The following is an excerpt from Ann Jones’ new book,They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return from America’s Wars—The Untold Story (Haymarket Books / Dispatch Books, 2013). Jones’ new book takes us on a powerful journey from the devastating moment an American soldier is first wounded in rural Afghanistan to his return home for recovery. This excerpt picks up at Ann Jones’ visit toCraig Hospital, a Level III Trauma Center atBagram Airforce Base in Afghanistan. Craig Hospital is often the first serious medical stop on the “medevac pathway” that sends critically wounded soldiers to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and the US for further extensive treatment.
Read excerpt at Alternet
Posted by The NON-Conformist
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Reblogged this on ROBIN POSTELL and commented:
This is one of the most important stories and one of the most under-reported, unfortunately. The number of suicides of veterans is staggering and has been on the rise after an 11-year war-without-end and repeated re-deployments. Multiple tours in volatile areas where the “enemy” looks like everyone else has changed the psyche of our soldiers, as war inevitably always has and will.
Why are we not taking care of our veterans? Why is the Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act for the most part ignored? Because, perhaps, you cannot sue the federal government? Telling soldiers lies to recruit them and never following through is an unholy example of how our society allows the slaughterhouse of the war machine to continue.