Re: Our Troops
Awols wouldn't surprise me. Odds are, there are awols and suicides occuring not because of stress on the battlefield, but from stress at home. There is an unfortunate problem with wives of soldiers who are deployed overseas who have a hard time being without their husbands and end up straying. It certainly does not happen to all married soldiers, but it happens to a lot of married soldiers. Dear John letters can cause a soldier to do some interesting things, from suicide to AWOL. I can't even say how many times I have seen soldiers go awol or kill themselves, and almost all of them occured because of trouble in their marriage. In Korea, a soldiers body would be found about every month or so. Sometimes overdose, sometimes hangings. In my unit in Ft Stewart I had finished PT and was walking out to my car. A soldier had gone out to his car and shot himself because his wife was unfaithful. We had another guy shoot his wife and himself in their car while driving down the highway. That was a mess, I can tell you. I either witnessed directly or learned of suicides in every unit I was stationed in. I personally was ravaged by the Dear John syndrome while deployed, but I chose the "get your crap out of my house" technique. Military life is very difficult, you have to have an exceptional spouse who can handle the pressures. Most married soldiers marry young, and they marry women who just want the perceived meal ticket the military provides. They are weak women, and when they are needed to support their man, they instead cheat. Imagine being in Iraq, dealing with the day to day pressure, and recieving a letter telling you that your wife has met someone else. It is debilitating. This is all stuff that is not discussed by the media or anyone else, and is unfortunate, because it is a real problem. Of course, my ramblings have little to do with the fuel convoy issue, just thought I would express something I am sure is going on over there. Okay, I'm done....
<br /><br />I will post Stephen's Email and picture here when I get it.
