U.S. Army special operations forces prepare to give Iraqi army soldiers helicopter training on an airfield near Camp Korean Village, Iraq, May 30, 2009. The training, which teaches helicopter operations and methods to detain suspected insurgents, is part of an ongoing partnership between the Iraqi army and U.S. special operations forces. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Chad Trujillo 15 Months After Iraq Bloodbath, Young Veteran Takes His Life -- McClatchy News
On March 7, 2007, Army Spc. Trevor Hogue was inside his barracks in Baghdad, describing his morning on the battlefield.
"I saw things today that I think will mess me up for life," Hogue typed to his mother, Donna, as she sat at her computer thousands of miles away from Iraq, in Granite Bay.
That day the young soldier, whose assignment included driving a Humvee through perhaps the most dangerous ZIP code on the globe, saw his sergeant blown to pieces. He saw the bodies of half of the men in his platoon torn apart. Heads were cut off and limbs severed. It happened 30 yards in front of him, and he had never been so afraid, he told his mom.
"My arms are around you," Donna Hogue wrote. "You'll be alright."
But Hogue never really recovered. Last week, he committed suicide by hanging himself in the backyard of his childhood home. He was 24 years old.
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My Comment: My father fought for the Soviet Army during the Second World War. I can only imagine what he experienced, and what little that I do know (which he told to his war buddies when he was drunk and which I overheard) is enough to give anyone the shakes.
He carried the war with him until he passed away .... the nightmares, the post traumatic syndrome .... sighhhh .... I guess his war experiences even impacted me.
America will continue to have casualties from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for a very long time. The only thing that we can do is to always treat our veterans with the respect and special consideration that they so richly deserve.