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    dvdoffHamilton Nolan
    8/26/13 2:00pm

    Meanwhile.....

    "The F-35 is the Pentagon’s costliest weapon system, with an estimated price tag of $391.2 billion for a fleet of 2,443 aircraft, up 68 percent from the projection in 2001, as measured in current dollars."

    So fuck anyone who has problems from the war. We need more fucking money spent on planes!!

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      tektwodvdoff
      8/26/13 2:21pm

      I know this sounds cliche but as someone who spent a good portion of my life relying on these fighting machines I am all for spending as much as possible on high tech weapons and platforms that give us an edge... It may not seem like it now (with the F35 problems) but fighters like that and the new equipment being developed based on our last decade of experience will save lives in the future and put less of our people in harms way. We are learning new techniques of dealing with emotional issues as well as military ones.

      Our only option outside of this is isolation and the abandonment of our allies... This plane is not designed to fight insurgents in Afghanistan, it is to square off with the Chinese when they start making a push against Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, and the rest of Asia. If we think PTSD and war is bad now wait until we are outnumbered 10 to 1 against highly trained and well equipped soldiers. The men and women on the ground will be thankful we have the F35 and not some big target F18 or F15.

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      Bertie.Wtektwo
      8/26/13 2:39pm

      Our only option outside of this is isolation and the abandonment of our allies...

      No, I'm pretty sure there are at least some options that exist between the two extremes of spending like drunken sailors and basically returning to our isolationist past.

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    sillygirlVAHamilton Nolan
    8/26/13 1:58pm

    Thank you. It's criminal what happens to vets. My husband served in the first Gulf War and in Iraq and Afghanistan the second time in the Middle East. He can't approach debris on the side of the road while driving without his mind racing and worrying that it's an IED. He has terrible dreams at night and has renounced any faith in a higher being. He thinks about death a lot. Not just his but worries about things happening to me or the kids. He has told VA docs this and it is normal. He won a bronze star and when people ask what he did to win it, he says, "I didn't get myself killed." They broke my husband a little.

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      epicfurioussillygirlVA
      8/26/13 8:46pm
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    keverdeneHamilton Nolan
    8/26/13 2:14pm

    I read these stories and think about my dad, my dad, my dad. His whole life was defined by his service 40 years ago and its aftermath.

    Vietnam, folks. It ruined my childhood, and it ruined my father's life. I don't think our country, let alone our military, has been the same since.

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      MeczaHamilton Nolan
      8/26/13 2:01pm

      The Agent Orange stuff scares me. Ironic how the U.S was happy to use it back in the day, but god forbid someone else do the same. I have a feeling the same concept will apply to drones in a few decades.

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        SkipperydoodaHamilton Nolan
        8/26/13 4:18pm

        A lot of the responses I'm seeing here are off topic. The point is the inefficiencies and low quality of care in the VA - not the validity of these veterans' claims and illnesses or whether they are in relation to their time in the service. Veterans are entitled to medical care that should be at least as good as our crappy privatized health care system. Once entitlement is established, this care is not limited to service related injuries.

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          KinnaKindaSkipperydooda
          8/27/13 12:08am

          Not true... I have a 40% disability rating and I can ONLY receive care from the VA for the conditions related to my disability... I make too much to be allowed to get any other care from the VA. Yes, I make decent money, but, I'm just showing that your statement is not completely true. You do not get "entitlement (to care) ... not just limited to service related injuries."

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          SkipperydoodaKinnaKinda
          8/27/13 10:23am

          Okay, thanks. In the case of medical retirement or any type of retirement, care is completely covered though, right? I was mostly referring to the arguements above about PTSD, etc. There is no need to argue about the impact of war on the psyche; that is a discussion for another time. The point here is that the care that is provided is sucky.

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        PJsparklezHamilton Nolan
        8/26/13 5:23pm

        My dad got cancer from agent orange in Vietnam (he survived thank god), but he told me one thing about ptsd I'll never forget: "I don't normally have flashbacks that involve battle or death. The one that haunts me still was once I saw a (Vietnamese) man who's foot was so badly infected that you could smell it. I offered to help him and he said he would rather die than have an American touch him. Thats what keeps me up at night." He said he felt stripped of his humanity as a soldier.

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          nicka4281Hamilton Nolan
          8/26/13 4:18pm

          my friend just started a blog to help vets going through things just like this

          http://fugazilife.com/

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            PanasonicYouth21Hamilton Nolan
            8/26/13 2:59pm

            What an amazing and strong woman, the "tired wife" is. I don't know the whole story, of course, but I feel like the unfortunate truth is that her husband would already be dead without her.

            To stay with and support him through all of this, that's a real woman.

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              Tessa JacksonHamilton Nolan
              8/26/13 5:15pm

              As the daughter and niece of several veterans, I can say that the VA is like any organization, it works or fails because of the people there. My father goes to the VA for medical treatment and is happy with the care he receives (although I suspect it has something to do with the fact that they dispense Viagra prescriptions like pediatricians give out lollipops). On the other hand, my uncle was sent to a VA hospital after being medically discharged by the Army after a mental breakdown. When my family finally found him, he was wandering the streets of San Francisco and didn't know who he was.

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                wasadarlingHamilton Nolan
                8/26/13 2:36pm

                My father is a 20-year veteran of the military. The things he's seen and remembers from his service haunt him to this day. It's hard to see a gentle, loving man so destroyed by serving his own country.

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