Forget the War? Many Can't - Herbert

[rndmprsn]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/04/opinion/04herbert.html

this article brought tears to my eyes...

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Specialist Fourth Class Hugo Luis Gonzalez knows that he will never be the same. He can barely see now. The sight in his right eye is completely gone, and he sees only faintly with the left. The damage from the head wound he suffered plays games with his moods, and there are glitches in the tape of his memory.

We got ambushed," he said softly. "I have to say I was very, very, very blessed that night. The angel of death put his cloud over my body. But I am alive."

Specialist Gonzalez is one of many thousands of American troops who have suffered disabling wounds in Iraq. Their harrowing ordeals do not get much attention. For most Americans, these troops - many of them armless or legless, or paralyzed, or horribly burned - are out of sight and way out of mind. Jennifer Aniston's marital woes are viewed as a much more compelling story...

...I interviewed Specialist Gonzalez on Tuesday in the quiet, air-conditioned offices of Disabled American Veterans, which is helping to prepare him for the transition to civilian life. He sat rigidly on the edge of a sofa, his left hand clinging to the knee of his wife, Any, who is 27. They were married last February.

"She has to be my eyes now," he said.

I asked Specialist Gonzalez if he had ever become depressed during his ordeal. "Yes, I did, sir," he said. "Actually, I've been getting more depressed lately than in the beginning."

[Inland]

1. Maybe if he took a relaxing month off at his ranch, he'd forget.

Works for some.

[roscoeroscoe]

2. thank you bob herbert,

our buddies who've been injured so badly have dealt with such pain and confusion. to go in an instant from a super-soldier self image to being helpless, broken. one guy wrote me about how painful it was that his wife had to help him go to the bathroom. and he's in the same thing: lucky he survived, shock and pain at the reality of his vulnerability.
our guys don't deserve this.