- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 210
The first reaction feels like an ice cold rod stuck into your spine, your head feels like there's a cold buzz going on and nothing much seems real. You feel like you're having tunnel vision and seeing it from someone else eye's and nothing else that you've been doing at that moment matters.
It's how I felt when I learned that a friend died in Iraq the first time. Similar feelings were evoked when another died that I knew but was more of an aquaintence than friend. I hadn't seen Mike or Chris for several years, but in November of 2006 and later, in 2007 , when I heard of their deaths it's how I felt.
Mike, otherwise remembered to me as Private Seeley, was one crazy bastard Indian, and did alot of funny things that you had to be there to actually see. Nothing obnoxious or over the top, but stuff that just fit the situation. Gearing up for some exercises in the bush we were told to camo up...so he goes over, gets a half dead baby fern and plops it into his helmet's headband and tells the Master Corporal "I'm an Indian, no one will find me I'm that good". It was silly stuff like that. A great guy, quiet alot though, but he often talked about joining the US Marine Corp because, well, he was an Indian and he could because he didn't have to have US citizenship. ( http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2006/11/01/nb-seeleydead.html ). We did alot together during training, talked alot, and got to know eachother fairly well. After he joined the US Marine Corps we lost contact.
And Christopher Stannix, I remember talking to him a few times in and out of uniform, a pretty friendly guy from what I knew. Didn't get to know him all too well, but a few people I know did.
I was surfing the internet and somehow came across a list of casualties from the Iraq was a day or 2 ago and came across Mike's name. His death slipped my mind, as things do with the passage of time, but when I saw the picture of him memories came back.
I've had civvie friends die and it's upsetting, always is, but for some reason it feels different when I see a picture of a friend or comrade who has died defending what they believe in. My civilian friends and family can't seem to see this and sometimes it's hard to deal with the strong emotions one feels when they learn of someone that they've gone through so much with, slept beside, shared food with, spent hour upon hour with doing the most crap tasks known to man, has died.
I even feel a tear spring to my eye and my heart wrench, just a little, every time I see a soldier, especially a fellow Canadian, die in combat, or senselessly to some coward terrorist.
Some War Vets I've spoken to say that they also feel that way when they come across old pictures or names of old comrades, but they hardly feel a twitch when it comes to a civilian friend who has died over the years. And on the other hand, alot of civvies that I've spoken to have said "What a senseless tradgedy" then in the same breath and manner say "We need a loaf of bread". I do believe that the training that the military goes through creates a ever lasting bond between current and prior military personell, regardless of rank.
As I said, civilians, no matter what they try to claim, they just don't understand. Some claim to, but I really don't believe them, to me they are the drama queens or attention whores who will piss and moan about anything to have focus placed on them.
Does anyone else see things kind of like I do, or am I seeing things like a victim of mental trama? It may just be on my mind these days because I have several friends serving in the Sandbox, and my cousin is heading over in a few weeks, add that to my upcoming enlistment and child due at the end of May...well I've been doing alot of thinking.
It's how I felt when I learned that a friend died in Iraq the first time. Similar feelings were evoked when another died that I knew but was more of an aquaintence than friend. I hadn't seen Mike or Chris for several years, but in November of 2006 and later, in 2007 , when I heard of their deaths it's how I felt.
Mike, otherwise remembered to me as Private Seeley, was one crazy bastard Indian, and did alot of funny things that you had to be there to actually see. Nothing obnoxious or over the top, but stuff that just fit the situation. Gearing up for some exercises in the bush we were told to camo up...so he goes over, gets a half dead baby fern and plops it into his helmet's headband and tells the Master Corporal "I'm an Indian, no one will find me I'm that good". It was silly stuff like that. A great guy, quiet alot though, but he often talked about joining the US Marine Corp because, well, he was an Indian and he could because he didn't have to have US citizenship. ( http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2006/11/01/nb-seeleydead.html ). We did alot together during training, talked alot, and got to know eachother fairly well. After he joined the US Marine Corps we lost contact.
And Christopher Stannix, I remember talking to him a few times in and out of uniform, a pretty friendly guy from what I knew. Didn't get to know him all too well, but a few people I know did.
I was surfing the internet and somehow came across a list of casualties from the Iraq was a day or 2 ago and came across Mike's name. His death slipped my mind, as things do with the passage of time, but when I saw the picture of him memories came back.
I've had civvie friends die and it's upsetting, always is, but for some reason it feels different when I see a picture of a friend or comrade who has died defending what they believe in. My civilian friends and family can't seem to see this and sometimes it's hard to deal with the strong emotions one feels when they learn of someone that they've gone through so much with, slept beside, shared food with, spent hour upon hour with doing the most crap tasks known to man, has died.
I even feel a tear spring to my eye and my heart wrench, just a little, every time I see a soldier, especially a fellow Canadian, die in combat, or senselessly to some coward terrorist.
Some War Vets I've spoken to say that they also feel that way when they come across old pictures or names of old comrades, but they hardly feel a twitch when it comes to a civilian friend who has died over the years. And on the other hand, alot of civvies that I've spoken to have said "What a senseless tradgedy" then in the same breath and manner say "We need a loaf of bread". I do believe that the training that the military goes through creates a ever lasting bond between current and prior military personell, regardless of rank.
As I said, civilians, no matter what they try to claim, they just don't understand. Some claim to, but I really don't believe them, to me they are the drama queens or attention whores who will piss and moan about anything to have focus placed on them.
Does anyone else see things kind of like I do, or am I seeing things like a victim of mental trama? It may just be on my mind these days because I have several friends serving in the Sandbox, and my cousin is heading over in a few weeks, add that to my upcoming enlistment and child due at the end of May...well I've been doing alot of thinking.