We like to think memories are good feelings. But to infantry soldiers they are endless nightmares with fear of combat reminders. This often comes from more than one tour, a strange name for violence and terrorism called war and its lingering aftermath that lasts a lifetime.
Dear Ones,
For most victims of combat, family and friends in bewilderment try to help with exclamations like: "Just forget it," Move on with your life" or "Get over it." Non-combatants have no conception of the trauma, the mental strain, loss of sleep and torture through nightmares night after night.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is just another military euphemism to lessen the blow of fear and guilt of killing another human beings. This is especially true when their parents and moral teaching command,"Thou shall not kill!" But militant training ingrains the mind with the opposite. For some men it leads to more killing in civilian life, with minds gone berserk.
All combat soldiers who experience active duty in war zones suffer some kind of disorder in the aftermath of war, an extension of aggression within themselves, many times subliminal, from being programmed for bloody battlefield duty. Often they withdraw from social activity, become silent with anger held within their souls from disabilities that make them feel different about themselves.
The hell of machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades make them paranoid, even throwing themselves on the ground, an automatic reaction when hearing a loud noise or explosion–even fireworks on the Fourth of July.
Infantry soldiers blame themselves for failure and the deaths of their buddies as they constantly are hyper-vigilant and emotionally numb. They often avoid situations reminding them of trauma they live through in a hell called war that causes diseases and brain damage.
Google helene smith mame historian of 50 books
founder of World Enlightened News (W.E.N.) blog of essays sometimes under Jingleheimer Smith
