Soldier Charged in Killing Blame Trauma From Iraq

I had never even heard of this story when it happened last year...well at least I don't remember hearing about it. looks like we are going to start seeing the effects of war on our soldiers as they return home....or just good legal defense when they commit crimes.

Soldier Charged in Killing Blame Trauma From Iraq
Attorney David S. West said he plans to have his client, Pfc. Alberto Martinez, examined for post-traumatic stress disorder.

"The most amazing thing to me is to hear the harrowing descriptions of what these kids went through," West said. "They were one of the first units into Baghdad. All along the way, they were under fire. They were sleeping in their armored vehicles for fear they were going to get shot dead. They had people around them who were getting shot."

Martinez is accused of stabbing Spc. Richard Davis, 25, of St. Charles, Mo., at least 30 times a few days after their unit returned from Iraq in July.

Davis had insulted a dancer during their drunken homecoming celebration and had gotten the group thrown out of a strip club in Columbus, not far from Fort Benning, where all the soldiers were based.

Two other soldiers are accused of assisting Martinez, while the fourth is accused of helping conceal Davis' slaying. All four soldiers remain in jail. No trial date has been set.

Jesus, this is beginning to sound eeriely like 30 years ago. They even remade Walking Talk, for release this week I think. Turn the 6 PM news off folks.

What's Walking Talk???

and when you mention 30 years ago, I'm not sure what you mean...I was still in the process of being conceived, and I don't recall anything about soldiers killings and blaming the Vietnam war in my history books.

this particular situation is a little strange though...I mean how do you stab someone 30 times??? come on.. there has to me more to this than a fight over getting thrown out of a strip club.

Herr Intrepid is refering to Walkign Tall, methinks. It's a movie, now starring The Rock adn That Guy From Band of Brothers.

DE

thanks DE, I am familiar with Walking Tall (the rock movie), but intrepid threw me a curve with his typo.. thanks

Sorry, I'm a two finger typer. Walking TALL. It just seems to me that the atmosphere of the Viet Nam era is returning. I don't think that Hollywood is helping, why would they release that movie now? Exploitation I guess.

True dat, Intrepid. Persinger predicted as much- look for an antnomial group to pop up. I think that Iraq is starting to turn into another Vietnam, and the stimulus repsonse is basically the same.

DE

I think it may become larger in scope though because they are dealing with a race this time and not a country, so it may become more widespread.

What will become more widespread, Intrepid? I figure that the war is a fair bit unwinnable at thsi stage, and the populace grows tired of hearign daily casualty reports. Antinomial groups (such as those damn hippies) will start springing up. It happens every once in awhile and is fairly cyclical. We won't have to deal with those tree huggers forever...

DE

The scope I'm refering to is the theater of activity. Now it is contained to Afganistan and Iraq, but it could easily spread, and probably will, to other Islamic nations. When thinking of Viet Nam some forget that there were other countries invovled in the area, used actually, Cambodia, Laos, etc.. It is all shaping up to another war of attrition. The longer it goes on the more you will see those "tree-huggers." I hope that the leaders studied their history so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past. I doubt it though.

I doubt it. George is nothign more than an errand boy sent by a store clerk to collect a bill.

The problem is that we're basically fighting the same war over again. We jsut slapped different faces and names on it. We happen to be living in an age where the horrors of Vietnam are playign themselves out again.

DE

here's a story I just read, that made me think of this, I wonder if this guy is going to blame his actions on his time spent in Iraq.

Army Reservist Who Served in Iraq Arrested After Police Find Wife's Body in a Van

- An Army reservist who returned from Iraq several months ago was arrested after police found his wife's body in a van near the couple's apartment.
Matthew James Denni was arrested Saturday as he camped along the Washougal River, east of Vancouver.

The body of 37-year-old Kimberly Faye Denni was found in a military footlocker stashed in a van in Battle Ground, about 10 miles north of Vancouver. She died of a gunshot wound to the neck, Police Chief Ronald H. Johnson said

The marriage was troubled and there was no immediate indication that wartime stress was involved in the death, Trimble said. The military beefed up its postwar counseling programs after three soldiers from commando units at Fort Bragg, N.C., were accused of killing their wives in the summer of 2002 after returning from Afghanistan.

This things are going on for a long time with war or not during my years as a military wife and working for family services in the bases, it was some horror stories about soldiers coming back and abusing wifes and childrens.

Some of this was due to findig out that the wifes were not to faithful when husband were gone. And some childrens paternity question.

The family services program is suppouse to address this issues when soldiers are back with seminars and counseling but once in a while somethings can not be change.

This may be relevant or not to the thread I was a military wife for 22 years, just putting my 2 cents.