Drinking. Brawling. Hurting.

[unhappycamper]

Drinking. Brawling. Hurting.
By Sarah Stillman
Sunday, September 2, 2007; B01


The wounds on my friend Pete Yazgier's head come in as many colors as Cezanne's fruit bowls.

Cherry-hued flecks dot the left half of his skull -- grim mementos of the rocket-propelled grenade that walloped his armored vehicle in Baghdad last September. A bright scar bends like a stalk of rhubarb above his left ear, the result of six surgeries to treat the brain cancer doctors found while ministering to his shrapnel wounds; they fear the tumor was caused by depleted uranium that Pete, 28, handled as an Army mechanic.

And now, a plum-like bulge on his upper right jaw ripens before my eyes. This, oddly enough, is the one that really scares me: It's the aftermath of a Marine's clenched fist that hurled into Pete's face just moments ago.

~snip~

Lame invectives turn to blows. Soused onlookers hustle to their buddies' defense. Only when a huge bouncer enters the fray do flying fists cease and desist -- Marines head for the front exit, Army guys to the bar. As I search for ice to press against Pete's busted cheek, the cops appear, looking downright bored by the redundancy of the mayhem.

Yes, sir, it's another Friday night at R.J. Bentley's Filling Station, a cozy bar in College Park, where wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center come to fuel up on Coronas, honky-tonk dance and the "Rocky"-style pummelings I've seen on half a dozen visits this summer.

Venture here around dinnertime, and you'll find University of Maryland professors eating fettuccine with their kids. But stay until the floors start getting sticky -- say, around 11 p.m. -- and it's a different world altogether: a chance to brush up against college football hunks and thin girls in slinky tube tops, and also, perhaps, to witness some of the raw consequences of two faraway wars brought home.


Rest of article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/31/AR2007083101395_pf.html

[ewoden]

1. I'd tell you about my son

He went back for another tour. Shattered mentally by survivor's guilt. peppered with bits of shrapnel consisting of hummer steel and GI bone. He's been searching for closure over there. It was three months before I got a letter from him this time around. I'm not sure if he'll come home.

[Mojorabbit]

2. Wishing

for the best for both of you.
:hug:

[unhappycamper]

3. I'm very sorry to hear that.

Have you joined any support groups? I know a number of Mothers have joined MFSO, and it satisfies their need to talk with other Moms and Dads in the same boat.

Here's hoping he finds the closure he's looking for AND comes back in one piece.

[jody]

4. I grieve with you and for all the men and women destroyed mentally and physically in Bush's

unjustified war.

I went to the Vietnam Wall just once to see the names of my comrades. I'm not sure I have the courage to do that again.

The troops scarred by Vietnam and still living haunt me and we have tens of thousands more added to their ranks from Iraq and Afghanistan.

When will we put an end to war?