For most it isn't even pretending, as many wave those flags and claim some sort of superior patriotism to all that don't walk lockstep with them, they really don't care after soldiers come home and join our ranks of actual veterans who've served the nation! And most, a huge majority, have yet to call for their own sacrifice, a decade plus added to the previous decades and you most certainly won't hear any demand for, out of site out of mind, out of mind even if in site!
May 21, 2012 - I was sitting next to Melissa, a call responder at the VA Crisis Hotline in Canandaigua, N.Y., when she looked at me and whispered, ‘He just said he thinks he should walk out into traffic on Interstate 5 and end it all, that life is not worth living.’
On the other end of the line was a young man who’d been out of the Marines for four months. He was unemployed and broke and hadn’t eaten all day. He’d driven his father’s truck from the middle of the country to Southern California to be near Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and his buddies. But most of them were either overseas again or separated from the Marine Corps. He’d taken to drinking and occasionally smoking pot. After four years of military service and two combat tours in Iraq, he couldn’t find a steady job. Now he sat at a rest area near Camp Pendleton, contemplating suicide.
Melissa had about her the endearing charm of a kindergarten teacher coupled with the steely nerves of a nose tackle and the all-American looks of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty queen.
She smiled and nodded at her computer screen as she spoke to the young Marine. Her voice radiated goodness. Her screen indicated that he’d called twice earlier in the afternoon and had had brief conversations with two other responders.
“You’ll learn from reaching out and making this call. It’s a brave call.”
She IM’d a colleague on the crisis-hotline floor, a health technician, and told her that she thought this kid was in need of a rescue.
The tech had no idea where Interstate 5 and Camp Pendleton were. I told her Southern California, North County San Diego. I’d flown to Rochester from San Diego that morning.
“You have a long time to figure this out. You can’t figure it out in four months,” Melissa said to the young man. read more>>>
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