Saddened Military Veteran

Kevin_Hassenpflug

After hearing the events of yesterday, my heart broke. 13 Brothers/Sisters - my family died - that didn’t need to - I cried last night - it’s been awhile.

I’m 3rd generation military, my Grandfather (Silver Star recipient) was Navy in WWII and Army in Korea, my Dad Vietnam Era (10 years) and I joined in October 1991 - primarily because of the Invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. I joined because of patriotism for my country and my abhorrent dislike of bullies.

My career lasted 12 years with two different jobs (Security Police and IT/CyberSecurity) from Texas to Wyoming to Mississippi, to Illinois and overseas from to Kuwait, to Italy and Turkey - three (3) combat tours total lasting a total of 20 months.

When a terror attack occurred in 2016 in Brussels Belgium - my heart broke because I knew that family and served that Lieutenant (now Colonel) during my time in.

I’ve been to one too many military funerals and cried too many times, I was active duty on September 11th and remember that day forever……

robertw486

Kevin,

Events like these will often impact those of us that are veterans in a much greater way. It's one of the consequences. Unfortunately I've found that as I age, it impacts me more. I'm about 10 years your senior and was a young jarhead in communications schools when the Beirut bombings took place. A couple days later I found out that one of the guys I knew from bootcamp stationed at the same place had a brother die in that blast. That drove it home even harder, and at some point it becomes a personal thing.

Reach out to other vets, talk about it, check on each other. Do what we did when we were serving, look out for each other. There are plenty of resources if you need them, and no shame at all in using them. I've known people that have dealt with PTSD 20-30 years after their service ended, but had managed to cope through all of it.

Those that are killed will never be forgotten by those that walked down the same path. They will live forever with us.


Take care of yourself, and reach out if you need to.