• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Is it possible to come back from war perfectly sane?

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Synbios459

Banned
Last night there was a big get-to-gether for war veterans and I didn't listen but I'm sure they have some pretty interesting storys. Anywhoo, I got to thinking if its possible for someone who has been in war to be perfectly sane without any anxiety, emotional stress, etc.?
 
i would question whether it's possible for a sane person to go to war in the first place.
 
Scrow said:
i would question whether it's possible for a sane person to go to war in the first place.
Click to expand...

This is probably the most true statement.

Synbios459 said:
Last night there was a big get-to-gether for war veterans and I didn't
listen but I'm sure they have some pretty interesting storys. Anywhoo, I got to thinking if its possible for someone who has been in war to be perfectly sane without any anxiety, emotional stress, etc.?
Click to expand...

No, and I know I'm different from when I got here. I'm not in front line combat but war is war is war. The lifestyle here changes you and while you may be perfectly normal for a combat environment making the adjustment back to normal life can be troublesome. I know when I was home for R&R I had trouble getting used to the silence.

To survive out here you have to adapt a different mindset. I mean we had a guy who just got here about 4 days ago blow his head off. He wasn't even a grunt. It was just the stress of simply being here that took him over the edge and we all have to cope with that. So I don't think you come back as you were. You normalize after time but you still have to cope.
 
Synbios459 said:
Last night there was a big get-to-gether for war veterans and I didn't listen but I'm sure they have some pretty interesting storys. Anywhoo, I got to thinking if its possible for someone who has been in war to be perfectly sane without any anxiety, emotional stress, etc.?
Click to expand...

Depends on what you mean. There are plenty of people who are combat vets who lead normal productive lives after returning. That doesn't mean that it didn't impact them mentally, emotionally, or change their personality.
 
I doubt it. Being put under a high pressure situation 24/7 for 6 months or whatever the average tour of duty is now would scar the sanest of individuals.
 
I don't know anyone who's come back from any war and been the same they were before they left. My best friend from high school got stop-lossed for 13 months past when his contract was up and is redeploying in December, and when he got back after the first year he was in theater, he said he couldn't drive at night without wanting his gun and getting nervous, cuz in iraq they had him driving the APCs and getting hit with IEDs. Said he couldn't stay calm stateside at night cuz he'd see a broken down car and get nervous as fuck, thinking "this is it."

Beyond just that, his best buddy was in his company but different platoon. The entire platoon got destroyed by an IED when he was over there. His words: "There's nothing worse than having to pick up what's left of your best friend and put them into a grabage bag."

Shit, even my grandpa fought in Korea and had to follow the infantry around picking up their shit. He said the worst thing he ever had to do was pick up bodies of people he knew who just died cuz they froze to death. (The old man saw some shit... he was there for 3 years... from the initial invasion, up to the yangtze river, then got pushed back by the chinese, and didn't leave til they started to advance again against the chinese.)

I only say these stories because it's important to know that just cuz somebody doesn't get touched by battle, they do come back with some severe problems to cope with that make it so that they'll never be the same. The movie coming out in november called Jarhead will expound on this quite a bit.
 
My dad served two tours of duty as a frontline combat medic in Vietnam, and he's quite sane. Well, outside of being staunchly Republican/Libertarian, but he was that pre-Vietnam as well.

He apparently has the occasional nightmare, and he picked up a kinda grim sense of humor about things, but everyone who's known him says he didn't change all that much despite having to pick up the limbs of his buddies every time a hut got blasted. Hell, he came back and spent the rest of his life working as a paramedic/fireman, so apparently the gore didn't faze him much.
 
Drinky Crow said:
My dad served two tours of duty as a frontline combat medic in Vietnam, and he's quite sane. Well, outside of being staunchly Republican/Libertarian, but he was that pre-Vietnam as well.

He apparently has the occasional nightmare, and he picked up a kinda gim sense of humor about things, but everyone who's known him says he didn't change all that much despite having to pick up the limbs of his buddies every time a hut got blasted.
Click to expand...


damn. that had to be pretty intense. =O
 
Scrow said:
i would question whether it's possible for a sane person to go to war in the first place.
Click to expand...


You would be questioning humanity and our development up to this point because its war (and meat) that shaped mankind into what it is today.
 
Well, it's kinda morbidly amusing having an old man who, when you come to him with a skinned knee or a busted finger, will say "I've seen far worse than that" and you don't even REMOTELY doubt him. He's sometimes mentioned that being a fireman is worse, just because the bodies of burnt babies are far harder to bear than the broken remains of soldiers. War is a kind of warped justice that punishes both sides somewhat equally, I suspect he feels; but dead kids are simply and brutally UNFAIR.
 
My best friend who is a Predator pilot has been over to Iraq and Kuwait twice since 2003 and he appears to have returned with his sanity intact both times. This may be due to the fact that he's in the Air Force, far removed from the battle field, as opposed to members of the Army and Marines.

My cousin was a sniper during Desert Storm, however, and it really messed him up, he has many a rough night trying to fall asleep, according to his wife.
 
It's quite possible for a sane man to go to war. My dad signed up because the alternative was one of his family getting drafted instead. It was a very noble and honorable gesture, and I respect him immensely for it. He signed up for a second tour because they promised him three months in Australia and college money, and I think he really felt he made a different on the front lines. He was level-headed in combat, had a shitload of field skills including a helicopter pilot's license and loads of survival training, and saved a ton of lives.
 
distantmantra said:
My best friend who is a Predator pilot has been over to Iraq and Kuwait twice since 2003 and he appears to have returned with his sanity intact both times. This may be due to the fact that he's in the Air Force, far removed from the battle field, as opposed to members of the Army and Marines.

My cousin was a sniper during Desert Storm, however, and it really messed him up, he has many a rough night trying to fall asleep, according to his wife.
Click to expand...
1) Well, don't be mistaken. The Air Force has it pretty bad. A guy my dad knows was in the reserves and went over there, said the ride over was a big joke. Then he said 30 minutse before they touched down, a Major got on the horn and told everyone to buckle down and get ready, and once they touched down they ran as fast as they could to cover. What the insurgents were doing, it turned out, was waiting til the AF guys would step out of the plane, and they'd shoot their guns almost parallel to the ground, so it'd bounce off and blow out their shins. Sure enough, teh guy said when the plane touched down, they were under mortar and small arms fire immediately.

2) You gotta have your head screwed on TIGHT to be a sniper. Every kill is incredibly personal, cuz you're seeing the person, looking into their eyes, before you pull the trigger.
 
Scrow said:
i would question whether it's possible for a sane person to go to war in the first place.
Click to expand...

Go smoke another joint, ya damn hippie! :D
 
whytemyke said:
2) You gotta have your head screwed on TIGHT to be a sniper. Every kill is incredibly personal, cuz you're seeing the person, looking into their eyes, before you pull the trigger.
Click to expand...

It wasn't the killing that got to him, I've talked with him at length about that, and he's really alright with all of that, much to my amazement. It was more the chemical weapons that he was exposed to that have left him with serious problems.
 
distantmantra said:
It wasn't the killing that got to him, I've talked with him at length about that, and he's really alright with all of that, much to my amazement. It was more the chemical weapons that he was exposed to that have left him with serious problems.
Click to expand...
Gulf War Syndrome? Is he a Genome Soldier? :)

Sorry. That shit sucks though.
 
ChrisReid said:
I don't think it's even possible to come back from Walmart perfectly sane.
Click to expand...

yeah, but dude, catch this: is it even possible to go to Wal-Mart sane? Fuck, let that swirl around in your head for a little while, then come back with a response.
 
All the veterans I've met seemed sane. But then again they were all about 80 years old, so it was kinda hard to tell sometimes.
 
Uncle said:
All the veterans I've met seemed sane. But then again they were all about 80 years old, so it was kinda hard to tell sometimes.
Click to expand...

gafav2.gif
 
My chemistry teacher back in highschool told us a story about his dad who was a sniper during WWII.

He said his dad was in lying down in a huge mudfield and there was another guy there with him (apparently they travelled in pairs or something).. and the guy was talking to his dad about his kids back and home and all that, and all of a sudden the guy starts screaming and crying and breaking down, so his dad stabbed him in the chest and killed him before his cover was blown...

It was the most intense story I'd ever heard... :/ I guess it was normal to see guys break down completely out in the battlefield?
 
I'm sure it all depends on what your experiences are, what you see and what you don't see. But I'm sure any soldier would tell you it changes them in one way or another.

Beyond just that, his best buddy was in his company but different platoon. The entire platoon got destroyed by an IED when he was over there. His words: "There's nothing worse than having to pick up what's left of your best friend and put them into a grabage bag."
Click to expand...
Jesus.

:(
 
YakiSOBA said:
My chemistry teacher back in highschool told us a story about his dad who was a sniper during WWII.

He said his dad was in lying down in a huge mudfield and there was another guy there with him (apparently they travelled in pairs or something).. and the guy was talking to his dad about his kids back and home and all that, and all of a sudden the guy starts screaming and crying and breaking down, so his dad stabbed him in the chest and killed him before his cover was blown...

It was the most intense story I'd ever heard... :/ I guess it was normal to see guys break down completely out in the battlefield?
Click to expand...

Holy fuck, that would make anyone go crazy
 
Scrow said:
i would question whether it's possible for a sane person to go to war in the first place.
Click to expand...

Yes and no. While the draft was in place, nobody really had a choice in the matter unless they were well connected, openly opposed to war and illegally avoided it, or complete pussies.

These days, the issue is much more complicated. I'm sure a good amount of people who voluntarily enlist do so out of genuine patriotism and feel compelled to fight for our country, no matter where they may be sent. That comes from upbringing. There's a nice article in the New York Times today about how kids from San Antonio are raised to have an almost gushing respect for the military, so recruiting isn't nearly as difficult there as it may be in, say, New York or San Francisco.

But whatever the place or time, there's also going to be some who sign up for sheer want of revenge, or worse, just the ability to kill people without repercussions. I don't know much about the military, but I can only assume that they're weeded out. At least, most of them.

Coming back is a different matter. War is hell. Cliche? Yes. True? Also yes. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is common, but it's not something that usually pushes people over the edge of sanity. Most deal with it well, the ones who don't are usually the ones who make the news. You don't go through any aspect of the military - from basic training to actual combat - and come out the same way you went in.
 
Yes, I would say it is because thousands upon thousands do it all the time. Now to say war wouldn't change them is bullshit, but it doesn't necessarily take their sanity. They aren't insane just because they think a broken down car in Pennsylvania might be an IED, hell a lot of people have never been mugged by a black person, but are still afraid when they go through a predominantly black neighborhood.
 
My father Rip saw his best friend blown to pieces in vietnam. Always remembered the smell of burning flesh, coulsn't watch horror movies and drank himself to death. Possible for some, but not possible for him. His friend reached for a shiny knife that was connected to a landmine, he told him no but it was too late.
 
>>>"It's just one big fire, and we're there to put it out," said Mr. Ecklund, who also persuaded his best friend, Arlyn Hales, 19, to sign up. "We're there to prevent terrorism from coming over here."<<<

What a dumbfuck. No wonder he failed the aptitude test so many times.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

  • Poll
Back to the Future is a perfect movie
Opinion  2
85
595
efyu_lemonardo replied
Perfectly Portrayals
49
135
pachura replied
  • Locked
Is GAF back?
10
367
analog_future replied
My little nephew thinks the Christmas gift from me is from his grandma. Is it petty of me to want to make sure this is cleared up?
43
519
reinking replied
Whose back to work??
44
618
Tomorrow replied
Top Bottom