Phillip, were you a POW in Nam? The men of that war were of my generation and I have the utmost respect for those who served, and especially for those suffered that fate and what it took for them to survive it.
A close friend of mine watched helplessly, from his position high up on a mountain top in Laos, as some of his friends far below were captured alive. He was very active in the MIA cause, because he knew those men were alive and he knew there were others too. God knows what those men suffered and some may still be suffering for all we know.
Yes, for those who went through that and made it back home, to say the experience changed them would be an understatement, but I'm not sure that continuum would be an apt description either. Maybe it is, if you lived it who would know better?
I guess to some degree mental wellness or unwellness is a sliding scale, but unless there is an abrupt change, there should still be some mental balance.
All I was trying to say is that Einar's scale of balance has waaaay slipped. He is a danger to himself and to the people around him. I was in no way trying to denigrate anyone in real life who may have had similar life experiences.
There are medications that can help with situations like Einar's, but he doesn't have access to that kind of help, and probably wouldn't want it if he did, but still my question is can he really come back from something like that? If one's brain chemistry is that far off can it recover?
colspt, I understood most of what you wrote NOW, in your first Post!
read that twice, if necessary.... no belittlement meant, or accepted from both posters in this thread, I welcome you HOME, and understand your position, Very Well... ;-/
Here is a do not reply question, for oneself to contemplate on:
What is a POW? No, not the usual sense... we all understand ~that~
Rather than focus on you, me, or even Einar, with tears in my eyes, I will again mention my friend (Now Resting in Peace)....
Sp/6 John Sharp, He was near your AO, flying inside the slow bird... RTO to B-52's.... $25,000 bounty on his head, or other crew members of Forward Observation Aircraft.
John died, a POW... in ~Florence Oregon~. When he took his own life, to end the war inside himself. I placed his (donated) Coffin Flag, over his door, per Regs. A Marine E-6 RVN, 65-66 & I Triangled it, 72 hours later. Later, I climbed aboard a Grey Hound Bus, destination: Washington DC, Viet Nam Memorial, to lay him to rest there.
His Bamboo Cage crafted much worse, than any an NVA/VC could craft. Einar escaped the Bamboo Cage built to hold him.
John never could. I was his Patient Advocate at Roseburg, Oregon VAMC.
Before that, I drove, his Cadillac to Roseburg, (many times), for his mental health Check In's. We left there one day, and his random comment, was..... from that part of his mind where the RTO ~lived~.... "I want to call in a B-52 Strike on that place"...
my reply was "let's get some distance from it, before you do" HE THEN SAID: "you don't understand, I will call the coordinates.... where I stand, in the center of that (profanity omitted) place....
John, like THOUSANDS of other troops, never really came home... ~whole~ I saw the regimen of Anti-Psychotics they gave him... to no avail, I was there when after being calmed down to a "level", he requested a three day stay in the rubber room, Section 8,
he understood, then, that he was a danger to himself, and others....
There are many POW's.... I do not think I am among them....
But I know a couple people who would argue that.... One, whom I entitle "SHE, who must not be named" was in her own way, a cruel to me.... as Bud is, to Einar....
But then, ~I know HER Life Story~ Like Bud Knows Einars.
Christ that was a very thoughtful ~Thank you~ what can I say, Brother, back at you, for this tremendous saga, of a man, His Mind & his LIFE.
for All: Last year, I re-watched the movie, "Brother Sun Sister Moon" filmed 1972, Italian Director.... It is on the Life of Francis of Assisi. AKA ~St. Francis~ although I believe (Bionically Speaking) that all who profess Jesus Christ as Lord & Savior are saints (read Paul's Epistle's)
I speak of this movie, because I feel it is The First MOVIE to deal with PTSD... Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
Phillip, were you a POW in Nam? The men of that war were of my generation and I have the utmost respect for those who served, and especially for those suffered that fate and what it took for them to survive it.
ReplyDeleteA close friend of mine watched helplessly, from his position high up on a mountain top in Laos, as some of his friends far below were captured alive. He was very active in the MIA cause, because he knew those men were alive and he knew there were others too. God knows what those men suffered and some may still be suffering for all we know.
Yes, for those who went through that and made it back home, to say the experience changed them would be an understatement, but I'm not sure that continuum would be an apt description either. Maybe it is, if you lived it who would know better?
I guess to some degree mental wellness or unwellness is a sliding scale, but unless there is an abrupt change, there should still be some mental balance.
All I was trying to say is that Einar's scale of balance has waaaay slipped. He is a danger to himself and to the people around him. I was in no way trying to denigrate anyone in real life who may have had similar life experiences.
There are medications that can help with situations like Einar's, but he doesn't have access to that kind of help, and probably wouldn't want it if he did, but still my question is can he really come back from something like that? If one's brain chemistry is that far off can it recover?
colspt, I understood most of what you wrote NOW, in your first Post!
ReplyDeleteread that twice, if necessary.... no belittlement meant, or accepted from both posters in this thread, I welcome you HOME, and understand your position, Very Well... ;-/
Here is a do not reply question, for oneself to contemplate on:
What is a POW? No, not the usual sense... we all understand ~that~
Rather than focus on you, me, or even Einar, with tears in my eyes, I will again mention my friend (Now Resting in Peace)....
Sp/6 John Sharp, He was near your AO, flying inside the slow bird... RTO to B-52's.... $25,000 bounty on his head, or other crew members of Forward Observation Aircraft.
John died, a POW... in ~Florence Oregon~. When he took his own life, to end the war inside himself. I placed his (donated) Coffin Flag, over his door, per Regs. A Marine E-6 RVN, 65-66 & I Triangled it, 72 hours later. Later, I climbed aboard a Grey Hound Bus, destination: Washington DC, Viet Nam Memorial, to lay him to rest there.
His Bamboo Cage crafted much worse, than any an NVA/VC could craft. Einar escaped the Bamboo Cage built to hold him.
John never could. I was his Patient Advocate at Roseburg, Oregon VAMC.
Before that, I drove, his Cadillac to Roseburg, (many times), for his mental health Check In's. We left there one day, and his random comment, was..... from that part of his mind where the RTO ~lived~.... "I want to call in a B-52 Strike on that place"...
my reply was "let's get some distance from it, before you do" HE THEN SAID: "you don't understand, I will call the coordinates.... where I stand, in the center of that (profanity omitted) place....
John, like THOUSANDS of other troops, never really came home... ~whole~ I saw the regimen of Anti-Psychotics they gave him... to no avail, I was there when after being calmed down to a "level", he requested a three day stay in the rubber room, Section 8,
he understood, then, that he was a danger to himself, and others....
There are many POW's.... I do not think I am among them....
But I know a couple people who would argue that.... One, whom I entitle "SHE, who must not be named" was in her own way, a cruel to me.... as Bud is, to Einar....
But then, ~I know HER Life Story~ Like Bud Knows Einars.
Christ that was a very thoughtful ~Thank you~ what can I say, Brother, back at you, for this tremendous saga, of a man, His Mind & his LIFE.
for All: Last year, I re-watched the movie, "Brother Sun Sister Moon" filmed 1972, Italian Director.... It is on the Life of Francis of Assisi. AKA ~St. Francis~ although I believe (Bionically Speaking) that all who profess Jesus Christ as Lord & Savior are saints (read Paul's Epistle's)
I speak of this movie, because I feel it is The First MOVIE to deal with PTSD... Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
Watch it, Please, see how GOD healed Francis.
Yours in Brotherhood,
philip