How Curiosity Can Kill the Combat Vet
One of the things that my writing has allowed me to do is connect with people all over the country. Needless to say, a lot of them are Combat Vets.
Because most of us have never taken another human being's life, I think that a lot of us have a natural curiosity as to this phenomenon. So we are then, in turn, inclined to want to ask questions.
So how many people have you killed?
Good question? No. Rude question.
But I'm only curious...
Yeah. Me too. However, when you ask this question of a Combat Vet, you only open up a can of worms that doesn't need to be re-visited.
You see, when you ask this question, you are reminding the Combat Vet of things he (or she) would rather forget. Like the fact that these people that were killed by the Warrior had families and people that love them. Our Warriors feel guilt over this. Lots of it.
You also have to remember that although these Warriors are trained killers, they're also real people. They have feelings and emotions like everyone else. Although there may be a minority of them that have sociopathic tendencies, it's not the norm.
Largely, our nation's Warriors are Patriots.
They're not Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer. They're regular people like you and I. They wouldn't be randomly killing people on the streets. They're "killing machines" because it was THEIR JOB. They were good at war because if they weren't, they'd be dead.
They were FORCED to take someone's life.
One can argue that if you join the military, you run the risk of being put in that position. I agree. However, every time I get in the car, I'm also in a half ton killing machine. So are you. However, that doesn't cause you or me to stop driving, now does it?
Well, that's just silly not to drive.
It sure is. It's also "just silly" to not join the military because you may end up having to kill someone - especially if you are joining for Patriotic reasons.
Sure, there's always the risk that you may become a "trained killer". However, you are also running the risk of getting a great life experience, free education and a true brotherhood (or sisterhood) that lasts a lifetime. These are all very rewarding and life enriching reasons to join.
Back to the original point of this story though...
My friend Mark who is an Officer in the Air Force asked me to write this blog. Reason being is that as an Officer, he has the pleasure of counseling a lot of the men and women who are Combat Vets and this is THE NUMBER ONE question that is asked by Civilians that can make a Combat Vet lose his (or her) shit.
They don't want to remember.
They say curiousity killed the cat. It can also kill the Combat Vet. Asking these questions only brings up feelings of low self-esteem and guilt that many of our Combat Vets suffer from. These are the feelings that cause our Warriors to join "Club 22" and commit suicide. I think it's best to allow them to forget the things that they've killed for to not remember.
My name is Leilani. I live with a "trained killer" and to this day, I have no idea of how many confirmed kills he's got. I pray one day, he knows as much about it as I do. I pray he forgets.
