This is a Newsweek article. It's an extremely depressing read.
Pvt. David Dietrich had a history of cognitive problems. He struggled in boot camp at Fort Knox, Ky., striking at least one of his superiors as unfit for the military. Dietrich was so slow at processing new things, some fellow soldiers called him Forrest Gump. His squad leader, Pfc. Matthew Berg, says Dietrich couldn't hit targets on the rifle range and had trouble retaining information. "He was very strong physically, but mentally he wasn't really all there," Berg says.
He lasted eight weeks in Iraq. Then he was shot and killed.
And this line:
He also said that in Germany, doctors had given him antidepressants and medication for attention-deficit disorder.
Jesus.
3 comments:
thank you for changing the title. Having a child with special needs makes it so hard to have people use that word as slang. Hats off to you for realizing that.
HannahJ, I worked for nearly nine years with developmentally disabled adults - just to say that I used that word knowing exactly what it meant. I was angry. I'm glad I changed it, Thanks for your words, and here's to you and your child.
LT
The US mmilitary has many things to be proud of and just as many, if not more, to be ashamed of and this one...? This one is at the top of the "shame on them" list.
A broken military will recruit anyone to do the dirty work of empire.
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