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• Messageboard • General Chat • This is how we treat our heros? What a f#$king joke.
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-AAT-KASRA Clanmember
SILENCE I KILL YOU
1337 Posts
registered: 13.01.2008
07.02.2010, 00:30 homepage offline quote 
Story from the Herald Sun (February 06, 2010)
>> Story <<

These guys and girls have done a f#$king hard job, gone through hell and back and how are they treated? Like f#$king shit.

Makes me sick.



ANGUS Sim draws deep breaths. He warns, as he tells his story, that he is becoming worked up.

He looks like most modern young warriors, built strongly and emblazoned with heavy ink. He shifts between tears and rage.

For Sim, the quiet streets of Sunbury, in Melbourne's northern outskirts, may as well be filled with hidden home-made bombs, snipers and trucks being prepared for suicide bomb missions.

Sim, 24, returned from Iraq in June 2005 after serving with the Brisbane-based infantry battalion, 6RAR.

He was involved in four incidents that would separately, and cumulatively, damage him profoundly.

His energy has nowhere to evaporate. Time bomb or loose cannon, take your pick.

Sim doesn't like people much. "I got back to Sunbury after Iraq," he said. "I had a girlfriend and I broke up with her. It turned nasty. I got called a 'psycho from Iraq' and this sort of stuff. People don't understand. But the Australian people need to understand."

Sim likes his memories even less. The need for hyper-vigilance after being assigned to the security detachment, or SecDet, guarding Australian embassy staff within Baghdad's red zone - the uncontrolled, dangerous part of that city - stays with him.

Sim has post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition the military once regarded with scepticism.

PTSD sufferers were seen as bludgers looking for compo.

The military now accepts the reality of PTSD.

But who could blame the public for not understanding Sim's pain? This Government, like the previous one, has kept a tight leash on all information from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defence drip-feeds abbreviated information about Australians wounded or killed in conflict, and has even less to say on the mentally damaged.

Just like Vietnam, a new battalion of lost souls is bunkered down in suburban homes, haunted by intrusive images of carnage.

The Federal Government claims it is trying harder with mental health issues and has promised $83 million over the next four years to implement the recommendations of Prof David Dunt, who last year produced two Australian Defence Force reports on improving mental health.

BUT they have done nothing to help the Australian public cushion the landing for returning soldiers.

Public knowledge of Iraq and Afghanistan has been mostly limited to wives and babies kissing camouflaged homecoming soldiers.

Sim doesn't like it. Most soldiers don't.

They feel their service is undervalued.

Sim has an inbuilt bull detection meter. It's set to maximum. "I'm safe, but I got a short fuse and a bad temper," he said. "People just annoy me. On Anzac Day a few years ago, there was this guy at the pub telling me he was SAS. I questioned him and his story didn't add up.

"I finished my beer and slammed the glass into his face. He was lying. He was showing no respect. And I'd do it again."

These days, Sim has almost totally withdrawn.

He feels safer indoors and knows he is less of a threat to others there. "I don't really go out much any more," he said.

"I stay around here. I might as well be in jail. I avoid situations, I suppose."

It's hard to believe these are the comments of a man who, at 24, should be just starting out on his working life. He feels Australia did the right thing in going to Iraq, but says his country used him, then threw him out without preparing him for normal life.

"My debrief from Iraq was with one psychiatrist, for half an hour, in Iraq," he said. "I had some real dramas. I hit the drugs pretty hard. I'd never touched them in my life. I was 19. The last year I was in the army I was doing drugs every weekend. You name it - speed, ice, ecstasy, acid.

"I went off the rails. It just took me away from everything. It was just a way of dealing with it. Not the right way, I know. And I was drinking a fair bit, too.

"It's just disappointing. I hate this country now. Well, I don't hate it, but f------ hell, we're soldiers going over to do a bit of good for the world. We didn't just look for terrorists. We were trying to bring some peace to Iraq.

"And I think we achieved that. We helped them get their first election up."

Sim is discharged, classified TPI - totally and permanently incapacitated.

He likes cooking for his fiancee, Jess, and he likes his widescreen TV.

NOT much else. "I'm always on guard, high strung and on edge. If I'm in bed and Jess comes home, I'll wake up ready to kill her," he said.

"We hooked up a year ago. We fight - had a doozy the other night. But she's good, she's caring. She understands, as much as she can."

The sense around Australia's veteran community is that PTSD numbers from Iraq and Afghanistan are creeping above 10 per cent, though delayed onset means that number will only grow.

We know now why those who served in World Wars I and II rarely talked about their wars. They couldn't talk about them. Many were undiagnosed PTSD sufferers.

On January 19, 2005, a truck laden with explosives attempted to ram the Australian embassy compound. Sim was blown out of his bed, but, like the other Australian soldiers guarding the vicinity, he was unhurt.

Several Iraqi civilians were killed. The bomb was followed by a secondary device and sniper fire.

"That woke us up and told us we were in Baghdad," said Sim. His detachment became renowned for the number of events it faced in the first half of 2005.

A WEEK after the embassy attack, Sim and others stopped a vehicle. "This bloke, a civilian, was pissed and staggering around," he said. "We looked in his van and he had drums in the back. We didn't take any risks, we shot him.

"One of my mates did, shot him four times.

"Turned out it was only some barrels of petrol, no detonators. It was silly of him the way he was acting. His missus was all upset."

Now it's Sim, recounting this story, who's upset.

The next day, Australia Day, an Australian light-armoured vehicle was hit by a suicide car bomber on the road to the airport.

Sim's detachment arrived at the scene minutes later.

"I don't now how no one died. One guy had serious facial wounds, he lost his nose. We skull-dragged the vehicles back to the nearest base, which was American, and I had to clean the vehicles of (the suicide bomber's) body pieces.

"There was skin all over our vehicles. I found a bit of his spine and had to pull his foot out of the exhaust system. I got all the flesh, put it in the bin. A few of our boys were sent to (hospital in) Germany."

By then, everyone in SecDet was on edge. The next incident affected Sim more than the others.

"These civilians were driving up the road," he said. "We had night-vision goggles. They didn't stop. One of the boys opened fire with a burst of machinegun. One bullet hit a female passenger in the head. She was sitting in the front seat.

"A little kid in the back got hit with glass in his eye, lost his eye. It was just a family. That just plays on me. It wasn't me who shot him. We donated a heap of money to try and fix his eyesight, but he ended up losing his eye. The mum didn't die. I think she had brain damage. We went to hospital to see them, tried to do the right thing."

SIM'S mental health care on return was two weeks' stress leave.

"The help was crap," he says. "I just said to myself, 'I'll deal with this.' I dealt with it until I couldn't deal with it any more. I have bad days, bad months, still.

"It's not as bad as when I tried to keep it all in. I thought I was going crazy. And in a way I was.



"The biggest kick in the a--- was when we got back, the way we were handled.

"We should have gone straight into a debriefing program. If you want help, you should be able to get it."

The Department of Veterans' Affairs pays for Sim's medication and psychiatric help, but only after he was admitted to hospital for suicide attempts.

He wants it known he is only speaking out so other soldiers might benefit.

An estimated 36,000 Australians have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

John Vincent, of the Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Veterans Association says 30 per cent of those who serve in conflicts will develop some form of PTSD.


When sausages come hunting, hide in an apple.
-AAT-MACKATTACK Clanmember
I HAVE BEEN SAVED
281 Posts
registered: 12.09.2009
07.02.2010, 01:05 offline quote 
I absolutly cannot stand the way the media looks at us soldiers its an absolute disgrace....I hate the media with a passion, especially when they get the word hero wrong, a cricket player who gets a century is not a hero, a soldier who saves his section kills about 10 people and earns a medal for gallantry is a hero. My corpral at Singleton did this and earned a Distinguished Service Medal one of the highest. If i saw a guy lying about being SAS id bottle him too, infact if i saw anyone not even infantry gobbing off id bottle them too. When i was posted in Townsville the people there hated us and i just told them to get f*****...People wont understand wat things like mateship are till they join..Id give one of my arms for a deployment to Iraq or the Ghan...I actaully hav good mates doing SecDet now and i wish them all the best. To earn and wear that uniform with pride and get spat on is a disgrace...Men and Women hav died wearing that and now they wana change the flag too are u kidding me....Thats on my left arm when i serve and it will stay there till i die. If these media clowns want to look at us like this then instead of drinkin coffee and sitting behind a desk they can HTFU and defend their own country....stuff them they would be too busy crapping their pants to even man up and kill a person, wat a joke....

EDIT: yeh KIWI u are right heroes arnt all millitary, but the word hero is a title for someone who has risked their life to save another, happens all the time with fires, floods etc but not sporting acheivments which the media favour.

Hate the Game not the Player
-AAT-MICKEY Clanmember
I HAVE BEEN SAVED
238 Posts
registered: 31.03.2009
07.02.2010, 01:38 offline quote 
FINALLY, a REAL war story!

Not that over pumped fake stuff the media feed us day in day out

*Glares at American Media* Jessica Lynch Story anyone?

Unlike a few, i've heard of of PTSD amongst vetrans awhile back, and the effects of it, as i have actually taken time to study it and read up on stories of many soldiers, espeically the forgotten and tossed aside vets of Vietnam

But of cause the general public mostly live with their heads so far up there butts, they wouldnt know the truth or reality of things when the see it. The general public dont care about that either sadly, they only want to hear and see the good things. They dont care if their government made a presentation of lies to the UN, or if your own people killed innocent civilians, or if the military made a propaganda video showing a overhyped and fake rescue, or if your suffering from servere mental or health problems apon returning from active duty. No one complains, no one seems to care.

The public only care about one thing, and that is that your in uniform, carrying the nations flag. Even before you do anything or go on a mission your seen as a hero. They rather hear about the guy who came home and kissed his wife, and the heroic stories, than the dark and REAL side of wars, and the TRUE horrors faced by those who serve in the deepest parts of the warzone. That even the government and military heads rarely reveal these side of things

But once you take off that uniform for the last time, your pretty much cast aside by alot of people, some people dont seem to care anymore. The very people that were once cheering you on, the people your were fighting for, putting your life on the line for. Seeing your own mates who died for the country one by one in horrific ways. You then become just another person in society. Except the occasional service and parade

The governments and heads of military see PTSD as a costly liablity, so they try their best to deny it as they did for a long period, or cover it up, or move them all on, to avoid having to pay their way through all these payouts. The very people who put there lives on the line, whilst all those fat cats, sit behind their desks doing nothing, yet get paid and looked after handsomely when they retire, most having not seen war face to face. Unless you die or get a major award, your pretty much forgotten after you serve, services in alot of areas, particularly mental health is poor for veterans. Whilst the situation is abit better than a few decades ago, there still needs to be alot more done, particularly awareness made, and pressure on Governments and Military Agencies to act on it

Mind you, i've seen plenty of video clips or war and the negative sides of it, but being there and acutally witnessing it is 100 times worse, its horror that lives on your mind for life. As i agree with MACK, the word HERO being over used pees me right off. Its people like ANGUS who are the true heroes. And we need to do alot more to help people like ANGUS who are basicaly calling out for help. He should'nt have to turn to a newspaper to let the world know about what he has been through. We should have all the help and programs set aside already to help people before they fall too far in the dark like ANGUS himself has

Hopefully something will be done soon, whether the one proposed in the article is for real or a stunt, or if it is even enough will yet to be seen. But sadly for many, its already too little too late
-AAT-KIWI Clanmember
Administrator
4151 Posts
registered: 17.06.2007
07.02.2010, 08:15 online quote 
I certainly agree Kasra = now will you do something about it?

Mack - I agree with you too - but are Heroes in your eyes military only? Heroes come in many forms....
-AAT-SCHEM Clanmember
Administrator
7599 Posts
registered: 22.05.2007
07.02.2010, 11:04 online quote 
not reading it ! i have enuff stress in my life

john u swearing again?

-AAT- FOUNDER & AMIGO LEADER
BLADE Clanmember
I HAVE BEEN SAVED
221 Posts
registered: 05.12.2009
07.02.2010, 14:43 offline quote 
I definatly agree with u mate heros should never be treated like crap very nice post mate
-AAT-GUMNUT Clanmember
I WILL SLAP YOU
348 Posts
registered: 02.02.2009
07.02.2010, 22:27 offline quote 
yea heros shouldn't be treated like that
KILLBOYANDREWW... Clanmember
SLAP ME SILLY AND CALL ME SUE
13 Posts
registered: 01.01.2010
07.02.2010, 22:50 offline quote 
sad man, sad. makes me cry. boohoo
-AAT-DUSTY Clanmember
SILENCE I KILL YOU
2022 Posts
registered: 17.01.2008
08.02.2010, 22:38 offline quote 
killboy - are you taking the piss?

dangerous ground if you are

DAVE
AS DRY AS A NUNS NICKERS
-AAT-SGT G Clanmember
SILENCE I KILL YOU
985 Posts
registered: 22.03.2008
08.02.2010, 23:45 offline quote 
Unfortunately this post does not come as a suprise to me. In my line of work I constantly come across the broken people in this world. Police often spend more time dealing with the mentally ill than mental health workers. Our prisons are full of the menatlly ill as are our cemetaries. It's about time we as a society realised that igoring these issues won't make them go away. Governments spend more money telling us how they are fixing the health system, education and boosting police numbers than they do on mental health issues. Our mates and family blow gasket and we avoid them, it's to hard to deal with them. Men and women will continue to suffer and die long after the war has ended. Many of those will have never been to a war. I disagreed with us sending troops to Iraq BUT, they have sreved and will contiue to serve our country proud. They have my highest respect for what they have done for our country. Unfortunately I probably won't have time to tell them while they are trying to kill me or someone else trying to get them help after they have completly lost it. Darwin has one of the largest army bases in the country. You can bet your left nut the politiions won't be fighting any elections campaigns on this issue. I don't like the term hero, it is used to often but fuck me they deserve better.

Meow
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