Mentally Ill Forced to Fight

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.healthyplace.com/news_2006/mental_illness.asp

Mentally Ill Forced to Fight

Newspaper says military has sent unfit troops to Iraq, ignores others who need help.

(May 19, 2006) -- In the 17 months after their son, Eddie, announced he was heading off to fight the war on terror, Margaret and Edward Brabazon of Bensalem, Pa., had held their breath.

They were accustomed to holding their breath with the boy they had taken in as a foster child at age 3 and adopted at 12 -- the boy who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and attention-deficit disorder by the time he was 10, and who had spent his early teenage years in a psychiatric hospital and group homes for the emotionally disturbed.

They watched with bewildered pride as the young man they had affectionately nicknamed "Crazy Eddie" was handed a uniform and an M-4 rifle and accepted into an elite fraternity -- the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

"We were surprised they took him, with the kind of mental problems he had, but we figured the Army must know what they're doing," Margaret Brabazon said. "We didn't think they'd send him into combat."

Today, the Brabazons regret those assumptions.

On March 9, 2004, less than three months into his second deployment to the Middle East, Spec. Edward W. Brabazon shot himself in the head with his rifle at a palace compound in Baghdad, the Army has concluded. He was 20.

[Uben]

1. Ahhhhhhhhhh maan!

I thought this was gonna be about DU.

[Deja Q]

2. Maybe that's why they allowed him in.

:tinfoilhat:

Guns are so easy...

[fenriswolf]

3. Honest to god

We had a "special needs" person in my training unit at fort knox. He had more then a couple mishaps with our drill srgs (apparently drill srgs don't like loaded weapons pointed at them) anyways he would have made it to, but couldn't throw a grenade 20 meters, kind of scary sometimes what you see.

[gratuitous]

4. And we're upset about the Down syndrome bombers . . . why?

Actually, young Eddie seems to have distilled the essence of the mistake he made quite well, and took a course of action that would end the mistake forever. George W. Bush will, I'm sure, be happy to explain to all of us exactly how noble this entire enterprise is.

[NNN0LHI]

5. Because doing so dehumanizes the Iraqis

That is the whole idea. Makes killing Iraqis to steal their oil more palatable to some I guess?

Don

[FreepFryer]

6. Don't hold your breath. As far as he's concerned, 'Mission Accomplished'. (n/t)

[FreepFryer]

7. Great post. Thank you. Crossposted here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2804572

[countryjake]

8. K&R

This makes me sick.

[Orsino]

9. The parents didn't think he'd be sent into combat?

I'm trying to understand the vague timeline, but it seems that Eddie enlisted in the fall of 2002 or earlier, but the war in Afghanistan was in full swing, surely. They watched him march wearing a red beret, and didn't think he'd ever get to jump out of a plane into combat? If he was eighteen when he enlisted, I guess they couldn't have stopped him, but could they really have been so naive about what he was to do for a living? Could they have been hoping that there would only be one small war, and that their son might never have been deployed?

There's a lot of information that didn't make it into the story, and of course we'll never hear Eddie's side of it. He has been silenced, along with hundreds of thousands of others in these goddamned wars.

[NNN0LHI]

10. He wasn't even 18. The parents had to sign for him to enlist

http://legacy.com/WashingtonPost/Soldier/Story.aspx?personid=3097584

Age: 20
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Date of Death: 3/9/2004
Incident Location: Baghdad
Branch of Military: Army
Rank: Spc.
Unit: 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division
Unit's Base: Fort Bragg, N.C.


Edward W. Brabazon's 9-year-old sister died while he was serving abroad in March 2003. When he returned from Afghanistan at Christmas, he spent most of his leave with his family, and he visited her grave. "He was so glad to be home," Margaret Ann Brabazon said of her son. "He didn't even want to go to Iraq, but he had no say." The 20-year-old from Philadelphia died March 9 of a non-hostile gunshot wound in Baghdad. He was based at Fort Bragg, N.C. Spc. Edward W. Brabazon had always wanted to join the military. His mother wasn't happy with his decision, but she and her husband gave their support when he enlisted right after high school, days before his 18th birthday. "He couldn't wait," Edward F. Brabazon said of his son. "It's something he wanted to do. He was determined." The couple raised the soldier from the time he was 3. When he was 12, they adopted him. "It is our loss, but he did a wonderful job for his country," Margaret Ann Brabazon said, looking at the yellow ribbon on her door. "He was our hero. He died a hero."

[Orsino]

11. "Died a hero?"

Denial can be such a sad, sad thing.

[mzmolly]

12. Bipolar is very serious. It's difficult for a BP person to handle "normal" stressors, let alone a

war.

sigh

[EFerrari]

13. This is so wrong in so many ways.

:(