T1B

A few years back, you said one of your sons was getting treatment for shit that spun his head around in Iraq.
How is that working out? Would you say he finds the level of service at the VA to be satisfactory?

Not trolling. Genuinely interested.

He is pretty pleased with what he is getting from them. It took him a while to find the right combination of things, he did not want any of the meds they wanted him to take, he is still in some rap groups and some periodic counseling session's. If anything the passage of time seems to have helped quite a bit. He is 8 years out now and seems to be doing better every year.

He and his wife just had a baby, that seems to have settled him down a bit. He was drinking a bit more than he should have been and we had a talk about that. Got a good steady job at Intel, with the baby, getting his MBA this fall, hopefully he is on the right track. That sniper shit is pretty rough on these guys.

The other 2 are doing pretty good, they too tend to drink a bit more and often than I would like to see, but are in control of their lives pretty well. Might just a millennial thing, but fairly common with military veterans.

Years ago I checked a friend who was suicidal into the VA Psychiatric. He came out fine, got a college degree and the last I knew was helping troubled teens. Visiting him there was a real eye opener, a place where no one has shoe laces and bathrobe belts, and there is a big burly guard at the locked door with the key on a ring around his neck. There were guys still there from WW2. I wish your son well.

(Va)gina question for Derron...

have you ever procured it through some means other than a direct business transaction?

Derron wrote:He is pretty pleased with what he is getting from them. It took him a while to find the right combination of things, he did not want any of the meds they wanted him to take, he is still in some rap groups and some periodic counseling session's. If anything the passage of time seems to have helped quite a bit. He is 8 years out now and seems to be doing better every year.

He and his wife just had a baby, that seems to have settled him down a bit. He was drinking a bit more than he should have been and we had a talk about that. Got a good steady job at Intel, with the baby, getting his MBA this fall, hopefully he is on the right track. That sniper shit is pretty rough on these guys.

The other 2 are doing pretty good, they too tend to drink a bit more and often than I would like to see, but are in control of their lives pretty well. Might just a millennial thing, but fairly common with military veterans.

All bullshit aside, I wish your kids well. They've had much to overcome in their lives. The drink-too-much thing tends to be hereditary, BTW.

My father was, and is, a tea-totaler.

I'm sure there is a genetic component to being an alkie, as there is for most everything, but I suspect there it is also very much a result of going through some horrific shit as a young man.

I do have some personal experience with this, my step-dad, Tom.

Tom joined the army at 17 and volunteered for paratroopers, as it was a few bucks more a month during WWII. By the time he hooked up with my mom, he was mid fourties and basically a life long alcoholic. I was about 8 when they met. So this dude pretty much helped raise me. He was a very smart dude, but his struggles with the bottle really hampered him financially. He never did get a handle on the alcohol thing until he started smoking weed, some time in the late 70s. He always told me, he wished he had discovered weed 30 years sooner. As a pot-head he was a fully functional member of society. He'd get up in the morning, go to work, get home, eat dinner and smoke a joint. He followed this routine until maybe a decade later when emphysma kinda made smoking weed tough. He ended up going back to the bottle. Not long after, he got a blood clot and had a heart attack and checked out. He was 58.

At the time, I just figured he was just an alcoholic because, well, he just was. But looking back now, I am certain that being kicked out the side of a C-47 in the darkness at 500 ft with dudes on the ground shooting at you at 18, prolly left it's mark. Think back to what you were doing at that age. Most of us were in high school. Our biggest concern was finding beer and trying to get laid.

Does your kid smoke weed? From what I have heard, and seen with my own eyes, it is by far the best rememdy for dudes who have experienced the horrors of war.

Rack your kid, Tom and anyone who has ever been put into such a horrible situation because his country asked/told him to. I'd say he was in my prayers, but I am not much for praying, but he is in my thoughts.

Goober McTuber wrote:

Derron wrote:He is pretty pleased with what he is getting from them. It took him a while to find the right combination of things, he did not want any of the meds they wanted him to take, he is still in some rap groups and some periodic counseling session's. If anything the passage of time seems to have helped quite a bit. He is 8 years out now and seems to be doing better every year.

He and his wife just had a baby, that seems to have settled him down a bit. He was drinking a bit more than he should have been and we had a talk about that. Got a good steady job at Intel, with the baby, getting his MBA this fall, hopefully he is on the right track. That sniper shit is pretty rough on these guys.

The other 2 are doing pretty good, they too tend to drink a bit more and often than I would like to see, but are in control of their lives pretty well. Might just a millennial thing, but fairly common with military veterans.

All bullshit aside, I wish your kids well. They've had much to overcome in their lives. The drink-too-much thing tends to be hereditary, BTW.

My father was, and is, a tea-totaler.

You're old man was prolly at the Boston Tea Party. :grin:

smackaholic wrote:

Goober McTuber wrote:

Derron wrote:He is pretty pleased with what he is getting from them. It took him a while to find the right combination of things, he did not want any of the meds they wanted him to take, he is still in some rap groups and some periodic counseling session's. If anything the passage of time seems to have helped quite a bit. He is 8 years out now and seems to be doing better every year.

He and his wife just had a baby, that seems to have settled him down a bit. He was drinking a bit more than he should have been and we had a talk about that. Got a good steady job at Intel, with the baby, getting his MBA this fall, hopefully he is on the right track. That sniper shit is pretty rough on these guys.

The other 2 are doing pretty good, they too tend to drink a bit more and often than I would like to see, but are in control of their lives pretty well. Might just a millennial thing, but fairly common with military veterans.

All bullshit aside, I wish your kids well. They've had much to overcome in their lives. The drink-too-much thing tends to be hereditary, BTW.

My father was, and is, a tea-totaler.

You're old man was prolly at the Boston Tea Party. :grin:

Totally...

smackaholic wrote: You're old man was prolly at the Boston Tea Party. :grin:

How do you manage to mangle one line? ONE LINE?

I don't know.

It's a gift, I suppose.

Goober McTuber wrote:

Derron wrote:He is pretty pleased with what he is getting from them. It took him a while to find the right combination of things, he did not want any of the meds they wanted him to take, he is still in some rap groups and some periodic counseling session's. If anything the passage of time seems to have helped quite a bit. He is 8 years out now and seems to be doing better every year.

He and his wife just had a baby, that seems to have settled him down a bit. He was drinking a bit more than he should have been and we had a talk about that. Got a good steady job at Intel, with the baby, getting his MBA this fall, hopefully he is on the right track. That sniper shit is pretty rough on these guys.

The other 2 are doing pretty good, they too tend to drink a bit more and often than I would like to see, but are in control of their lives pretty well. Might just a millennial thing, but fairly common with military veterans.

All bullshit aside, I wish your kids well. They've had much to overcome in their lives. The drink-too-much thing tends to be hereditary, BTW.

My father was, and is, a tea-totaler.

Thank you. The three of them were moderate drinkers as young men, and I am not a drinker that much, Beer every other night, some Baileys in my coffee at night, never more than one usually. There is a huge culture of drinking and alcoholism in the military. My son was involved in a fairly high profile incident less than 2 weeks in country, and had to go through some pretty intense "instruction" on how that was handled. Then he had to finish his tour out as a sniper, so it was hard, plus his cunt girl friend broke up with him on Skype while he was in country. The other son was in multiple engagements in Afghanistan, was within 50 yards of a huge IED detonation, and saw one of the guys in his unit KIA during a firefight just before he came home. A lot og shit for young minds to deal with.

All of them have smoked weed, and still do, in moderation and that seems to have taken off the edge of the drinking. Now weed is something I did a lot of back in the day and still do now and then. They all seem to have stabilized in their female relationships, that shit can fuck your head up bad to.

I think the VA is doing a better job, but until we get these suicides stopped it is not enough.