Wife: Iraq war changed Drum slaying suspect

[unhappycamper]

Wife: Iraq war changed Drum slaying suspect
By Mary Esch - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Dec 3, 2009 18:26:33 EST

ALBANY, N.Y. — Relatives say a Fort Drum soldier accused of stabbing his two Army buddies to death told them he saw his best friend “blown to pieces” in Iraq and came back a changed man: violent, sleepless, edgy and plagued by flashbacks.

Spc. Joshua Hunter, a military policeman, was expected to be arraigned in New York on second-degree murder charges Friday morning, three days after the bodies of Waide James, 20, and Diego Valbuena, 23, were found in their apartment just outside Fort Drum, about 140 miles northwest of Albany. Hunter and the two victims served in Iraq at the same time in the same battalion.

They all were based at the wind-swept Army post near the Canadian border, home of the much-deployed 10th Mountain Division, and shared an off-base apartment.

Hunter’s wife, Emily Hunter, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that her husband was outgoing before he went to war, but when he returned stateside, he was preoccupied by images of his friend being blown up.

“He saw his best friend get blown up to pieces and he tried to put him back together,” Emily Hunter said. “He was never right after that.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_army_drum_stabbings_120309/



unhappycamper comment: This sad tale will be repeated many times over the next 50 years.

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. This soldier's story will be repeated all too often.........