Chief Gallagher
had eight tours in Afghanistan. When you go to war as a combatant, you see horrible things
that your training never prepared you for. You lose your humanity and decency.
You see your friends (Who become like your family.) horribly wounded, tortured,
and killed. You live daily with firefights. Regardless of how scared you get
when you feel the wind of bullets coming near you and artillery landing near
you, you have to remain calm. If you panic and run, you die. General George S.
Patton once had a quote about war as follows:
"When
you stick your finger into that gooey mess that used to be your best friend's
stomach, you'll know what to do."
In Afghanistan young teenagers are
soldiers and carrying explosives to be suicide bombers. There are no innocent
civilians, everyone is a combatant.
I
do not condone things like this. In the case of Chief Gallagher, another man
who accused him got on the witness stand and admitted that he had done the
killings.
When
senior officers heard about the incident, they decided to make an example of
someone. Chief Gallagher was set up to become the scapegoat.
When you send young men and women to war,
things like this happen. It is not just an American thing. Whoever said
"War is hell" was right.
When I came back to war, I was sent to the
Long Beach Naval Station. For three weeks I was off-duty and free to watch
television, play pool, etc. I went to group counseling meetings. I had to learn
to be civilized again.
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