The Other Message on Memorial Day

Circa 2004… We still don’t know the half of it.

My uncle suffered from PTSD after flying continuous mission in WWII. My brother was a Marine waiting for word from President Kennedy during the Cuban crisis. But nobody in my family had
to face what Iraqi war veterans are facing. I cover the military all the time,
but the reality of the wounded and maimed is hard to fathom. Because of battlefield medical miracles, soldiers are living with wounds never before imagined. Just watch “Baghdad ER” from HBO to get the message.

But something people forget are the marriages left in shambles from this
war. Not just because of injuries, but because of Bush's backdoor draft, which taxes people's commitments beyond breaking. It's
a horrendous breach of faith of the commander in chief to not have properly
prepared for preemption. What this Administration owes to our soldiers can never
be repaid.

A few weeks after an explosion tore off his legs and part of his right arm, Army Sgt. Joseph Bozik felt the time had come to tell his girlfriend she no longer was bound by their plans for marriage. He asked his mother to leave his hospital room at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and addressed his girlfriend, Jayme Peters. “Be completely honest with me,” he said. “If you want to go home, that's fine.” As she broke into tears, Bozik said he'd be okay, and he would understand completely. He knew she had not bargained for a husband like this. Along with its impact on bodies and minds, the war in Iraq has deeply affected military marriages and relationships. It has presented some young couples with an age-old choice: wed before departure to the front or wait until homecoming. And it has forced married couples to endure long, repeated separations. But experts say the hardest challenge can be when a spouse or lover comes home catastrophically injured. “The young stud that the woman married, when he comes back injured, is no longer a stud,” said one Army counselor. … … A Union Tested by War Military Couples Recast Future in Face of the Unthinkable

And we haven't even begun talking about the Republicans using our troops as props. We haven't forgotten.