A friend sent me an autographed copy of “Shade it Black,” which I read in a day. As a Marine Vietnam Veteran (of no particular distinction), I have to say that Jess Goodell is a better Marine than I am, because she bravely performed a duty I don’t believe I could have done, working in Mortuary Affairs and dealing every day with the horrific dead of modern combat. That duty wounded her as deeply as any veteran who lost a limb, but it was a wound unseen and largely unacknowledged. I would not recommend this book to someone of fragile sensibilities.
PTSD is very real and very painful. Unfortunately, because it is not a visible wound, it is also possible to fake it, as detailed in the great book about phony Vietnam vets, “Stolen Valor,” which I highly recommend. And agencies or providers in the money flow have no incentive to expose the fakes, which means they suck up resources needed by veterans like Goodell. Cash flow is probably why the CDC and the VA have such a different estimate of real PTSD among Vietnam veterans, and why so many groups raising money put out inflated phony claims of the suicide rate among Vietnam vets.
Having in the past sent several hundred dollars to a woman Marine I knew to escape from an abusive marriage (she paid back every penny), I was disappointed to read that Goodell’s comrades offered her so little support after she left the Corps.
This book may also make you rethink the politically-correct idea that women can be injected into the macho male environment of combat without adverse conditions.
Thank you, Jess, for your service to our Corps, to your fellow Marines and to our Republic.
Semper Fidelis,
Robert A. Hall
Author: The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
PTSD is very real and very painful. Unfortunately, because it is not a visible wound, it is also possible to fake it, as detailed in the great book about phony Vietnam vets, “Stolen Valor,” which I highly recommend. And agencies or providers in the money flow have no incentive to expose the fakes, which means they suck up resources needed by veterans like Goodell. Cash flow is probably why the CDC and the VA have such a different estimate of real PTSD among Vietnam veterans, and why so many groups raising money put out inflated phony claims of the suicide rate among Vietnam vets.
Having in the past sent several hundred dollars to a woman Marine I knew to escape from an abusive marriage (she paid back every penny), I was disappointed to read that Goodell’s comrades offered her so little support after she left the Corps.
This book may also make you rethink the politically-correct idea that women can be injected into the macho male environment of combat without adverse conditions.
Thank you, Jess, for your service to our Corps, to your fellow Marines and to our Republic.
Semper Fidelis,
Robert A. Hall
Author: The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
God's Speed Jess,
ReplyDeleteI am an Army Veteran with a deployment to Kosovo and a soon to be author myself. Like so many before, I first learned of you and your story from listening to Terry Gross on Fresh Air. I bought your book that night. I gotta say, that I can understand the conflict that goes on under our skin when someone says, "Thank you for your Service" Let me say instead, Thank You for surviving. Thank you for taking the high road in your survival. There are so many surviving veterans (yesterday, today and tomorrow) succumbing to the darkness, that'll never get a chance to know the fellowship, the morality and the understanding of being able to take such a catastrophic life experience and turn it into a positive. Bless your strength in this quest!
In closing, all of life comes in pairs. Thank you for being the counterweight to all the black that war shades all over the world.
With Regard and Respect,
Roger A. Privratsky