"Six Marines in the Picture"

[babylonsister]

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2019/05/a-poem-for-memorial-day.html

The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
5/27/2019
A Poem for Memorial Day
"Six Marines in the Picture"
by Cloy Richards

6 Marines
3 standing tall and proud in the foreground
3 crouching in the foreground
6 Marines posing in Fallujah, supposedly the "Graveyard of Americans"
6 young, strong men with battle hardened countenances
6 marines in great health posing with rifles, deep in enemy territory
How brave they look, how American.
They can go to any country in the world, kick ass and take pictures to show
the folks back home what their tax dollars are paying for.
That picture of my buddies and I, is forever in my mind, yet slightly changed

Private Perez was killed by a car bomber at a vehicle check point.
There's only 5 Marines in the picture now.

Sergeant Silva lost the use of his left leg after a rocket attack and now is
addicted to painkillers and booze.
There's only 4 Marines in the picture now.

Lance Corporal Dubois joined the Marines to help conquer his heroin addiction.
After 3 years clean and sober, he came home from Iraq a broken man,
and turned back to heroin.

He overdosed two months after we got back
There's only 3 Marines in the picture now.

Corporal Allen's stress and emotional problems got the better of him
and he started beating his wife and children.
2 years after Iraq he's in prison, without a family.
There's only 2 Marines in the picture now.

Private First Class Anderson got dishonorably discharged for drug use
5 months after we came home. Rather than turn to his family for help,
he wanders the streets of southern California, begging for money, food, work.

There's one Marine left in the picture now, and it's me.
Am I still alive?
I might be physically breathing, but I'm dying inside.
So really there aren't any Marines in that picture
and without those Marines it's just a picture of a shattered city
in a devastated country.

(This poem comes from Warrior Writers, a non-profit organization that teaches and gives space for veterans to write and create art about their experiences. You can donate here.)

[lastlib]

1. The greatest thing we can do for our dead and broken soldiers today.....

...is to RESOLVE not to create more of them. --- ---

[Scarsdale]

2. Amen.

Yet we have VP Pence addressing the graduating class at West Point telling them to EXPECT to fight in wars. The powers that be have already decided.

[Ferrets are Cool]

5. Wars created for profit

[Mc Mike]

3. In the Valley of Elah.

[gratuitous]

4. Now look at all we've won with the saber and the gun

Tell me is it worth it all?

[FailureToCommunicate]

7. +1

(still miss him)

[mommymarine2003]

6. My son came back broken from Iraq.

My Marine son's second deployment to Iraq took a terrible toll on him. I think having to live with being mortared almost daily when he was in Ramadi was the cause of his severe PTSD. His gunnery sergeant was killed by a mortar minutes after my son, Chris, said "good-bye, see you tomorrow". My son had so many close calls and was in crisis before he returned home, as he was in Communications and was actually able to call us quite often, even if we got the calls at 2 in the morning. He returned to Camp Pendleton and was soon discharged, but not before he found one of his buddies cutting himself in the shower. Soon after that that young Marine returned to his home in Texas and shot himself. It took almost 10 years for our son to return to a normal life, if that will ever be, which included about two years of not coming out of his bedroom except for food, one overdose, DUI's, and not wanting to live. We supported him every step of the way. So many others wound up on the streets, and many people told us to give up and kick him out of our house

Chris has two friends in prison now, though not from his group of Marines, although one was a Marine and one was Army. There are so many of these veterans with so many issues.

For an update, Chris got married to a beautiful, sweet girl in 2017, bought a home, has a good job, and is expecting his first child in November. My husband and I never thought we could be so fortunate, and we are thankful every day. Plus he still calls us on the phone, but usually just to have a "happy" chat.

[erronis]

11. Thank you for Chris's story, and thank you for standing by him.

It sounds like he and you are one example of fortunate outcomes. There are so many unfortunate ones.

All in the name of global hegemony and oil profits.

[mommymarine2003]

13. Thanks.

I am the daughter of a career Marine. My father was a fighter pilot in WWII. He also served in Korea and Vietnam. I am very anti-war and anti-gun. We did not want any of our kids to be in the military, but Chris felt he needed discipline in his life. Unfortunately, he joined the Marines right out of high school in 2001 and then 9-11 happened. I have to admit that he was hell for a long time, but we got him back.

[lillypaddle]

8. That hurts

so badly.

[democrank]

9. This is gut-wrenching.

I can barely hold back the tears.


(PEACE)

[pazzyanne]

10. I have felt this way since the Viet Nam War!

So many deaths and broken lives and for what?

[geardaddy]

12. That's powerful.

Thank you for posting.