Apparently hundreds of soldiers that suffered from shell shock were executed for cowardice.
the only reason I bring it up was because somebody asked what kind of psychological damage ww1 and 2 vets were coming home with compared to the soldiers in Iraq.
It was much worse.
The kind of trauma it would take to actually break your mind is unimaginable to me.
Was this somebody on T-Nation? It would help if you linked to another post.
As far a psych damage being worse - I don’t think that’s a fair thing to say. Different? Yes. Equal? Probably.
A person today with the instability shown in those videos is either going to be rooted out in our more formal and scientific basic training programs, or medevaced from the front lines way before they get to that level.
[quote]HoratioSandoval wrote:
Was this somebody on T-Nation? It would help if you linked to another post.
As far a psych damage being worse - I don’t think that’s a fair thing to say. Different? Yes. Equal? Probably.
[/quote]
It is hard to say, but the artillery and trench war was different from WWII and everything that came after that.
They had no control over their destiny whatsoever, it was like storming the Normandy beaches day after day after day.
At least for the soldiers WWI must have been the worst-
Yay for our governments fighting wars between each other by using our sons and daughters as fodder.
My grandfather was in the artillery in WWI. His diary,or whats left of it which I have reads like a history book. All his entries follow major points of the war( for Canada). All those pictures of the mud and shit…thats where he was for three years, as far as I know he was never injured…physically.
All he kept was his medals, nothing else to remind him of the war. My mother said he came back very mellow, and reserved…led a very quiet life as a salesman. No shell shock or anything that she noticed.Never got angry. Some people are wired for it and some are not. Who would understand back then anyway, your doctor?. Chin up old chap, that kind of thing.
[quote]Gregus wrote:
Yay for our governments fighting wars between each other by using our sons and daughters as fodder. [/quote]
X fucking million
[quote]LiftSmart wrote:
The kind of trauma it would take to actually break your mind is unimaginable to me.[/quote]
Minds can be remarkably fragile… you never know what the last straw will be.
I dated a detective in our police department… rape, murder, abuse, all day every day. He was able to leave that at work, but what screwed up his mind (or had the triggers to), were his loved ones and their roles in his life.
How absolutely unbearable it must be for anyone with PTSD. Not being able to escape the monsters in your mind even after you’ve left the field.
Unfucking believable, makes you sick to see that. Unfortunately peace is impossible so war is “necessary”.
I think one of the best quotes about people returning from war is from Jarhead:
Fitch: Swofford!
Swofford: Sir, yes, sir!
Fitch: You the maggot whose father served in Vietnam?
Swofford: Sir, yes, sir!..
Fitch: …He ever talk about it?
Swofford: Sir, only once, sir!
Fitch: Good! Then he wasn’t lying!