October 17, 2008

How a Soldier Prepares to Kill

To Do the Deed, the Dance of Death

To understand what a person with PTSD goes through "in the moment" we have to think beyond our belief of how we would handle ourselves in a high stress life or death situation. Put self away, go to that place that enables you to kill or be killed.

Forget the theoretical self analyzing the process, but concentrate on the dominating, primeval alpha self that goes beyond rationalizing why or why not, realize that part of you that goes without thinking. This part operates from the law of the wild, the component that keeps you alive when your life becomes threatened to be snatched away. Your will to survive is an entity of its own and will separate from your rationale to preserve itself, self preservation.

We have a filtering mechanism inside of the mind that strains experience looking for the pertinent information needed to navigate stimuli in the environment. The subconscious screens the information through our emotive center which guides us on appropriate actions. When this controller becomes overloaded, the trigger is pulled and the irrational takes over. The flood gate becomes inundated and can no longer hold the storm wind and rain, the dam breaks releasing the rainwater's natural propensity to flow and overwhelm everything in its path.

Once this part of us has been released due to a death threat, it places itself on point and plows the way to safety. That part of us summoned by the heat of anger and the fire of rage and shuts down all thinking and rationalizing to do the deed, the dance of death.

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  1. THE CONCEPT OF POST COMBAT STRESS DISORDER AND PURPLE HEART MEDAL PROPOSAL

    "The news that 22,000 veterans called the military's new suicide hotline in the past year was somewhat disturbing. Even more troubling was the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' estimate that 6,500 veterans actually commit suicide every year."

    The Seattle Times - August 28, 2008

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "Know this: wisdom is not knowledge. A lot of brilliant people have no wisdom at all. Wisdom is the ability to assimilate that knowledge to make decisions that are right, wise, and best for all concerned."
    I pray our nation's leaders have the wisdom to implement the following PCSD Concept and Purple Heart Medal Proposal before many more lives are lost. These numbers demand that positive action be taken immediately! We have to change the way we look at combat stress to lessen or end the epidemic of suicides plaguing our military and combat veteran population. The solution is fundamental… we have to take something terrible and turn it into something better… we must turn it into something our heroes can live with!

    GOT A BETTER PLAN? LETS HEAR IT!
    TO DO NOTHING IS SHAMEFUL - SLACKERS ACT OR PACK!
    To ignore this calamitous situation is tantamount to negligence, ignorance and incompetence and should provoke the ire of every freedom loving, fair-minded American to demand that impeachment and dismissal from elective or appointed office be taken against those who bury their heads in the sand regarding these matters! Loss of office is a trivial price to pay for forsaking the lives of American heroes the government is duty bound to care for! Our warriors and combat veterans deserve a bright and promising future! Lets make sure they have a fighting chance at getting one! Grif
    SAVE OUR SOLDIERS!
    POST COMBAT STRESS DISORDER
    ~ "PCSD" Definition ~
    POST COMBAT STRESS DISORDER (POST synonym "AFTER" - the word TRAUMA is inherent in the term "COMBAT;" - thus the term PCSD interprets - AFTER COMBAT TRAUMA STRESS DISORDER - THE MOST SERIOUS FORM OF WAR RELATED PTSD: )"PCSD" is a very serious wound in the form of a severe psychological disorder resulting from the direct clash of arms; the individual active participation in intense, prolonged, highly contested battle on one or more military operations; i.e. kill or be killed; direct engagement in the raw, bitter, bloody nature of war.

    THE WARRIOR STANDARD
    ~ BASIS ~
    "To care for him who shall have borne the battle..."
    President Abraham Lincoln

    Only combat arms, hard core, tip of the spear, front line fighters are to be classified as suffering from PCSD. In short, those warriors whose mission it is/was to seek out and destroy the enemy and did so! (Even if the individual is only temporarily thrust into that status due to widespread hostilities and satisfactory combat performance is witnessed and documented by at least two supervisors and entered into unit and/or personnel records.) Documented individual battle histories, combat awards and decorations stand as testament to honorable individual actions and behavior exhibited while engaging our nations enemies on the battlefield.

    THE CONCEPT OF "PCSD"
    And Purple Heart Medal Proposal
    ~ SUGGESTED CRITERIA ~
    1) It is suggested that those warriors currently VA PTSD rated 70% or higher disability be classified as suffering from Post Combat Stress Disorder (PCSD) and be awarded the Purple Heart Medal as a result of this very serious, intentional, enemy inflicted battle wound. Warriors suffering from PCSD experience severe, negative life-altering behaviors, they are both industrially and socially impaired and can be declared unemployable by the VA. It is logical to believe that those psychologically wounded the worst, those suffering from PCSD, are the ones that are taking their own lives. It is imperative that we reach these warriors as soon as possible. SAVING LIVES BY FOSTERING DIGNITY, HONOR, UNDERSTANDING AND PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE is the major goal and objective of conceiving and presenting this concept and proposal.
    2) GIs exhibiting lesser degrees of war-related trauma and stresses (ors) be classified and referred to as suffering from Combat-related PTSD.
    3)The term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) should refer only to non-war related trauma and stress inflictions such as those suffered as a result of crime, accidents and natural disasters.

    THE DEGREE OF SEVERITY


    Grif believes there are only five criteria, which influence the occurrence and severity of PCSD in the individual combat veteran. The degree of individual involvement in these categories, directly affect the severity of the condition.
    1) DEDICATION – the degree of risk, commitment and effort put forth by the individual in combat.
    2) EXPOSURE – the degree and frequency of individual intense combat experienced.
    3) LOSS – the extent of sufferings incurred, inflicted or witnessed by the individual in combat.
    4) GUILT – individual beliefs that what one did or failed to do, negatively affected the lives of others.
    5) BETRAYAL – actual or perceived by the individual – committed by comrades, superiors, citizens or government that negatively affected the outcome of the conflict. Betrayal instills the overpowering, often irreversible belief, that all was in vain! PCSD is a serious wound inflicted in combat that is without doubt, exacerbated by the lack of, or loss of support on the home front.
    The cumulative, detrimental effects of any combination of these criteria will ultimately lead to the “undoing” of the sufferer. PCSD will, without doubt, destroy the individual’s quality of life, value of life or life, itself! If you have PCSD symptoms do not deny them! Do not compound your problems by using illegal drugs or alcohol. They will not offer any relief and will add to your sufferings. There is little hope for a meaningful life for those who remain undiagnosed and/or untreated! Therefore, I urge all who suffer from the symptoms of PCSD to seek professional medical assistance as soon as possible. Visit your nearest Veteran’s Administrative Medical Center for evaluation today!

    NO MORE PCSD SUICIDES!
    SUPPORT THE CAUSE AND OUR TROOPS!
    PROMOTE AWARDING THE PCSD PURPLE HEART

    FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PCSD VISIT GRIFFIN'S LAIR - http://www.grifslair.com

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