Dealing with that fact that you may kill someone while in the Military

Perhaps you need to read up on the IDF before before you start telling me about combat. :unhappy:

Luigi59 said:
There will never be an honest, frank, and open discussion of this topic, it seems to frighten and bother some parents and candidates, hitting a little too close to home for some.

"Out of sight, out of mind" is not going to serve them in the future either.
Luigi - I am going to have to ask you to speak English here - I have no idea what you are getting at.

When you post cryptic messages - I am sure you know what you mean, some people may know what you mean but some of us who are trying to follow a thread feel like we are eavesdropping on a private conversation.

I think a good guideline for a public forum is to keep messages coherent.

Thanks.
 
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Luigi - I am going to have to ask you to speak English here - I have no idea what you are getting at.

When you post cryptic messages - I am sure you know what you mean, some people may know what you mean but some of us who are trying to follow a thread feel like we are eavesdropping on a private conversation.

I think a good guideline for a public forum is to keep messages coherent.

Thanks.

i think that he feels people are trying skirt around the real issue, which as i understood from his previous message is that soldiers, sailors and airman have a job to kill the enemy, and that every soldier, sailor and airman has to learn to cope with this reality or consider changing jobs. maybe i'm oversimplifying his position.

p.s. and the IDF is the israeli defense force. i guess he means he served his time in the IDF. and obviously, the IDF is constantly at war so he's had his experiences with death and such as a soldier, even if not here.
 
Luigi - I am going to have to ask you to speak English here - I have no idea what you are getting at.

When you post cryptic messages - I am sure you know what you mean, some people may know what you mean but some of us who are trying to follow a thread feel like we are eavesdropping on a private conversation.

I think a good guideline for a public forum is to keep messages coherent.

Thanks.

I will not continue to type logical, lucid, and totally conforming-to-the-forum-guidelines responses and have them removed because someone here is uncomfortable with the truth.

You are b**ching at the wrong person, I'm not deleting my own posts.
 
I will not continue to type logical, lucid, and totally conforming-to-the-forum-guidelines responses and have them removed because someone here is uncomfortable with the truth.

You are b**ching at the wrong person, I'm not deleting my own posts.

does this comment refer to the below comment that you posted the other day? If so then I guess what you are saying is that this forum will never allow an honest, frank and open discussion of this topic, for your stated reasons. I that a fair assessment? Also, the "out of sight, out of mind" comment refers to posts that you have made that were deleted - for whatever reason?

There will never be an honest, frank, and open discussion of this topic, it seems to frighten and bother some parents and candidates, hitting a little too close to home for some.

"Out of sight, out of mind" is not going to serve them in the future either.

Perhaps you need to read up on the IDF before before you start telling me about combat. :unhappy:

I am still lost here - what does the Israeli Defense Force (I assume this is to what you are referring) have to do with US troops in combat and Post Traumatic Stress disorder?
I admit to not being "all-knowing". Sorry for the ignorance.
 
Okay I am going to chime in, and I fully expect to be slammed or banned.

I get what LUIGI was saying.

His reference to IDF, a country where they have lived in a battle zone for years, even as a citizen...imagine you live in fear of riding Mass Transit, let's not even start the conversation of them dropping bombs on their neighbor quite frequently.

I also understand when he says we don't want to talk about the white elephant in the room Many or most of us will have children facing horrific situations soon due to the decision our children made. He is not wrong to say we need to be realistic.

I am sorry if anyone takes offense to what I will say now, but here I go:

I have kissed Bullet goodby knowing that he would be in a badlands area, way too many times than I care to remember. This life is not only difficult because you will move 15 times in 20 years, but you will spend many of those years scouring the TV and internet to find a tidbit of info about your loved one.

When we get to the bottom of this subject, there will be people who will have to live the rest of hteir life knowing they killed someone. Someone said, that is what makes us different, we did not go out and intentionally kill innocent people. This life is hard. IT IS ABOUT FOLLOWING ORDERS REGARDLESS OF YOUR OPINION. IT IS ABOUT BEING SENT AWAY FOR MOS. AT A TIME IN A MOMENTS NOTICE, IT IS ABOUT NEVER LIVING CLOSE TO HOME (BABIES BEING BORN WITHOUT A PARENT BEING THERE, LET ALONE FAMILY MEMBERS), IT IS ABOUT MOVING CONSTANTLY, IT IS ABOUT BALANCING ALL OF THESE THINGS WITH YOU PERSONALLY.

I believe too many people are wrapped up with the dream of being an officer and not realizing they are alot of other facets.

No military member wants to take another life, bbe it a military member or "collateral". They will have to deal with it, yet, in the end of the day Luigi was right, I think for many people this conversation was just too close to home.

I have been the spouse for @ 20 yrs., I have watched Bullet leave me for conflicts when my eldest was 6 mos. old for Gulf I and when my youngest was 4 mos old. for Haiti (we had 5 other deployments to the badlands besides these 2). Honestly, all we should do is support our love ones. They will have to live and deal with what they have done...in our family we have never discussed it, I know a little bit, but in the end I KNOW THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR HE DID IT WITH HONOR

Also remember that I know I have another 20 yrs of having to deal with this issue, since DS will be serving our nation.
 
His reference to IDF, a country where they have lived in a battle zone for years, even as a citizen...imagine you live in fear of riding Mass Transit, let's not even start the conversation of them dropping bombs on their neighbor quite frequently.

well, that's not what i got from his reference, but ok. maybe that's what he meant. toward the end, luigi was writing a bit like haiku- beautiful but brief, and each of us could take away something different :smile:

i totally agree with the elephant in the room though. in NJROTC, no one, to my knowledge, has ever mentioned this topic. it's not like it's taboo or anything. i feel like i could raise it with my LCDR, if i wanted- but no one does. :lock:
 
Would it affect me? Most definitely! As a Christian and a human, ending the life of another person is rather repulsive. However, there comes the notion that one is extracting justice or preventing the enemy from attacking Americans, allies, or innocents. Those ideas are how I would likely try to view any use of lethal force. I think that personally, it would become a balancing act between doing good for the "good guys" versus my angst in killing someone. To use the hypothetical: If I had Bin Laden in my sights, I doubt I would have much remorse over pulling the trigger/pushing the button. Theoretically, I don't have too much trouble with killing those who would do harm to my countrymen or innocent civilians. Is theory the same as reality? I don't know, because I have never faced such a situation.

I think that most cadets have thought about this to some extent. I know that some view eliminating the enemy as one of the primary missions of the military, and are perfectly willing to fullfil that role.
 
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