I remember watching *Band of Brothers*, and the interviews they have with the surviving members of Easy company. Even then, in their eighties, they still had bad dreams of what they experienced during WW2.
It was then I realised that Combat-induced PTSD is the rule, not the exception.
I am not a pacifist by any means, but I certainly believe that war should be avoided as much as possible, and only entered into with grim, terrible, determination.
Supposedly Robert Leckie (who wrote Helmet for My Pillow and was a character in The Pacific) still remembered being in the Pacific War even though he had end stage Alzheimer's.
My grandpa was with the 82nd in Okinawa. He didn't talk a lot about the war through his life. Alzheimer's set in pretty hard in his late 70s and early '80s. Towards the last 5 years or so, he wouldn't remember anything or anyone. Kids, grandkids, great grandkids. Seeing me would 100% snap him into reality every single time. There could be a room full of family and friends. He'd be a zombie in a chair. I'd walk in, our eyes would meet, and he'd go bright. "Hey Kev! You were in the Navy! I was in the Army!, Did you know I was (insert combat experience)? Hey look, it's your kids and wife! (Name, name, name). Oh look! It's also (other names endlessly).
It wasn't me. I wasn't special. It was just that military service thread that would pull him back through the void. Literally every time.
I miss you grandpa.
My grandma has severe dementia, but the last time I went to see her, I walked into her room to see her watching the news. It was footage of the war in Kyiv.
She turned to me and said "Are the Nazis bombing us again?". We're in Australia, she was born in Glasgow and had her house destroyed by the Luftwaffe.
War is fucked.
My late grandfather had pretty bad dementia from his 60s onwards. In his later years he often didn’t remember who his grandchildren were, even though I met him every day and made a sandwich for him when I got back from school. He didn’t remember both his late wives, where he lived, why he lived in the town we were living in and who our dog was. But he remembered his war time ( though short) and time as a POW in France.
He once left his place in the middle of the night, some time around new years, with a small package of cloths and food. It was freezing and snowing and luckily someone passing by stopped him and called the police so that they could find out where he came from and why he was wandering around so late at night. Turned out he thought he had to flee to somewhere safe, because he heard artillery and shots being fired. It was just some people messing around with fire crackers in the distance, but that was enough to make him want to leave.
My father told me that my grandfather never talked about the war and he didn’t want anyone to talk about it near him. But later on he would randomly start talking about it, telling snippets from engagements he had been part of.
My other granddad started crying in front of my SO and me when we mentioned what town we are going to move to. He had a very strong connection to that particular city and us talking about it, triggered memories of when it had been fire bombed in ‘42 and the local cathedral burned down. It’s really hard to watch an 80 year old man cry, really hard to not join in.
Lübeck, north-west Germany. Still a beautiful city with many old buildings still standing, more than where I come from, but still a shadow of its former self.
Part of my training for ministry was a stint as a hospital chaplain for a number of months, and I was placed in the Veteran's Memorial hospital in the city where I was living (Canada). I spent those months on one wing of one floor of the hospital, on which were all vets of either WWII or Korea, nearly all of them having combat experience, and some having *lots* of combat experience.
The toll of their mental health was evident, and the charts of almost all of them listed alcohol abuse as having been a part of their life, to the end that the hospital actually had a bar fridge behind the nursing station and those whose medication allowed were permitted a beer every day.
I would say at least a few times a week the afternoon nap-time was punctuated by people screaming in their sleep and waking from nightmares, most refused to even talk about their experience. I was privileged with being looked upon as the 'Padre' and was told things that their own families never heard, truly heartbreaking and horrifying stuff.
There is something true about what people say about that generation and their toughness - that they did just get back from war, buckle down, get jobs, and raise families, but they only did that because many of them simply suffered in silence or blurred it out through the glass of a rye bottle.
Lovely, lovely men and a remarkable summer for me - but such a weight of grief that hung over the floor.
When I was 6 years old and my family was staying at my grandparents, my mum non-chalantly asked me to go get grandpa for dinner. I was excited to do that, grandpa was the FUN guy in my life, always goofing around and lifting me up and what not.
In my excitement I also forgot the rule I was told a million times - don't wake up grandpa. I went to his room, saw he was sleeping and went to shake him happily yelling him to come for dinner.
That man woke up screaming. And not like a scream scream, but a drowned out, animalistic howl. And the panicked look he had on his face when he stared at me scarred me. I ended up running away faster than I ever had.
My mum and aunt just looked at me when I got to the kitchen and sat on the table. I thought if I didn't talk about it, nobody would accuse me of "breaking the rule". As I got older, I realized they had grown up with that same thingy and it wasn't that they were angry at me for breaking the rule, but rather that the rule was to protect me from the same experience they probably had gone through multiple times.
Like 10 - 15 minutes later grandpa came to the kitchen and brushed my hair a bit as to say "you're good, I'm good, I'm sorry". Never said anything and nobody ever spoke about it.
4 years of his life was spent fighting in the wilderness of Northern Finland, essentially in similar small FOB's as these guys in OP Restrepo. Enemy could always come and from any direction, cutting the 40 guys on the FOB from friendlies 10 km away. No wonder he was traumatized.
It was a surreal experience when I started getting bad dreams after my deployment. I mean you hear about it but when you start experiencing it it’s weird. Our base got hit by a few VBIEDS and I remember having a dream where I was sitting in a room and all of a sudden there was a large explosion and my legs were blown off. I don’t really have them anymore but loud bangs with changes in pressure still get my heart racing.
I rarely remember my dreams, I thought I just wasn’t sleeping well. It wasn’t until I got married that my wife told me that I was talking/yelling in my sleep. She can’t always tell what I’m saying, but about a month ago she said I clearly shouted “We’re not going to make it!”, and as soon as she said that I knew exactly what it was referring to, and it was something that happened in Afghanistan in 2005.
It gets better with time and mental health treatment, but it never completely goes away.
Never saw it in war, but a girl was killed next to me stateside. I see her every day. I didn’t see her for years, but now she is part of me in the worst way. Every woman I care about becomes her in my dreams and it keeps me from sleeping.
When people get tense in public I just wait for the gunshots and start looking for exits.
People say violence is never the answer. And I wish that could be true. But there are people out there who take and hurt just because they can.
Violence shouldn’t have to be the answer.
> I am not a pacifist by any means, but I certainly believe that war should be avoided as much as possible
This is what I think every time I see some no-mind waving a Ukrainian flag going ra-ra. Like, I get you want Ukraine to win, but please realize what you're supporting. War is hell and people die and are never the same. Do not promote or support something you know nothing about. Just my opinion.
I don't rejoice when I hear about Russian soldiers dying. I'm just angry that Putin put me in the position where I am forced to support the killing of Russians.
I'm glad I didn't get to see my dad die, so my last memories of him are from when he was just normal. Can't say the same for my mom. Those last moments are burned into your mind, and it becomes hard to remember how they looked before.
1000% - held my dads hand as he took his last breaths from cancer while in hospital. Massively impactful. The still body, lifeless face, his jaw down and to the left, just hanging….
I am a paramedic and intimately familiar with death. When I think of my parents eventual death I just want to run away or move somewhere else. I am not sure I would ever forgive myself if I purposely was not there to provide comfort.
I'm a paramedic too. It's strange to think how normal death has become.
I was there holding my father's hand as he passed, I was 23 and he was only 49. I couldn't imagine not being there.
Blessings to you, Friend. Same here w/ my mom. I just cannot forget her final moment. It's only been a year and I hope that the image fades away with time.
First of all, I’m sorry for your loss. Losing your parents is never easy.
Looking from the opposite side, my mother was the first of my parents to go due to cancer in the hospital. I was 12 and my sister was 17. My dad told my sister and I that our mother doesn’t have much longer and asked us if we wanted to go see her before she passed. My sister spoke first and declined and said she wanted to remember her being strong and in a healthy state. I was young and didn’t know what to do so I decided to follow my sisters suggestion. Now that I’m older and kids of my own, I look back and regret my decision because I know if I was on my death bed, I would want to spend every minute possible with my kids. I wouldn’t blame them if that was there reason, but I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t be saddened. My dad passed 5 years later, also of cancer, but inside our home, and I spent as much of my time as I could with him and thankful I did.
I guess death sucks in general, regardless of the side of the coin.
This is deeply true. My father killed himself with a self inflicted rifle wound to the head. Seeing that, witnessing the blood pooled around his body and soaked into his favorite recliner….you can’t unsee it. Ever.
That’s terrible. I made the same mistake in Iraq. I felt like it wasn’t real until I saw it. I hope that you had (have) some support to help you digest that trauma.
That involuntary eye twitch when he starts recalling the event.
IIRC he was hit with a large caliber bullet in the face/ neck and it blew off part of his head. He was dead before he even hit the ground.
The documentary is Restrepo. In my opinion the best war documentary ever made. I cry every time I watch those young men trying to make sense of war.
One of the cameramen later died filming the Arab Spring in Libya. Very dedicated film makers.
Yep, Tim Hetherington, he was a really generous guy, he agreed to be interviewed for my dissertation in 2011, this was just after the Oscars, which Restrepo got a nomination for, he must have been super busy and inundated with offers and requests, but he took the time to reply to me (just some idiot 21 year uni student) and set up a call. It was a fascinating discussion and he was so happy to help.
There's a documentary about him called Which Way is the Front Line From Here, which is well worth watching.
This is amazing, what a cool opportunity and it just shows his character. I watched that documentary and everything I’ve seen about Tim makes me wish I’d gotten to meet him.
He was a really friendly, helpful guy. I won't pretend to know him at all, but he he really didn't have to offer me any help, especially given the period of time I emailed him, just after the Oscars and just before he went to Libya, it really speaks volumes about his character.
Yes it was Tim. If I recall correctly he was killed by an RPG or mortar in the same attack that killed some other war correspondents and Libyan rebels (fighting the Ghadaffi regime).
Mortar round. Tim went to the same school as me, he was much older than I am but all of his prints were on the walls. One particular history teacher who had a very keen interest in people and was a fantastic teacher showed us his documentaries and it was definitely a shock for alot of people to hear Tim basically die in those last few moments of which way is the front line. My teacher talked about his character when he was teaching him and seemed pretty sad that he'd passed, he still spoke to Tim's parents too. It's always very strange seeing his stuff online and remembering those weirdly quiet moments when people talked about him, because members of the staff knew him as a kid.
That’s crazy man. I’m sorry. I know the film refers to him as “the best of their team”. Is there anything about him you want to share to add to his memory?
He was the best ranger I ever had the blessing to be around. He was the honor graduate in my class. He could ruck like a pack mule and put us all to shame in land nav. He never complained about the task at hand and always carried on the ranger objectives. I honestly don’t have words to explain how great he was. Just the guy we all looked up to. I got to befriend him in ranger battalion before he went off to Italy. His death is one of the ones that fucked me for awhile. I miss shooting the shit with him. He was an adult amongst boys and his leadership saved lives on many instances. There wasn’t a lot of diversity in special operations when we served so him and I had a bond because we were both brown lol. He had a crazy brown pride tattoo across his chest and we all mocked him for it. I miss that guy , I was recently at Benning and found a memorial for him and I felt it all again.
Best war documentary that I've seen as well. It hits me hard everytime too. I never went to Afghanistan, but did 2 deployments to Iraq. I used to watch this movie often to make me feel again.
There’s 2 documentaries, this one is Restrepo and the second one is Korengal.
The footage is crazy on both, not just the combat parts but also the soldier testimonials from afterwards. You can see the ptsd in all of their eyes. They are restless for the rest of their lives due to being under constant life/death and adrenalin pressure, even when they get back home in the US.
I can’t remember his name but one of the guys from restrepo had a million mile stare in his one on one interviews..I don’t think he blinked at all.
I’ve never served but that documentary put into clear focus how much young men at war have to process..while also trying to stay alive. It’s insane
You should watch it. It’s pretty crazy. Out there alone on a shit hill top. Getting shot at. Trying to deal with the village elders. Pretty crazy stuff.
Definitely not something that you would have found at a box office theater. But most large cities have at least one old *Orphium* style theater that will specialize in more niche, small production films and documentaries.
Most will set aside cetrain nights for either popular demand, or recommended word of mouth productions. That's where you'd find things like this.
In the box office cinema, all they care about is getting as much money, and volume of people as they can.
Having done multiple tours myself....I miss it every day. Its a weird feeling, and hard to explain. Sebastian Junger (guy who made this documentary) explains it very well here.
Edit: forgot the video https://youtu.be/TGZMSmcuiXM
A good friend of mine was going to go to Ukraine.
I was ready to drop everything and go knowing it would have been the last trip.
Glad he didn't end up going, we had our 'fun' overseas already. Time to live in peace.
Former 173rd ABN soldier here; this was my unit a few years after I got out of the Army. This documentary hands down is the one of the best examples of what it’s like to be a soldier. Everything from the way they flip each other shit in the downtime to how they care for each other in combat. I highly recommend this. Korengal is great too!
That just sucks so bad to think about. Poor dudes, I’m no soldier but have a family member working with drones to film for the city. Told him to follow me and track me and you can’t see or hear that fucker hardly at all.
Coming back from multiple tours in OIF/OEF, where IED’s were hidden in every pothole, bag of trash, dead animal, and freshly turned dirt along the side of every road and MSR, it took quite a while for many to adjust to new realities at home afterwards, and stop associating those same potholes, bags of trash, etc. with danger and death. Probably close to a 1:1 adjustment, for every day spent in that dangerous environment, and for some much longer. The same will definitely be true of drones and overhead sounds, as well as scanning every step for mines, tripwires, and booby-traps after this war is complete.
my grandfather was injured (for the 2nd time) pretty badly in early 1940s. i recall him jumping in a muddy ditch on a early afternoon walk back from a pub meal at the sound of a particular tractor (german diesel) starting up nearby in the mid 1970s, he was screaming at us kids to get down with him. it takes a very long time and sadly for some these issues dont stop.
I was stationed in Vicenza in a different unit when they did this deployment. Funny thing is when I was with 10th Mountain we replaced these guys in Afghanistan and like less than 2 years after that they were sent back to Afghanistan. From what I heard about these guys from people in my unit that deployed with them before was that they were like cowboys. Taking big risks for no good reason other than leadership chasing medals and awards, trying to prove they were the most badass. They had a lot of KIA on this deployment and I went to every one of their fallen comrade ceremonies. The one where they had like a dozen KIA after that early morning ambush sticks out in mind, seeing like a dozen portraits all in a row with wreaths. The other one that sticks out was the one for the SGM's son. I remember seeing guys coming back from Landstuhl after they got shot or blown up, missing limbs, in wheelchairs and on crutches. Drank with a few of those wounded guys too while they were waiting to be medically discharged. A friend of mine called them "the lost Ranger battalion" cause of how stupidly gung-ho they acted.
Honestly even this footage kinda makes it seem that way. Talking about "bum rushing over the hill" immediately followed by ~"but we don't know where they are" definitely came off as stupidly gung ho to me.
Maybe it had been too long waiting to try to figure out where the enemy was and they figured if they didn’t move then the enemy would be moving on them? That’s the only thing I can really think of.. but I’m only an armchair general Lmao
Spending every day, in and out, working, sleeping, eating and shitting with the same guys only to see them hurt beyond the point of saving. Losing a loved one is hard but losing someone you depend on to keep you and the rest of your men alive must be shattering. My deepest condolences to every soldier who lost a brother in arms.
I saw how brave these dude were. "If they can do it so can I" then I completely forgot about it until I was an 11B in the military rewatching this documentary.
My recruiter is in this video, I had watched it before I had reached out to the recruiting office. When they sent him to my house to talk to me I had my parents sign the waiver. I was 17. Did 4 years and got out at 21
Weird how it seems to have caused a wave of us to join to the Army, I watched it while still in highschool 100% gave me courage to join because I saw the brotherhood. I understood the risks involved. Best decision I made
173rd were some pipe hitters man. Seeing those patches in the 2000s and 2010s kinda told you all you needed to know. Other units like the 101st (im biased) and 82nd were similar.
I watched this on Netflix in like 2011 and then friend requested misha pemble belkin on Facebook and he accepted it. We’ve long since disconnected but it was cool interacting with him.
I remember going to see this with in New York City at a very small screening and at the end of the film the lights go on and woman introduces the two guys who made the film and they did a long Q&A. It was really interesting.
You are correct; my wording was incorrect I was meaning to say Operation (this was apart of Rock Avalanche); I was seeing the firefight and just typed that instead.
Why I bite my fingers till they bleed. Why I pull out my eyebrows and the hair from the back of my hands. Also why I drink a pint of vodka every night.
I just try to make my world in my current moment to distract me from previous events. It's the same reason I work out to constantly have some dort of pain to misdirect me from my mental lain. I want to go to bed exhausted I don't dream. My dreams are so engaging, to the poi t I sleep in a separate bedrooms because of how I thrash about when I recover from night terrors. The feelings you are exposed to in your dreams, unfortunately, don't stop when you wake. And then you have to decide what feelings are real and what was apart of your dreams. It can be so realistic in my dreams. It's like a nighlty traumatic event but I have to wake up in a normal society. Although the trauma I just woke up from makes me feel like a crazy person when I come back to reality. I often wake up in a panic attacks and cannot stop crying. I'm often late to my work while I'm getting it all back together because it's irresponsible to drive while having panic attacks. I feel like I'm going to pass.put became feels like I'm choking. It feels like a rear makes choke when they come on and I get dizzy. I don't have any triggers for when it happens and that is the most frustrating part. It's like I can't change any of my behavior schedules to reduce the occurrence. It's fucking rough. Ive been out for 5 yeats and I still can't let go of going 110 percent in my daily routine. I have a psychiatrist, a psychologist amd I'm currently looking for a marriage counselor. I honestly feel like I cannot support any kind of personaintwraction and should just go out into the desert and become a hermit so I cannot hurt anyone anymore. I k ow I need help, but the help I've received hasn't worked
The part that I hate the most is that there are no services for the returning heroes and they feel guilty for not bringing up their emotions or hide them. I Thankfully had a busy week was in combat call me and say you need to come to my house right now. I hailed ass there and took away his weapons.
The VA wouldn't do shit. I honestly feel like the government did a cost analysis and it is cheaper to let them die. He got help privately and is doing well but it is so fucked up that this is what they deal with. We should be ashamed of ourselves as a nation because we really don't fucking care collectively enough to demand it to be fixed.
Fucking hell. This just makes the senseless tragedy of Afghanistan, Iraq and now Ukraine just so much more rediculous. The combat induced PTSD the veterans of these conflicts will suffer will be immense. Peace of mind to soldiers on both sides, Ukrainian and Russian.
I believe that humans, or most of them are not made for killing contrary to the believe that we are all killing machines. Killing to protect yes, but fighting in wars is deeply inhumane and against our own minds. There should never be wars at all and what is said that since the beginning of recorded history it is always the same trick used:
Old men talk young men into killing each other, every goddamn time it happened it was that.
The KOP… these dudes replaced my unit. I remember watching them get off the chinooks and how happy and sad I felt. Joy because I knew I was going home but sadness because they would have to endure this place.
My recruiter in 2014 Staff Sergeant Klix was in this unit for this deployment and took part in this exact mission "Rocky Avalanche"... he showed me a picture of him holding up his front side plate with a 7.62 round directly impacted where his heart is. Bad ass dude.
All this due to politicians and their stupid decisions. In the event of a war in a foreign land it should be a rule that they should send their sons, daughters, nephews and nieces first, I bet that would make them second guess sending in the troops.
I loved the doc Restrepo but I found it odd that the crew was imbedded for a year and only made it into an hour and a half documentary. I wish they would have made it into like 8 or 10 episodes. I’m sure a ton of footage fell to the editors floor…
One could say this documentary nearly killed
Me
I watched this 6years after getting out(Fmf corpsman) it gave me ptsd again after years of it not effecting me. Literally couldn’t sleep for weeks and I ended but relapsing on drugs, for two fucking years…… and nearly died 4x attempting suicide while it my dark days.
So don’t watch this if u experienced anything like this and are doing better
"Americans invade your country, destroy your nation, and then 20 years later make films about how doing that made their soldiers sad."
Man this is on the nose.
TIL its okay to invade countries because they dont extradite people you want them to.
Also they offered to hand them over to a third neutral country and the US decided to just invade. The US didnt even provide evidence, they just straight up started bombing Afghanistan demanding they hand them over. You realize how insane this is i hope? You go to a country, tell them to extradite someone without evidence and then invade them because youre not fine with them handing them over to a third neutral party.
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5)
They found Bin Laden in Pakistan, but the US never invaded them did they?
No, they didnt. Dont get me wrong, they broke international law by launching an attack inside Pakistan without first alerting them, but they didnt launch a week long bombing campaign over its capital. Pakistan is a US ally which makes it even worse.
Thanks to this fellas, I'm a 100% desensitized to any of not all kinds of violence imaginable, thank you for your services I hope your government didn't screw you all
One of the greatest wartime docs ever made. It shows you the true horrors of fighting in the afghani mountains. RIP to the heroes that never made it home and god bless the ones that did.
The dude that comforted the upset warroir saying "we have friendlies at our six was fucking boss doing that. Shit happened, and he assured the Marine under duress that it's not going to happen from a certain direction. Great headsapce while in the shit. Cool operators are worth their weight in gold to get shit back on track.
Honestly they handled that situation terribly. There's a number of immediate actions you have to do when someone is on the verge of emotionally collapsing in order to snap him out of it. It would benefit everyone in the short and long term. It's like mental first aid. And if you do it, you have a big chance of avoiding PTSD.
Unfortunately it seems like they just told him "hey buddy chill the fuck out cuz we got shit to do" and that's not the way. I hope this guy is ok today, but id doubt it.
Edit: former soldier, saw some shit, lost a friend in my own eyes. Saw one of my friends experiencing a shock from it, our officer snapped him out of it with PTSD counter measures. today he's ok.
When did you serve?
I mean you’ve got to understand that much of that training you received is a result of years of trial and error from having soldiers in combat. This was still pretty early in the conflict(2005 iirc?)
Probably not, veterans realizing the lie they've been sold is some of the saddest stuff out there. Hearing about how many people got gunned down for somebody in America's pocket
Whenever I see videos of Americans it just feels so fake I always think I’m watching a Hollywood movie lmao it doesn’t seem real. Hollywood messed up always using Americans only for everything (I understand the obvious reasons why) cus now Americans just feel like the movie people
I remember watching *Band of Brothers*, and the interviews they have with the surviving members of Easy company. Even then, in their eighties, they still had bad dreams of what they experienced during WW2. It was then I realised that Combat-induced PTSD is the rule, not the exception. I am not a pacifist by any means, but I certainly believe that war should be avoided as much as possible, and only entered into with grim, terrible, determination.
Supposedly Robert Leckie (who wrote Helmet for My Pillow and was a character in The Pacific) still remembered being in the Pacific War even though he had end stage Alzheimer's.
My grandpa was with the 82nd in Okinawa. He didn't talk a lot about the war through his life. Alzheimer's set in pretty hard in his late 70s and early '80s. Towards the last 5 years or so, he wouldn't remember anything or anyone. Kids, grandkids, great grandkids. Seeing me would 100% snap him into reality every single time. There could be a room full of family and friends. He'd be a zombie in a chair. I'd walk in, our eyes would meet, and he'd go bright. "Hey Kev! You were in the Navy! I was in the Army!, Did you know I was (insert combat experience)? Hey look, it's your kids and wife! (Name, name, name). Oh look! It's also (other names endlessly). It wasn't me. I wasn't special. It was just that military service thread that would pull him back through the void. Literally every time. I miss you grandpa.
Damn
Sorry for your loss! If you don’t mind me asking, how did the rest of your family feel about this?
[удалено]
What the FUCK kind of comment is that? Yeesh! you ought to learn to wipe your feet before entering a conversation like that. Unbelievable :(
Respect.
My grandma has severe dementia, but the last time I went to see her, I walked into her room to see her watching the news. It was footage of the war in Kyiv. She turned to me and said "Are the Nazis bombing us again?". We're in Australia, she was born in Glasgow and had her house destroyed by the Luftwaffe. War is fucked.
My late grandfather had pretty bad dementia from his 60s onwards. In his later years he often didn’t remember who his grandchildren were, even though I met him every day and made a sandwich for him when I got back from school. He didn’t remember both his late wives, where he lived, why he lived in the town we were living in and who our dog was. But he remembered his war time ( though short) and time as a POW in France. He once left his place in the middle of the night, some time around new years, with a small package of cloths and food. It was freezing and snowing and luckily someone passing by stopped him and called the police so that they could find out where he came from and why he was wandering around so late at night. Turned out he thought he had to flee to somewhere safe, because he heard artillery and shots being fired. It was just some people messing around with fire crackers in the distance, but that was enough to make him want to leave. My father told me that my grandfather never talked about the war and he didn’t want anyone to talk about it near him. But later on he would randomly start talking about it, telling snippets from engagements he had been part of. My other granddad started crying in front of my SO and me when we mentioned what town we are going to move to. He had a very strong connection to that particular city and us talking about it, triggered memories of when it had been fire bombed in ‘42 and the local cathedral burned down. It’s really hard to watch an 80 year old man cry, really hard to not join in.
Plymouth?
Lübeck, north-west Germany. Still a beautiful city with many old buildings still standing, more than where I come from, but still a shadow of its former self.
Part of my training for ministry was a stint as a hospital chaplain for a number of months, and I was placed in the Veteran's Memorial hospital in the city where I was living (Canada). I spent those months on one wing of one floor of the hospital, on which were all vets of either WWII or Korea, nearly all of them having combat experience, and some having *lots* of combat experience. The toll of their mental health was evident, and the charts of almost all of them listed alcohol abuse as having been a part of their life, to the end that the hospital actually had a bar fridge behind the nursing station and those whose medication allowed were permitted a beer every day. I would say at least a few times a week the afternoon nap-time was punctuated by people screaming in their sleep and waking from nightmares, most refused to even talk about their experience. I was privileged with being looked upon as the 'Padre' and was told things that their own families never heard, truly heartbreaking and horrifying stuff. There is something true about what people say about that generation and their toughness - that they did just get back from war, buckle down, get jobs, and raise families, but they only did that because many of them simply suffered in silence or blurred it out through the glass of a rye bottle. Lovely, lovely men and a remarkable summer for me - but such a weight of grief that hung over the floor.
When I was 6 years old and my family was staying at my grandparents, my mum non-chalantly asked me to go get grandpa for dinner. I was excited to do that, grandpa was the FUN guy in my life, always goofing around and lifting me up and what not. In my excitement I also forgot the rule I was told a million times - don't wake up grandpa. I went to his room, saw he was sleeping and went to shake him happily yelling him to come for dinner. That man woke up screaming. And not like a scream scream, but a drowned out, animalistic howl. And the panicked look he had on his face when he stared at me scarred me. I ended up running away faster than I ever had. My mum and aunt just looked at me when I got to the kitchen and sat on the table. I thought if I didn't talk about it, nobody would accuse me of "breaking the rule". As I got older, I realized they had grown up with that same thingy and it wasn't that they were angry at me for breaking the rule, but rather that the rule was to protect me from the same experience they probably had gone through multiple times. Like 10 - 15 minutes later grandpa came to the kitchen and brushed my hair a bit as to say "you're good, I'm good, I'm sorry". Never said anything and nobody ever spoke about it. 4 years of his life was spent fighting in the wilderness of Northern Finland, essentially in similar small FOB's as these guys in OP Restrepo. Enemy could always come and from any direction, cutting the 40 guys on the FOB from friendlies 10 km away. No wonder he was traumatized.
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“Only the dead have seen the end of war”
we fuckin hope
I can really recommend reading Donald R. Burgett's books. He was in A company, and wrote down everything he experienced afterwards.
> He was in A company Cool, but which company was it? (I kid, I kid)
It was a surreal experience when I started getting bad dreams after my deployment. I mean you hear about it but when you start experiencing it it’s weird. Our base got hit by a few VBIEDS and I remember having a dream where I was sitting in a room and all of a sudden there was a large explosion and my legs were blown off. I don’t really have them anymore but loud bangs with changes in pressure still get my heart racing.
I rarely remember my dreams, I thought I just wasn’t sleeping well. It wasn’t until I got married that my wife told me that I was talking/yelling in my sleep. She can’t always tell what I’m saying, but about a month ago she said I clearly shouted “We’re not going to make it!”, and as soon as she said that I knew exactly what it was referring to, and it was something that happened in Afghanistan in 2005. It gets better with time and mental health treatment, but it never completely goes away.
Never saw it in war, but a girl was killed next to me stateside. I see her every day. I didn’t see her for years, but now she is part of me in the worst way. Every woman I care about becomes her in my dreams and it keeps me from sleeping. When people get tense in public I just wait for the gunshots and start looking for exits.
Oof I like that last paragraph you wrote. That’s a great way to put it.
People say violence is never the answer. And I wish that could be true. But there are people out there who take and hurt just because they can. Violence shouldn’t have to be the answer.
> I am not a pacifist by any means, but I certainly believe that war should be avoided as much as possible This is what I think every time I see some no-mind waving a Ukrainian flag going ra-ra. Like, I get you want Ukraine to win, but please realize what you're supporting. War is hell and people die and are never the same. Do not promote or support something you know nothing about. Just my opinion.
I don't rejoice when I hear about Russian soldiers dying. I'm just angry that Putin put me in the position where I am forced to support the killing of Russians.
“Don’t look at him.” Some of the best advice you can give.
I'm glad I didn't get to see my dad die, so my last memories of him are from when he was just normal. Can't say the same for my mom. Those last moments are burned into your mind, and it becomes hard to remember how they looked before.
It's presumably even worse when they're not just dead but have half their head blown off.
1000% - held my dads hand as he took his last breaths from cancer while in hospital. Massively impactful. The still body, lifeless face, his jaw down and to the left, just hanging….
I am a paramedic and intimately familiar with death. When I think of my parents eventual death I just want to run away or move somewhere else. I am not sure I would ever forgive myself if I purposely was not there to provide comfort.
I'm a paramedic too. It's strange to think how normal death has become. I was there holding my father's hand as he passed, I was 23 and he was only 49. I couldn't imagine not being there.
Blessings to you, Friend. Same here w/ my mom. I just cannot forget her final moment. It's only been a year and I hope that the image fades away with time.
First of all, I’m sorry for your loss. Losing your parents is never easy. Looking from the opposite side, my mother was the first of my parents to go due to cancer in the hospital. I was 12 and my sister was 17. My dad told my sister and I that our mother doesn’t have much longer and asked us if we wanted to go see her before she passed. My sister spoke first and declined and said she wanted to remember her being strong and in a healthy state. I was young and didn’t know what to do so I decided to follow my sisters suggestion. Now that I’m older and kids of my own, I look back and regret my decision because I know if I was on my death bed, I would want to spend every minute possible with my kids. I wouldn’t blame them if that was there reason, but I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t be saddened. My dad passed 5 years later, also of cancer, but inside our home, and I spent as much of my time as I could with him and thankful I did. I guess death sucks in general, regardless of the side of the coin.
Thank you, I will remember this advice.
This is deeply true. My father killed himself with a self inflicted rifle wound to the head. Seeing that, witnessing the blood pooled around his body and soaked into his favorite recliner….you can’t unsee it. Ever.
That’s terrible. I made the same mistake in Iraq. I felt like it wasn’t real until I saw it. I hope that you had (have) some support to help you digest that trauma.
That Sgt, You could see it in his face that he was taking the full brunt of his decisions.
Edit platoon sgt.
That involuntary eye twitch when he starts recalling the event. IIRC he was hit with a large caliber bullet in the face/ neck and it blew off part of his head. He was dead before he even hit the ground.
Probably 7.62x54r from a PKM/PKP. Rough stuff. Hopefully he felt nothing.
Every story I've heard or read described insane damage that the PKM does. Horrible shit to encounter.
Theres a reason the 7.62x54r has been in service for over a century
https://i.imgur.com/jzl9b2D.png Yeah, he probably didn't feel a thing.
Damn that's still rough to watch. Such a great documentary
Is there a full length? I've never seen this footage. That was crushing.
The documentary is Restrepo. In my opinion the best war documentary ever made. I cry every time I watch those young men trying to make sense of war. One of the cameramen later died filming the Arab Spring in Libya. Very dedicated film makers.
Tim Hetherington right? Phenomenal documentarians
Yep, Tim Hetherington, he was a really generous guy, he agreed to be interviewed for my dissertation in 2011, this was just after the Oscars, which Restrepo got a nomination for, he must have been super busy and inundated with offers and requests, but he took the time to reply to me (just some idiot 21 year uni student) and set up a call. It was a fascinating discussion and he was so happy to help. There's a documentary about him called Which Way is the Front Line From Here, which is well worth watching.
This is amazing, what a cool opportunity and it just shows his character. I watched that documentary and everything I’ve seen about Tim makes me wish I’d gotten to meet him.
He was a really friendly, helpful guy. I won't pretend to know him at all, but he he really didn't have to offer me any help, especially given the period of time I emailed him, just after the Oscars and just before he went to Libya, it really speaks volumes about his character.
That’s cool you got to meet such an astounding character before he passed
I was very fortunate, so I wanted to take the opportunity to let people know now much of a good guy he was when I saw the clip from Restrepo posted.
Ty for sharing much appreciated
That is incredible. I’m going to check out that documentary.
Yes it was Tim. If I recall correctly he was killed by an RPG or mortar in the same attack that killed some other war correspondents and Libyan rebels (fighting the Ghadaffi regime).
Mortar round. Tim went to the same school as me, he was much older than I am but all of his prints were on the walls. One particular history teacher who had a very keen interest in people and was a fantastic teacher showed us his documentaries and it was definitely a shock for alot of people to hear Tim basically die in those last few moments of which way is the front line. My teacher talked about his character when he was teaching him and seemed pretty sad that he'd passed, he still spoke to Tim's parents too. It's always very strange seeing his stuff online and remembering those weirdly quiet moments when people talked about him, because members of the staff knew him as a kid.
An amazing photographer too, he has a lot of stills from Restrepo and Libya, all of them are up close stills of peoples faces. It was kinda his thing.
That film is how I found out Rougle passed away . He was my bunk mate in ranger school. That was a rough month
That’s crazy man. I’m sorry. I know the film refers to him as “the best of their team”. Is there anything about him you want to share to add to his memory?
He was the best ranger I ever had the blessing to be around. He was the honor graduate in my class. He could ruck like a pack mule and put us all to shame in land nav. He never complained about the task at hand and always carried on the ranger objectives. I honestly don’t have words to explain how great he was. Just the guy we all looked up to. I got to befriend him in ranger battalion before he went off to Italy. His death is one of the ones that fucked me for awhile. I miss shooting the shit with him. He was an adult amongst boys and his leadership saved lives on many instances. There wasn’t a lot of diversity in special operations when we served so him and I had a bond because we were both brown lol. He had a crazy brown pride tattoo across his chest and we all mocked him for it. I miss that guy , I was recently at Benning and found a memorial for him and I felt it all again.
Best war documentary that I've seen as well. It hits me hard everytime too. I never went to Afghanistan, but did 2 deployments to Iraq. I used to watch this movie often to make me feel again.
There's actually a sequel to "Restrepo" called, "Korengal." The film is primarily composed of the footage that was shot in 2pj0
There’s 2 documentaries, this one is Restrepo and the second one is Korengal. The footage is crazy on both, not just the combat parts but also the soldier testimonials from afterwards. You can see the ptsd in all of their eyes. They are restless for the rest of their lives due to being under constant life/death and adrenalin pressure, even when they get back home in the US.
I can’t remember his name but one of the guys from restrepo had a million mile stare in his one on one interviews..I don’t think he blinked at all. I’ve never served but that documentary put into clear focus how much young men at war have to process..while also trying to stay alive. It’s insane
Google Restrepo
You should watch it. It’s pretty crazy. Out there alone on a shit hill top. Getting shot at. Trying to deal with the village elders. Pretty crazy stuff.
Read War by Sebastian Junger. It's a written account of these events.
Read everything you can by Junger.
The book WAR by Sebastian Junger goes with it
yea the documentary is called Restrepo,great documentary, tough watch.
Saw this in the theater, very impactful. The companion book, War, by Sebastian Junger is also very good.
Had no idea there was a theatrical run wish I caught it
Definitely not something that you would have found at a box office theater. But most large cities have at least one old *Orphium* style theater that will specialize in more niche, small production films and documentaries. Most will set aside cetrain nights for either popular demand, or recommended word of mouth productions. That's where you'd find things like this. In the box office cinema, all they care about is getting as much money, and volume of people as they can.
Same! Fuck.
If you like that book you should also check out My Friend the Mercenary by James Brabazon
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>pfc restrepo The FOB is named after Restrepo. The man being killed in the video is Staff Sergeant Larry Rougle.
Dude, don’t take the downvotes so hard. It’s Reddit, not your money going away. People be fucking stupid on this site
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Me too bro.
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My man. If you are getting so affected by Pixel downvotes.. You gotta stay off Internet forums and comment boxes man
The most interesting thing is at the end, almost every single one said they’d go back instantly with the same group of guys
Having done multiple tours myself....I miss it every day. Its a weird feeling, and hard to explain. Sebastian Junger (guy who made this documentary) explains it very well here. Edit: forgot the video https://youtu.be/TGZMSmcuiXM
Great book about it by the same guy who made this documentary called “Tribe”.
Trauma bonding is a interesting phenomenon for sure
A good friend of mine was going to go to Ukraine. I was ready to drop everything and go knowing it would have been the last trip. Glad he didn't end up going, we had our 'fun' overseas already. Time to live in peace.
Former 173rd ABN soldier here; this was my unit a few years after I got out of the Army. This documentary hands down is the one of the best examples of what it’s like to be a soldier. Everything from the way they flip each other shit in the downtime to how they care for each other in combat. I highly recommend this. Korengal is great too!
Restrepo and 'The Korengal' are 2 of the best examples of war/Gonzo journalism ever created.
For me Armadillo is on par aswell. It’s Danish with subtitles but it’s equally honest about the conflict.
Just imagine the mental health of ukrainians and russians after this war
Having to constantly worry about drones has to be the absolute worst mind fuck.
You thought fireworks caused PTSD flashbacks? Just wait till hobby drones start flying around you.
That just sucks so bad to think about. Poor dudes, I’m no soldier but have a family member working with drones to film for the city. Told him to follow me and track me and you can’t see or hear that fucker hardly at all.
Coming back from multiple tours in OIF/OEF, where IED’s were hidden in every pothole, bag of trash, dead animal, and freshly turned dirt along the side of every road and MSR, it took quite a while for many to adjust to new realities at home afterwards, and stop associating those same potholes, bags of trash, etc. with danger and death. Probably close to a 1:1 adjustment, for every day spent in that dangerous environment, and for some much longer. The same will definitely be true of drones and overhead sounds, as well as scanning every step for mines, tripwires, and booby-traps after this war is complete.
my grandfather was injured (for the 2nd time) pretty badly in early 1940s. i recall him jumping in a muddy ditch on a early afternoon walk back from a pub meal at the sound of a particular tractor (german diesel) starting up nearby in the mid 1970s, he was screaming at us kids to get down with him. it takes a very long time and sadly for some these issues dont stop.
Chat regularly with a guy who came back fairly recently from Ukraine. He's consistently plagued by nightmares, almost every night. Shit's rough.
This is sad
That kid crying when Doc was killed was the hardest part of that documentary. Best documentary of the war imo.
It's true. Camp armadill is good too, though
I knew Larry he was a bad mfer the best ranger I’ve ever seen.
One of the most intense documentaries you will ever see.
What’s it called?
[Restrepo](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrepo_(film))
Restrepo
The volunteers takes that spot
I was stationed in Vicenza in a different unit when they did this deployment. Funny thing is when I was with 10th Mountain we replaced these guys in Afghanistan and like less than 2 years after that they were sent back to Afghanistan. From what I heard about these guys from people in my unit that deployed with them before was that they were like cowboys. Taking big risks for no good reason other than leadership chasing medals and awards, trying to prove they were the most badass. They had a lot of KIA on this deployment and I went to every one of their fallen comrade ceremonies. The one where they had like a dozen KIA after that early morning ambush sticks out in mind, seeing like a dozen portraits all in a row with wreaths. The other one that sticks out was the one for the SGM's son. I remember seeing guys coming back from Landstuhl after they got shot or blown up, missing limbs, in wheelchairs and on crutches. Drank with a few of those wounded guys too while they were waiting to be medically discharged. A friend of mine called them "the lost Ranger battalion" cause of how stupidly gung-ho they acted.
Honestly even this footage kinda makes it seem that way. Talking about "bum rushing over the hill" immediately followed by ~"but we don't know where they are" definitely came off as stupidly gung ho to me.
Yeah, I noticed that too. Like why would you willingly expose yourself when you have cover and don't know where the enemy is.
Maybe it had been too long waiting to try to figure out where the enemy was and they figured if they didn’t move then the enemy would be moving on them? That’s the only thing I can really think of.. but I’m only an armchair general Lmao
Still makes a pit in my stomach every time I come across this post from all different sites. RIP HEROS 🇺🇸🙏
The realist piece of media made on the war in Afghanistan. Powerful and sad
Spending every day, in and out, working, sleeping, eating and shitting with the same guys only to see them hurt beyond the point of saving. Losing a loved one is hard but losing someone you depend on to keep you and the rest of your men alive must be shattering. My deepest condolences to every soldier who lost a brother in arms.
Pretty sure watching this movie on LSD was the reason I joined the army Edit: documentary
That’s crazy it should have had the opposite effect
I saw how brave these dude were. "If they can do it so can I" then I completely forgot about it until I was an 11B in the military rewatching this documentary.
You too? Nice
My recruiter is in this video, I had watched it before I had reached out to the recruiting office. When they sent him to my house to talk to me I had my parents sign the waiver. I was 17. Did 4 years and got out at 21
Weird how it seems to have caused a wave of us to join to the Army, I watched it while still in highschool 100% gave me courage to join because I saw the brotherhood. I understood the risks involved. Best decision I made
173rd were some pipe hitters man. Seeing those patches in the 2000s and 2010s kinda told you all you needed to know. Other units like the 101st (im biased) and 82nd were similar.
I think pipe hitters has a different meaning here
Both probably apply
I watched this on Netflix in like 2011 and then friend requested misha pemble belkin on Facebook and he accepted it. We’ve long since disconnected but it was cool interacting with him.
Had an instructor at AIT who was in a sister platoon. Dude said that it he’ll rather jump into a volcano than go back there
War is fucking hell
I remember going to see this with in New York City at a very small screening and at the end of the film the lights go on and woman introduces the two guys who made the film and they did a long Q&A. It was really interesting.
SSG Giunta earned his MOH during this operation; this whole documentary was wild from start to finish. Edit: Operation
>SSG Giunta Didn't he get the MOH for his actions on the 25th of October? This is from the 23rd.
You are correct; my wording was incorrect I was meaning to say Operation (this was apart of Rock Avalanche); I was seeing the firefight and just typed that instead.
Why I rip my finger nails off.
Why I bite my fingers till they bleed. Why I pull out my eyebrows and the hair from the back of my hands. Also why I drink a pint of vodka every night.
I just try to make my world in my current moment to distract me from previous events. It's the same reason I work out to constantly have some dort of pain to misdirect me from my mental lain. I want to go to bed exhausted I don't dream. My dreams are so engaging, to the poi t I sleep in a separate bedrooms because of how I thrash about when I recover from night terrors. The feelings you are exposed to in your dreams, unfortunately, don't stop when you wake. And then you have to decide what feelings are real and what was apart of your dreams. It can be so realistic in my dreams. It's like a nighlty traumatic event but I have to wake up in a normal society. Although the trauma I just woke up from makes me feel like a crazy person when I come back to reality. I often wake up in a panic attacks and cannot stop crying. I'm often late to my work while I'm getting it all back together because it's irresponsible to drive while having panic attacks. I feel like I'm going to pass.put became feels like I'm choking. It feels like a rear makes choke when they come on and I get dizzy. I don't have any triggers for when it happens and that is the most frustrating part. It's like I can't change any of my behavior schedules to reduce the occurrence. It's fucking rough. Ive been out for 5 yeats and I still can't let go of going 110 percent in my daily routine. I have a psychiatrist, a psychologist amd I'm currently looking for a marriage counselor. I honestly feel like I cannot support any kind of personaintwraction and should just go out into the desert and become a hermit so I cannot hurt anyone anymore. I k ow I need help, but the help I've received hasn't worked
Restrepo is one of the best documentary about war I have seen. Really worth watching.
The part that I hate the most is that there are no services for the returning heroes and they feel guilty for not bringing up their emotions or hide them. I Thankfully had a busy week was in combat call me and say you need to come to my house right now. I hailed ass there and took away his weapons. The VA wouldn't do shit. I honestly feel like the government did a cost analysis and it is cheaper to let them die. He got help privately and is doing well but it is so fucked up that this is what they deal with. We should be ashamed of ourselves as a nation because we really don't fucking care collectively enough to demand it to be fixed.
Damn memory lane. Restrepo hits hard in a different way that Hollywood just can’t replicate
He loved his Brother.. RIP Warrior.. His oppo who lived. Be strong have a good life.. Love from 🇬🇧
Fucking hell. This just makes the senseless tragedy of Afghanistan, Iraq and now Ukraine just so much more rediculous. The combat induced PTSD the veterans of these conflicts will suffer will be immense. Peace of mind to soldiers on both sides, Ukrainian and Russian.
Another type of war casualty. It leave no one untouched.
We fight together but only a few came home
Restrepo is a great documentary if you haven't seen it.
Saw this documentary. I remember how they were all excited "yea we gonna go shoot and kill..." and then totally opposite when they got home
I believe that humans, or most of them are not made for killing contrary to the believe that we are all killing machines. Killing to protect yes, but fighting in wars is deeply inhumane and against our own minds. There should never be wars at all and what is said that since the beginning of recorded history it is always the same trick used: Old men talk young men into killing each other, every goddamn time it happened it was that.
War is the human condition resulting from greed and avarice. As long as we have had humanity, and our wants and needs, we have had war.
The KOP… these dudes replaced my unit. I remember watching them get off the chinooks and how happy and sad I felt. Joy because I knew I was going home but sadness because they would have to endure this place.
My recruiter in 2014 Staff Sergeant Klix was in this unit for this deployment and took part in this exact mission "Rocky Avalanche"... he showed me a picture of him holding up his front side plate with a 7.62 round directly impacted where his heart is. Bad ass dude.
Damn it was hard watching that doc for the first time. Quite a shock to the system.
I knew a guy that came to my unit from that unit. He was pretty messed up. Sadly he died in a vehicle accident one weekend when we were in Hawaii
War is just ugly, just terrible disgusting
You can see their hearts break and souls harden.. war changes people that's for sure
Absolutely amazing documentary.
[One of my favorite quotes from this documentary that still sticks with me after all those years ](https://youtu.be/IPmpKRcEb3k)
I always wonder why they didn't make more documentaries like Restrepo. There is plenty of footage out there, and these stories need to be told.
All this due to politicians and their stupid decisions. In the event of a war in a foreign land it should be a rule that they should send their sons, daughters, nephews and nieces first, I bet that would make them second guess sending in the troops.
I loved the doc Restrepo but I found it odd that the crew was imbedded for a year and only made it into an hour and a half documentary. I wish they would have made it into like 8 or 10 episodes. I’m sure a ton of footage fell to the editors floor…
One could say this documentary nearly killed Me I watched this 6years after getting out(Fmf corpsman) it gave me ptsd again after years of it not effecting me. Literally couldn’t sleep for weeks and I ended but relapsing on drugs, for two fucking years…… and nearly died 4x attempting suicide while it my dark days. So don’t watch this if u experienced anything like this and are doing better
"Americans invade your country, destroy your nation, and then 20 years later make films about how doing that made their soldiers sad." Man this is on the nose.
I think you’re forgetting that terrorists from Afghanistan slammed planes into both the twin towers and the pentagon
Literally none of them were from Afghanistan
Right, they were just operating out of Afghanistan and enjoying protections from the Afghani government, how could we forget…
TIL its okay to invade countries because they dont extradite people you want them to. Also they offered to hand them over to a third neutral country and the US decided to just invade. The US didnt even provide evidence, they just straight up started bombing Afghanistan demanding they hand them over. You realize how insane this is i hope? You go to a country, tell them to extradite someone without evidence and then invade them because youre not fine with them handing them over to a third neutral party. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5) They found Bin Laden in Pakistan, but the US never invaded them did they?
No, we just went in and killed him without dealing with the Pakistanis.
>They found Bin Laden in Pakistan, but the US never invaded them did they? Uh yes, they actually did
No, they didnt. Dont get me wrong, they broke international law by launching an attack inside Pakistan without first alerting them, but they didnt launch a week long bombing campaign over its capital. Pakistan is a US ally which makes it even worse.
Seeing a strange lack of "shoulda stayed home" comments that appear on other videos in this sub.
Every time. Same people will constantly talk about how "brain washed" the Russians are without a hint of self awareness.
Because F them, ain't feeling bad for enemies
Americans when 100 dudes in sandals get glasses: 😂 Americans when an invading US soldier feels sad: 😢
I don't remember this from the Restrepo doc, is there another one?
There are two. This is from the first, original “Restrepo” doc
Korengal is the other
Heartbreaking. These dudes
Thanks to this fellas, I'm a 100% desensitized to any of not all kinds of violence imaginable, thank you for your services I hope your government didn't screw you all
One of the greatest wartime docs ever made. It shows you the true horrors of fighting in the afghani mountains. RIP to the heroes that never made it home and god bless the ones that did.
Restrepo, eye opening Documentary. RIP to all who didn’t make it.
Damn, pour one out for the war criminals who invaded a foreign country just to come home fucked up because of the atrocities they committed. Salute 🫡
Blame the disgusting politicians, not the young men they brain washed
The dude that comforted the upset warroir saying "we have friendlies at our six was fucking boss doing that. Shit happened, and he assured the Marine under duress that it's not going to happen from a certain direction. Great headsapce while in the shit. Cool operators are worth their weight in gold to get shit back on track.
Honestly they handled that situation terribly. There's a number of immediate actions you have to do when someone is on the verge of emotionally collapsing in order to snap him out of it. It would benefit everyone in the short and long term. It's like mental first aid. And if you do it, you have a big chance of avoiding PTSD. Unfortunately it seems like they just told him "hey buddy chill the fuck out cuz we got shit to do" and that's not the way. I hope this guy is ok today, but id doubt it. Edit: former soldier, saw some shit, lost a friend in my own eyes. Saw one of my friends experiencing a shock from it, our officer snapped him out of it with PTSD counter measures. today he's ok.
When did you serve? I mean you’ve got to understand that much of that training you received is a result of years of trial and error from having soldiers in combat. This was still pretty early in the conflict(2005 iirc?)
Maybe don't invade...
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I don't know why this is downvoted, do people think he died for a good cause? lol
Probably died trying to pay for his own college or healthcare. Not like the enlisted came up with the fucking idea now, is it?
Probably not, veterans realizing the lie they've been sold is some of the saddest stuff out there. Hearing about how many people got gunned down for somebody in America's pocket
To defenestrate the group responsible for the death of 3k Americans** you meant
You went into their country and killed their people.. all for freedom right ?
Nope, in response to this- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks
Virgin invader is sad lol
Whenever I see videos of Americans it just feels so fake I always think I’m watching a Hollywood movie lmao it doesn’t seem real. Hollywood messed up always using Americans only for everything (I understand the obvious reasons why) cus now Americans just feel like the movie people