Another troubled U.S. soldier

[babylonsister]

http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1180672069707&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1112101662670

Another troubled U.S. soldier
Combat horrors in Afghanistan left Jamie Dean angry and withdrawn and eventually led to his death
By Dan Barry
New York Times News Service

snip//

Things got better, it seemed. Jamie returned to air-conditioning work. He donned a white tuxedo and married Muriel in a summer ceremony at the Elks Lodge. He sang some country-western karaoke and talked about getting his wife to go deer hunting.

A few days after Thanksgiving, a FedEx truck delivered an envelope to the Dean farm just as Jamie was about to go hunting. It was a form letter of redeployment, as impersonal as a bank statement.

"It was downhill after that," Muriel says.

He withdrew from the present, it seemed. He drank more and took his medication less. Finally, on Christmas Day, he and Muriel returned from a family gathering with plans to watch his favourite football team, the Dallas Cowboys, on TV. He went out to buy some beer -- but went to Toots Bar instead.

She called him, and he came home, livid. He smashed some glasses, said something about winding up in a body bag, and sped away in his Silverado. He wound up at the family home, alone, talking on a cellphone with his sister, Kelly, saying things like: "I just can't do it anymore."

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[bliss_eternal]

1. (((sigh)))

I wish I could personally smuggle them all to Canada, if it would help. I doubt they would even be safe there.