How Has Serving Affected You?

The Army decided to celebrate memorial day by asking people how serving the military has affected them. The backlash was pretty bad honestly. Stories of pain, PTSD, death, war crimes, and a general malaise flooded in. One man even reported owing money on a ROTCscholarship he received in 1992. A debt that he had to pay back because he came out as gay. Another posted a picture of his sister laying face down on her husbands grave. Others still reported birth defects from their father’s being exposed to agent orange in Vietnam. Some talked about the quiet trauma of those who went through Korea. I’m sure we would have gotten WWII stories if older people with parents of that generation were on Twitter. One man was comical when he said, “I joined for college and now I’m afraid of fireworks.” Others reported their difficulties with the VA or with getting treatment from the aftermath of war.

The Army thanks everyone for the stories and wished everyone well when dealing with the affectsof War.

The Human Cost

It is easy to talk about the civilian cost of warin the countries where we attack. Women, children, and troops of other countries die. The news reports the latest body count and we all move on. However, very little has been made of the very real human cost right here on our own shores. These long wars have gone for most of the 21st…