There’s now all this buzz about a possible (inevitable, some say) war with North Korea.
Another war? Another generation of U.S. soldiers killed, maimed, or deeply scarred psychologically, emotionally, spiritually?
I could relate the horrific statistics of suicide among military veterans under thirty. Instead, I’ll write about a friend I used to have, Jerry.
Jerry was a USMC Sergeant in Iraq. He had been right in the middle of the second battle of Fallujah, a brutal business of house-to-house combat.
I met Jerry at a local fishing tackle shop where he worked. He impressed me as a brilliant young man. And I wondered why he wasn’t pursuing a higher education and a lucrative career.
We became fishing buddies, and we talked. He explained that he didn’t think he was good enough to really go out into larger society. I knew then that he was afflicted by a little-known consequence of intense combat, now recognized as “moral injury,” a soul-deep sense of shame over having inflicted death. I would talk with Jerry about my own experiences in Vietnam, and my own sense of moral shame. These conversations seemed to help.
I can never forget the day I went into the tackle shop to see him and he wasn’t there. He had taken his own life.
Jerry’s story is not untypical among young combat vets. We know that; but are we thinking about that in this buildup to another war? Is there any way to prevent this?
Please, think and express yourself, loudly.
Tom Wright
Aztec
