When A Soldier Brings War Back Home

A May 30, 2011
This Memorial Day, we remember our fallen soldiers. Many have died in combat, but increasingly, for off-duty members of the National Guard and Army Reserves, soldiers are dying by their own hands. Nationally, the number of those who've committed suicide has nearly doubled from 80 in 2009 to 145 last year.

On the track team of Philadelphia's Thomas Edison High School, Jadira Angulo was fast. But not as fast as Ivan Lopez, her teammate.

"I was always right behind him; never catch up," she says. "One day I was weightlifting, and I just started looking at him and this attraction just came over me."

She flips through a scrapbook that records the couple's romance: prom, graduation, marriage and the birth of their first child, Maya.

In December 2007, Lopez deployed to Afghanistan. Sgt. Jose Matos says even there, his best friend kept running.

more
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/30/136692959/when-a-soldier-brings-war-back-home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl9ZkYViEIs

Sam Stone came home,
To his wife and family
After serving in the conflict overseas.
And the time that he served,
Had shattered all his nerves,
And left a little shrapnel in his knee.
But the morphine eased the pain,
And the grass grew round his brain,
And gave him all the confidence he lacked,
With a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back.

Chorus:
There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose.
Little pitchers have big ears,
Don't stop to count the years,
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.
Mmm....

Sam Stone's welcome home
Didn't last too long.
He went to work when he'd spent his last dime
And Sammy took to stealing
When he got that empty feeling
For a hundred dollar habit without overtime.
And the gold rolled through his veins
Like a thousand railroad trains,
And eased his mind in the hours that he chose,
While the kids ran around wearin' other peoples' clothes...

Repeat Chorus:

Sam Stone was alone
When he popped his last balloon
Climbing walls while sitting in a chair
Well, he played his last request
While the room smelled just like death
With an overdose hovering in the air
But life had lost its fun
And there was nothing to be done
But trade his house that he bought on the G. I. Bill
For a flag draped casket on a local heroes' hill.

Repeat Chorus

a porch full of vets from all over the country say the repreated deployments and complete outsourcing of the military have resulted in a major mind fuck for all returning troops- with few exceptions.
All were vets of at least one warzone deployment- several had seen 4 deployments to Nam,Panama,Gulf war One,Bosnia.
They say nothing compares to what these newest veterans are enduring...
and enduring.

to say what I feel...............

At least 2 stupid wars that have not made this country safer and so many of our youth dead for no reason