Every Action Has a Reaction

Every action has a reaction. Or so they say. For example.....an eighteen year old goes to a war. He's a combat infantryman. He witnesses brutality and death beyond anything he could ever imagine. He takes part because there would be hell to pay if he refused. After a while the brutality becomes common place. The eighteen year old turns nineteen and compartmentalizes his feelings while violating most of his moral beliefs. He believes he's only responsible for having the back of the Marines in his platoon and company. By any means necessary. By the time he goes home he's numb and lacks the empathy he once had before enlisting.

Upon return to stateside Marine life the grunt determines he won't take part in training others to do as he did and he won't play the Marine game anymore. For over a year he fights the Corps. He's sent to brigs and jails and upon return to his unit continues to fight against the Corps. After 13 months in a combat zone he's discovered the war against the Marines is just as tough. They threaten him, jail him and try to bully him. He doesn't care. One time they had him see a mental health professional. He spends 15 minutes with him. They say he's not crazy. They finally discharge him with a less than honorable discharge.

Going forward the grunt becomes an activist with other veterans. He meets his wife. He has two sons. His second son cries a lot during the night. It wakes the grunt from his nightmare. He runs into the room to quiet the son. He's flashing back to a baby killed in a bunker that had cried right before a frag was thrown into the confined area. He holds his hand over the baby son to quiet him.

The grunt continues to stay with his family. He's often times a gentle and loving husband and father. It's the times of rage that makes his family afraid of him. His two sons never know which father will show up. The father that reads to them or the father that pins them up against the wall with hand around their throats and screaming. His rage is terrifying.

Twelve years after the grunt leaves combat he discovers there's a new diagnosis for grunts like him. PTSD. He's amazed how many grunts have similar stories. How many become enraged without apparent reason. How many have nightmares. It's good there's treatment for the grunts. It's too bad there isn't treatment for the families they terrorized. The families become the hidden casualties.

The grunt's sons begin using pot when they're twelve. By twenty they're trying cocaine, LSD, meth and ecstasy. By thirty the second son is addicted to crack. Two days ago he told his parents he felt suicidal. He's said it before. It's usually after a binge on crack and the following depression. For years the grunt and his wife have tried to get him to go to groups. He doesn't like groups. They make him want to use. But he continues to use without groups.

Every action has a reaction. Sometimes it takes years of repetitive actions for the full reaction to occur. Sometimes the actions result in tragic reactions.

If you're a grunt and think you're in it by yourself, think again. Look around to see how many people surround you with care and loving. Don't wait until your kid's reaction becomes crack or booze or meth. Or suicide. Act with love. The same love you had for your shooting buds in the bush or sandbox.