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I have a soldier son who has severe, chronic PTSD. I am someone who has had a heavy involvement in the past 2+ years with the DoD Mental Healthcare System, and I have a more than average knowledge of the topics covered within this report.
Nothing here is a surprise to me -- but don't get me wrong: I am and will remain eternally grateful that they are asking the questions and recommending corrections, even if my son will have left the service by the time any of the recommendations are implemented. However, anything that will improve the care and services available to our military and their families will help to strengthen our military and, therefor, our Nation.I strongly recommend that anyone interested in or affected by the mental health of our service members take the time to read the 100 pages of this report and the recommendations. It is a thorough and exhaustive look at the problems of the system... but the proof is in the puddin'. Given the breadth of these recommendations (each of which will cost $$$), it will be interesting to see just how committed to this DoD and Congress -- and the American public -- really are. As you will see from my comments and personal experiences noted in red below, none of the findings is a surprise to me.
The Significant findings and my comments over at Some Soldier's Mom. The PDF version of the full report HERE.
I want to hear some. Marines have strong arms, so we'll need to work at it with a will.
Seems like everyone wants to fight pirates.
'Course, some may have a bigger say in the matter than others.
Dr. Qasim's hospital upgrade, girl's school drive-by shooting, a bunch of dead Talib, and UN finger wagging - all found here.
I'm out here near Fort Lewis. Until now...we've been able to honor each fallen individually...as it should be.
May was a rough month. We can't have a individual ceremony for each of the fallen. It is not lowering for each that matters....it is to hear the bell toll that a sacrifice has been made.
In our small midwestern town a good man, a volunteer firefighter, died from an IED. Bill Bailey was his name. The fire department, and other spots in town, lowered their flag in mourning.
He was eulogized as a protector of his family, his community and his country. During the funeral service, his widow, Dee, was presented with her husband's military awards - a Combat Action Badge, a Meritorious Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Iraqi Campaign Medal, a Good Conduct Medal, the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.
He put himself at risk for a reason.
Let's honor that reason.
Get the picture here.
I think you've got a powerful point in there. Let's expand it a little; it's not just lowering the flag, it's publicly fetishizing every casualty announcement from DoD, only mentioning friendly deaths on the front page, only discussing the dead. The dead are dead for a reason, and the reason is the important thing. Not only that, for every unfortunate with a grieving family, for every loss or wound, there are many others who came back and succeeded. How many acts of heroism, of compassion, of sheer bullheaded effort and forbearance are ignored in the popular narrative? How many fools with failed lives and a shred of DD-214 get the press when the successful veteran family gets ignored?
That the sacrifices of the families with a warrior returned intact are ignored is an exact parallel with the account of post-Vietnam era memes in the book Stolen Valor, and every bit as pernicious and dangerous to the health of the country. This results in minimizing the loss of those who die in service to the country, because it's not only about the loss. It's about the why of the loss and the gift those families have made to us and our comrades-in-arms.
Until we change that fundamental concept, flag up/flag down/flag sideways--it's not going to matter as much. We need to properly respect the sacrifices in the context of the reason our comrades put themselves at risk. To remove context--and merely state deaths in isolation--robs our fallen comrades of the "why" for what they, and their families, gave us.
Time to play my role as Skunk at the Flag Day picnic.
USAToday had a bit about States lowering the Flag to honor the fallen, each individual fallen - every time. I go into more discussion at my home blog, but I would be interested in the general consensus here, because I really think this is too much public grief-mongering and not worthy of a serious nation at war. Just too much. It seems to trivialize and cheapen the greater sacrifice. A bad habit to make, because the day will come when this nation is in a major conflict where there will be dozens to hundreds killed each day. Do we want to be a nation where the flag is at half-mast for years on end? Is that a nation with a victory mindset, or am I just jaded, cold, and heartless?
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Original content copyright © 2006 by the respective authors
