Saturday, May 10, 2008

Return to Sender - Iraq Veteran Gets the Call Again

The following are snippets from a letter in the SF Chronicle Open Forum (emphasis mine)

Colby Buzzell
Thursday, May 8, 2008

"When I voluntarily enlisted in the Army, I remember asking my recruiter about the fine print on the contract about being called back up to active duty once my enlistment was completed. He assured me not to worry, that every contract said that and it would only happen if "World War III" broke out."

"On way out of my building two weeks ago, I checked my mailbox and found a letter from the Department of the Army with "Important Document" printed in all caps on the middle. I immediately felt sick, so I went back to my room, locked the door, grabbed a beer from the fridge and stared out my window for a while. People outside were all wearing sunglasses and walking about enjoying the sun. I took a picture."

"Looking back, would I have joined the military if I were doing something that I loved? Or had a job that paid $100,000 a year? Probably not. Those are the men and women I feel that we need to mail these letters to. Let's see what happens when they receive letters telling them to put on a uniform and ship out immediately to the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Read the rest of his letter and get the link to where he blogs here.

1 comment:

Sean Cranley said...

Support the Troops?

Most Americans, I'm sure don't know about the deplorable way our troops are treated by OUR government. Yeah they heard about the Walter Reed hospital scandal and the current debacle regarding Fort Benning GA, brough to light by a disgusted Wisconsin Father.

But few know about the Army's practice of applying he false diagnosis on Personnality disorder to Troops comming back from Iraq and Afghanistan with traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) the signature injuries of the War on Terra.

You see Personnality Disorderis considered to be a pre-existing condition. Nevermind that these service personnel past their entrance examinations, boot camp and served honorably and without problems until they were injured.

If it's a "pre-existing" personnality disorder, then it's not covered by veteran's benefits, you're on your own and the Gov't is off the hook for the cost and can use the cash to go recruit a felon as is the current practice.

Support The troops my ass, $2 magnets on your Hummers bumper son;t count.