One Possible Reason why Suicides are high among our Returning Veterans

As a former U.S. Marine, I quite often find myself attempting to meet the standards set up by those in power and seldom do I ever match any of them.  I am held responsible for keeping your freedoms free and accomplishing the mission that allows those in power to obtain that power but even that is not good enough collateral to secure a loan or run your business.

In the military, you are mostly graded on your ability to follow orders, accomplish the mission and the time you have spent dedicated to your particular job.  When that life is over and you are integrated into the civilian world, it’s a rude awakening to learn that the promises made are not the promises kept.  When you wore the uniform of the U. S. Armed Forces, people come up to you all the time to express their gratitude for your willingness to lay down your life to keep the joy in theirs but as soon as you disrobe from that obligation, so goes all that goodwill.

You are charged with keeping America safe but now you cannot get the benefits you deserve.  You are charged with putting your life on the line for America’s way of life but now you cannot be trusted to handle your own finances.  You are charged with working with complete strangers and watching their backs in the most dangerous of circumstances but now you are not trusted to supervise for any employer.  You grow close to those with whom you served because you know that they are there for the same reason as you and that commonality surpasses any differences you may have, yet when you disrobe from that obligation, the real truth strikes you dead in the face making you come to realize that this does not exist in the nation you were willing to die to protect.

A sense of helplessness overwhelms you and you begin to wonder why bother.  Why did you sacrifice so much and lose so many only to return to what you see in front of you.  You actually thought that by putting your life on the line, your country would have grown and became better but you now see that instead of it getting better, it became more corrupt and greed rules instead of compassion.  You traded bullets, shed blood and now have to deal with the constant nightmares so that you could defend the nation that nurtured you.  But what you see upon your return is not the same nation that was present when you first put on that uniform.  You see a nation of “me” and “I” but no we.  You see a nation divided among special groups with selfish agenda but no United States.  You were a part of something great and wonderful when you were in uniform but now that you are out and are not allowed to return, you now cannot shake the feeling of Why did I bother and you just can’t keep belonging to a world where it all about me and not about we.