So I'm part of this HBO documentary entitled Alive Day Memories in which the good folks at HBO, as well as James Gandolfini, try to bring some of our points of view to the blink box. This is so you as Americans and those of you around the rest of the world can have some inkling of what it is like to fight and die for something. It airs September 9th at 10:30 p.m. on the east coast of the USA. Wherever you are and whomever you may be affiliated with, it doesn't matter -- you should watch this documentary. I've seen it a few times and after the first time it burned into my memory. You'll want to show your friends, loved ones and associates because our perspectives on things are quite different from what is popular in the media.
Think of that for a second...popular in the media doesn't mean what is the truth but rather what people want to see over and over again. You don't see too many accounts of men and women in the field, or at least I have not. That may be because I sit and listen to these people talk and know they want to say more but cannot. From what I understand it's gotten worse since I left. They all must say the party line, that kind of thing. There are blogs and videos and all kinds of sites started by the soldiers, marines and sailors themselves, and you should look at them. But that's still the sanitized versions of their perspectives on reality. The news and the media don't give you truth no, they entertain and inform about things their viewers may want to know. However this documentary isn't what military men and women would talk about; the politics or the best way to shoot someone from 500 meters or how the navy is. No, we went and we all went because we had to go and then we got hurt and are now dumped back in the world. Our perspectives have changed. Mine has especially....
I went from being G.I. Jon to being a broken mess. Being a soldier is a job, true, but I had to come to that conclusion as I matured. Think about it this way. I went from being a high school student to a well-trained weapon from my country. To do something like that, to commit yourself to becoming that, you must believe in it with every fiber of your existence and become that which you aspire to. I did. Then I got hurt. It wasn't heroic, wasn't legendary, didn't save lives nor did I fall atop a pile of my slain enemies. No. I got killed by rolling over a bomb, laid there by cowards who knew they could not win in a stand-up fight with the U.S. military. When a soldier is taken out like that, when I was taken out like that, it broke me. Who I was, what I did, what my future was, and my self-worth were all put in this mirror of the mind. Everyone has it: the image of who you are in your head. Mine shattered that day almost three years ago. All the facets of who I was that were tied up to being a soldier were scattered around my mind, and the man I was lay broken, bleeding, screaming in rage and frustration at a universe so cruel as to deny him a proper warrior's death. But I lived, I survived, I have adapted and now I thrive. I am more than the sum of my parts, though I do require some assembly.
Being in the military for any length of time affects your perspective on things, then being forced to change your life as a result of a wound and then medically discharged from the military changes your views still more. I can honestly say I don't think like a soldier anymore. I still have the reflexes and skills of a soldier, and I hone them from time to time. Now I think like a businessman, a salesman, a statesman and, if you believe what my friends say about me, a Tyrant, with a capital T. I have new goals in life and a new outlook. Though I am still the bright and shiny optimist as ever to the bitter end of my life or to the end of days, whichever comes first. I believe I can change the world, make humanity mature just a bit and in the process, make enough money to get what I want...
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we have a duty to use you wisely.
i believe we have failed our part of the bargain!
d
This is Vietnam all over again. The chicken hawks and war profiteers and corrupt regimes have done it to us before.
The common thread I find is still a silver lining. Of all those I have met along the way, regardless of rank or prior social stature, the military is the last best hope we have to transfer the honor and idealism found there, into the society at large.
I maintain that it will be former soldiers and sailors and airmen that come to run our government as elected officials and we will be much better for it.
Take up the mantle Mr. Bartlett. Run for office. We need you now more than ever.
With your optimism and idealism intact, you are never a broken man. You are a SOLDIER. Nobody can ever take that away from you.
Non sibi.
To you and your generation who were some how not taught to think things through, to consider consequenc
You were taught to desire toys and gadgets and glory, but you were not taught their cost.
I can feel compassion for you, but I cannot thank you. It's a volunteer army, you made the choice.
I hope you teach your children better than you were taught.
I appreciate your general themes.
But my jaw dropped with your double-tal
For shame.
FOR SHAME!:-)
By the way, 4 points for actually typing For Shame Dude man ReasonIsMy
I'm still stuck on how an IED fatality is any warrior's idea of a warrior's death. To this here humble civilian, every IED death -- or injury -- is a symptom of ineffectiv
This nation is in your debt.
We aren't meant for this kind of pussyfooti
I hope and pray all our soldiers will come home soon, however, with this guy in office it's not going to happen very soon.
Its not a bad thing. I am a Tyrant. Most great men and women in history have been Tyrants in one form a fashion; they were master of their surroundin
Chickenhaw
Remember soldier-Ch
Sound familiar??
Get as much education as you can stand while you are young. This country needs producers.
At this point in your life, politics are probably meaningles
In the meantime, to everyone reading these blogs and comments, what do I get out this? As a past serviceper
I am glad you survived, and glad you are posting here on huffington
Perhaps you need to rethink what you were doing over there. You say you were bombed by cowards who knew they could not win in a stand-up fight. You had all the weapons and armor, they have almost nothing. It takes a lot of courage for them to stand up to the invaders when they are so outgunned. You have to admire the job they are doing. They are up against the United States military and are not backing down. The Iraqis didn't ask the United States to invade their country. They don't want to lose their country to us, and they are willing to die in large numbers to stop us. If anything the American soldiers except for you are the cowards because they are almost all afraid to speak to the American people about the truth of the situation. Shame on them. They are selling our country down the tubes by not being honest, and by letting themselves be used in a way that does nothing to protect America, just protect selected corporate interests and make America and the world a far more dangerous place. I look forward to discussing more truths with you here on huffington
It also appears that your experience
I don’t understand what you meant by being called a tyrant if you meant your friends now think of you as a traitor then you are in good company.
Consider it a badge of honor if one is called a traitor for opposing an illegal war based on greed and lies.
“laid there by cowards who knew they could not win in a stand-up fight with the U.S. military.” Cowards? Like trying to kick out foreign invaders that want to control your oil. This is strategy if we americans were invaded by a superior army then the best strategy would be to slowely bleed the foreign invader to death one soldier at a time.
The mere fact that the us army only guarded the oil ministry after we toppled the iraq governemnt says it all. You were fighting in a mercenary army for a corrupt us government jonathan. I almost did in vietnam until I went to the local library and did some reseearch and found that war to be an illegal war based on lies and false pretensess
Thank you for your service to our country.
Don't ever lose your optimism. Don't let anyone take away the part of you that remains a "warrior." Don't ever stand down from the good fight.
If there was ever a time that our country needs people like you to roll up your sleeves and continue the fight, it is now. People like you are a gift to this country.
It sounds like you are close to finding purpose behind your circumstan
That is the nature of asymmetric
While I thank you for your national service, and sincerely regret your injury, when your own friends describe you as a "Tyrant with a capital 'T'", you sound like in the process of gaining "maturity,
Im not bashing their style of warfare. Ok? I realize the tactical implicatio
we are not all as blackheart
do what you can brother.