have no choice. That doesn't make me feel any better about it, but I had no choice.

Such was the case on March 23, 2003. I had no choice. A member of Saddam's Fedayeen was providing covering fire for a mortar position. We had already killed the fighters manning the tube once, but they really wanted it. As fighters would approach the tube, we'd mow them down. The diner on the corner across the street from the tube no longer had any windows in it, leaving behind a 3-4 foot wall behind which Iraqis were hiding.

At one point, a Fedayeen fighter appeared behind the wall grasping an Iraqi woman by the neck. His AK-47 was resting on her right shoulder and he was firing at our position. There was no clear shot. Blood was pouring out of the woman's right ear as she screamed with each squeeze of the trigger by the fighter. She was a wearing dark, long sleeve traditional Iraqi dress that buttoned up to the neck.

This event took no longer than about 10 seconds from start to finish, but it felt like hours. I aimed straight for her chest, hoping to take her and the fighter out in one shot. As she fell to the ground, I squeezed another round at the now-exposed fighter who was also beginning to duck behind the wall. The force of impact forced him to fall backwards and I never saw either of them again.

Only their ghosts: "I see that woman often in my dreams and sometimes while I'm just sitting, minding my own business. I see her lifeless body fall to the ground in super-slow motion and the look of shock in the fighter's eyes as he probably realizes how exposed he now is without his flesh shield. His AK is still resting on her shoulder as she falls and before he can lift it, he is propelled backward as he himself falls victim to my aim."

CJ Grisham is a Soldier with PTSD. Not the imaginary sort of soldier CNN spent days explaining to America Nidal Hasan was after he slaughtered 14 people at Ft Hood (before they found out he had never deployed - then it became the imaginary sort of PTSD you catch from actual combat veterans). And he's not the sort of hypothetical Iraq veteran Fox News' Shepard Smith said the DHS had warned us about when a 90 year old WWII vet/Nazi killed a security guard at the Holocaust Museum. Those are just some of the stereotypes that really need to be put to rest.

CJ is the sort of Soldier who writes a post called "The Power of Seeking Help" that explains why he did just that:

One of the things I wanted to do was convince troops out there that it's okay to seek help. The Army has made a very public plea to troops to get help without worrying about their jobs. I promised to document this here and I plan to do so honestly and openly.

Let me start by saying that my unit completely pissed me off after my announcement. After reading my post, my higher headquarters undermined my efforts to seek personal help and performed a command referral citing ONLY what I had written and not my job performance, actions, or leadership ability. How can I tell Soldiers about the self-referral process when I'm now being FORCED into counseling?

It's important to understand what a command referral is since it's not always negative. A command referral forces the health care system to see me. Appointments must be timely and there are repercussions if the system doesn't do their part. Once that was explained to me, I calmed down a bit, but I didn't like the fact that now my unit would have access to some of my records. The Doc explained that they don't get specific information, even for a command referral. I was told the unit wanted to ensure that I got the help I needed as a basis for their decision. Great! So, why hasn't anyone in my chain called or emailed me in over six weeks since I began this process to see how I am doing?

Thankfully, I don't need their fake interest to get better. I'm doing this for ME and no one else. I need to get fixed because PTSD can be (and has been) destructive to me and those I care about, not because someone in the military told me to. So, while I ask the question about where they are, I really don't care.

Well, they were busy, of course:

Last summer Grisham got into hot water when someone complained to officials that he encouraged readers to vote against gun control measures, called for a wholesale changing of the guard in Congress and questioned Obama's truthfulness.
<...>
Not long after, Grisham was fired from his job as an intelligence company first sergeant at Redstone and punted to a garrison position. The firing also came not long after he announced on his radio show -- during an interview with Gen. Peter Chiarelli -- that he was wrestling with post-traumatic stress disorder and planned to seek help. During the show, Grisham said he wanted to lead from the front when it came to reducing the stigma of PTSD.

He had appeared on local TV, too. "The stigma is hereby dead," Grisham had written in his first post on the topic of his PTSD months earlier. "I challenge all leaders to understand this and apply it where they can. Our troops need to understand that there is nothing weak about seeking help. I know because it has been much harder to acknowledge these issues than to hide them."

"Not long after, Grisham was fired from his job" - maybe because he was wrong about the stigma of PTSD, maybe because he made the wrong people uncomfortable, or maybe both. Not knowing the truth of it could really set some people off, I suppose. But not CJ - he took his lumps and moved on.

To where something worse was waiting.

(More to follow. Meanwhile, see Milblogger and dear friend needs your help at Bouhammer's.)