TYT: Army Ranger Suicide Before 9th Deployment To Iraq/Afghanistan

[alp227]

Run time: 03:32 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b2X3ZdZrI4   Posted on YouTube: August 16, 2011 By YouTube Member: TheYoungTurks Views on YouTube: 310   Posted on DU: August 16, 2011 By DU Member: alp227 Views on DU: 2496

 
An Army Ranger (Jared Hagemann) committed suicide and his widow (Ashley Hagemann) says it's because he couldn't come to grips with what he'd seen and done in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss.

Source: Keith Eldridge, "Widow: After 8 deployments, Army Ranger takes own life." KOMO-TV: August 12, 2011.

[newfie11]

1. 9 times sent into hell

Thanks America for being the biggest bully around. Stop this insanity!:mad: :nuke:

[90-percent]

2. Enlistment statistics?

I have been told the military is now meeting it's recruitment goals - probably due to this lousy economy.

Is this true or false?

It seems like they are still lacking cannon fodder if they are sending soldiers out on NINE DEPLOYMENTS!!!

Anybody know?

-90% Jimmy

[maddiemom]

3. Deployments

I am of the Viet Nam generation and had many friends and relatives who served then. I may be mistaken, but bad as the Viet Nam situation was, my impression was that once someone served "in country," they weren't sent back unless they volunteered to go (some did). Many volunteered, rather than wait to be drafted. This meant that they had some control as to specialized training, rather than just becoming "cannon fodder." They also usually got some R and R in peaceful locations while serving in Viet Nam. Volunteering committed to three years, rather than two, as I remember. After a Viet Nam tour, these veterans served out their remaining time with some comparative respect. My brother and friends, returning to put in their remaining time, weren't subject to the usual base rules where they ended up stationed. They had jobs on base to show up for; otherwise they could live off base and weren't subject to early morning roll calls and the like. After forty years, i may have this wrong, but my brother and various of his veteran friends used to hang out with my then-husband and myself, and this is how I recall it. They were also supported in later civilian training.

[maddiemom]

4. national guard

P.S. My reaction did not include using the National Guard in combat situations. During the first Gulf War, I remember a young friend in the National Guard explaining that they were taking over domestic duties when the regular army was deployed to actual combat situations. This was the purpose. Those who signed up for the National Guard did not do so to serve in foreign wars.

[Maine_Nurse]

5. Uhhh, that isn't the way it works...

National Guard can be federalized and used any way the military sees fit. That is how it has always been. Sometimes they get used that way, sometimes they don't.

[newfie11]

7. My husband was a navy corpsman with the marines in Viet Nam

Once he served his time 1965-1966 he was sent back to the states (arriving at night so protesters weren't there) but he later was going to be sent back, again with the marines. So at least in his case yes they could be sent back. He did not reenlist. Was in 15 years.

[democrank]

6. Rest in peace, Ranger Hagemann.

Facing his NINTH deployment. It`s criminal.

[dotymed]

8. This is pathetic. Instead of creating American jobs, "they"

(our Representatives!) prefer to keep the American economy in a shambles. That way they can easily man/woman a "volunteer Army." The video games that are so popular with our youth also help this situation dramatically, it de-sensitizes them to murder of civilians and combatants.

IMO, we need to re-instate the draft, with no loopholes except the severely handicapped. If we did this, these unnecessary wars would end immediately. No politician or wealthy person would allow their child to be sacrificed for profit.

[phantom power]

9. They know a draft would be the beginning of the end for these wars. That's why this is happening.

[Plucketeer]

11. Yeah - god forbid we make our populace do something

they don't want to - like give up their little darlings to IEDs - or actually PAY FOR the billions we're blowing away. Fight these follies on the taxpayer's credit card - the one you don't have to ask his signature for - and let the military contractors get filthy, stinkin' RICH...... oh, and not pay taxes on that wealth! To those ends, a ninth deployment makes good, logical sense! :sarcasm:

[boycottfaux]

10. Unimaginable Pain

Guess these people who were sent on an IMpossible mission by
Bush had to come outta the closet at some point.  Thousands
and thousands of innocents were shot, or intentionally
targeted by our men and women who are not career military. 
How does one handle the emotional burden?

[Badsam]

12. If a draft, of both men and women, was required before any engagement

there would be a lot less fighting