Hunt Talk Salute To Those Who Gave All.

Sytes

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Memorial Day is our Nation's dedicated day to remember those who gave all for our country. Each year, pics are placed on HT. Repeated with pride and a moment of reflection. We may, "celebrate" this day in our own fashion and to each his/her own. If family and friends gather, a great opportunity to share with the young ones the importance of this dedicated day.

Coors, good ole "Banquet beer", was my Uncle's preferred beverage. This weekend, I'll pop a cold one and nod a somber yet proud appreciation to you and all your brethren who rest with you.

Uncle.jpg


 
Freedom is not free !

I want to thank all the men and women who paid the ultimate price for our freedom, as well as those who returned home, but with injures to mind and body. Thank you

I also want to take this opportunity to thank ALL the men and women who have served and ALL the men and women who are currently serving. Thank you

World War II, Korea, Vietnam were the wars that took family members from us. We still have family serving, but thank god no losses for our family during the Gulf/Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts

Sytes: Sometime today my son and daughter will play the song Ragged Old Flag/Johhny Cash when the family is gathered together
 
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Something to keep in mind about PTSD. The Battle of Antietam during the Civil War yielded slightly more American casualties than the entire War of Afghanistan (24,000 dead, wounded, and missing). Antietam comprised about a half day of conflict. Afghanistan has been going on for twenty years (imagine if the Civil War had gone on for twenty years ... black slaves and Indians might have been the only ones left standing!). The bulk of casualties at Antietam were from hand to hand combat. Very few US casualties in Afghanistan involved hand to hand combat. Most have been IEDs or rockets. Probably a third of Antietam wounded didn't survive very long due to unsanitary conditions, and most who did survive were terribly disfigured for life, often from amputations without anesthesia. Imagine what that did to their minds! Unlike Afghanistan, soldiers in the Civil War went from one battlefield to the next year after year. Day after day soldiers endured unimaginable terror and horror. Screaming men and horses, artillery barrages, cavalry charges (very scary!), deadly diseases, etc., etc. Is it any wonder that the country was so screwed up with violence through the second half of the nineteenth century? Indian massacres, random lynching of blacks, gang violence in the big cities, labour violence, vigilantes running amok, etc. I mean, at the end of the Civil War who DIDN'T have PTSD? Similarly, one only needs to look at the casualty lists and kind of warfare the masses endured in Europe during the Great War for a contextual explanation for what happened to the Continent twenty years later. The subhuman thugs who dragged the world into a second great war were supported by a populace wracked with WWI PTSD. I live with PTSD. It will probably always be with me. I have learned to cope. Well, I think so anyway. But I can't imagine living with the ghosts of the Battle of Stalingrad or Gallipoli or the Somme or Auchwitz or the occupation of the Netherlands or the Rape of Nanking or the destruction of Warsaw or the Soviet engineered Ukranian Famine or Stalin's purges. This and so much more ... in the space of a little more than twenty years. We are still dealing with the consequences of that PTSD pandemic.
 
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Less than 5% of our population serves or served. To those who made or make that choice, I offer my deepest gratitude. I did not serve. What I know about the valor, damage and loss among veterans was taught to me by the men and women I had the privilege of treating during my years @ the VA clinic in CO Springs. Many of them were in for help w PTSD alone or in combination with medical illnesses and injuries. For years among service men and women and veterans, PTSD was considered taboo, like military sexual trauma. Many veterans denied it when I told them PTSD is what they were facing. PTSD is the primary cause of the ongoing high suicide rate among veterans. If you know a veteran who is struggling, encourage them to reach out for help. If VA help is not a good fit, there are Tricare, community and vet-to-vet services in many communities across America. Support "those who have borne the battle," every day. Their sacrifice is not limited to a long weekend in May.

 
Thank you to all our hero’s!
 

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