Waiting for the wave

I just got through reading another story about Post-traumatic stress disorder. This one was about how homeless advocates are awaiting the next wave of homeless vets. "It's just a trickle now but the wave is coming," said one.

I've written other posts about this idea of servicemembers as victims. I read these stories all the time about the poor, victims of this war. There have been in the neighborhood of a half-million people deployed to the theater, more if you include Afghanistan.

Why can't the people who came home and continued on with their lives without a lot of drama be featured in a newspaper or magazine article? There are way more of us than there are of the PTSD sufferers. I had a little trouble when I came back adjusting to a "normal," civilian style life again. I jumped a bit at sudden noises, a pile of junk on the side of the highway made me break into a cold sweat and had my heart racing for a while. The biggest adjustment was just working myself up to care about anything at work that wasn't life or death. "You want me to care about this spreadsheet?" It didn't seem to matter after going on and sending Soldiers out on convoys for a year.

I wasn't a direct combat troop, so my experience can't be compared to someone who was. And I'm not saying that there aren't men and women out there who have real problems. There are and they need to be taken care of and their stories need to be told. But there are many, many more support troops than there are combat arms troops. Most of us come home and get on with life. Where are our stories?

All I'm saying is if you don't know any Soldiers, and your only knowledge of this war comes from media coverage; you are getting a very distorted picture of the situation.

When I look at coverage of the war, my impression is that all the troops over there are under a constant barrage of mortar and sniper fire, that every platoon loses three or four soldiers during their tour, and that every Soldier comes back either wounded or mentally screwed up for life.

Believe me, that's not the case.

I also keep reading about Reservists on their third or fourth tours in Iraq. I'm an Active Guard and Reserve Soldier. That means I'm on Active Duty but I support a Reserve unit. I know for a fact that very, very few Reserve Soldiers have done more than one involuntary tour in Iraq. That may change, but I'll tell you that the unit I deployed with in 2003/04 has not returned again and none of the Soldiers in that unit have been involuntarily sent back. The unit I am currently assigned to was deployed during the same time and none of the Soldiers have been involuntarily sent back. I know Soldiers from all across the country and the situation is the same.

Many, many Reservists have gone back for second and third tours voluntarily, but that's their decision.

I hate to say it but I get the impression that there are people out there who can't wait for the "wave" of homeless vets to hit the streets.