We will soon break camp and head to Ohio to meet with the next volunteer that will contribute to the Definition of Sacrifice. Tony Storey is a former Marine who ironically is one of the most affluent writers I know. To give you a taste of his abilities, read his thoughts after viewing the movie American Sniper Today, I saw the movie American Sniper. Based on the book of the same name written by Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. Id read the book, and immediately felt a personal connection to the story. Chris Kyle spent time in the same areas of Al Anbar that I did, during his four tours. Another factor of commonality comes from the privilege I had to be assigned to work with Bravo Platoon SEAL Team 10. As some of you may know, SEAL Team 10 is portrayed in the movie Lone Survivor. The compound the SEALs were garrisoned in on board Camp Fallujah was named Camp Patton, after SO2 Shane Patton. But, I digress. I loved the book, AMERICAN SNIPER. Chris Kyle wrote a great memoir of his time in Iraq, and covered the effects his deployments had on his wife, Taya. This is what I want to talk about. As I sat in the theater today with my two daughters, I was struck with the realization of just how similar the movie is to my own life as Combat Marine. I left the movie with a headache caused by my jaw clenching involuntarily for the two plus hours I sat there watching scenes reminiscent of things I went through and have alternately tried to forget or joke about. My daughters spotted some similarities as well, which serve to sadden me, as well as make me hopeful that they came away with some insight about who I am. The sights and sounds of American Sniper serve to resurrect memories; the sounds of the Cobra gunships flying overwatch. Seeing the squads of Marines lining up and breaching doors during the cordon and search operations brings my heart into my throat, just like it did when Id call BREACHER UP!, and pray that bullets wouldnt pierce the door as he lined up to start our entry into the room we were clearing. Seeing military age males with cellular phones, almost as deadly as incoming rounds that they were used to call in on our convoys or foot patrols. Theres a scene in the movie where Chris is on a satellite phone with his wife when he comes under direct fire. He drops the phone to return fire, and Taya overhears the gunfight. This happened to me while I was on a satellite phone with my wife one night. Instead of gunfire, it was an M-270 MLRS battery nearby. They were firing a fire mission, and the the rockets trajectories took them right over my head. I told Laura Id call back and hung up. I was unable to call her back for a couple of days, and had to explain the difference between outgoing fire and incoming fire. I think the biggest thing the movie accurately portrays is the difficulty we experience when we come home. When I first left active duty in 1993, I was just back from a 6 month deployment that included time spent in Somalia. I wanted to do absolutely nothing. I wanted to collect unemployment, drink beer, and forget as much of the Marine Corps that I could. I was tired and angry. Instead, I was forced to get a job and immediately reintegrate into the world, by my well-meaning, but horribly misguided family. There was no veteran outreach for me. There was nobody to talk with about what Id been through, because nobody knew. It seemed like nobody really wanted to know. So, I did what anyone wouldve done. I bottled it up. And I struggled. In the movie, we see Chris struggle to talk with his wife about his time in Iraq. Its hard to talk about combat with people who werent there with you. Its even tougher to talk about it with people you love, because youre afraid of how theyll react to what you tell them. Will they feel ashamed or embarrassed by you? Will they still love you? Dont get me wrong, Im not opposed to answering questions, Im just worried about the reactions. The one part that hit me the hardest was the backyard cookout. In this scene, Taya is talking to Chris, who is seemingly oblivious to anything shes saying. Shes obviously pissed by this. What she cant see is that Chris is still on what we call overwatch. His eyes never stop moving and hes acutely aware of everyone and everything. The Wizards in the puzzle factory call this Hyper Vigilance Its when Chris reacts to something he interprets as danger, does he see the effect hes having on others. I dealt with hyper vigilance. I sit with my back to the wall when I go out. I will check the locks on the doors to my house three or four times at night. I will visually scan an entire room and make myself aware of everyone and everything. Old habits die hard, even if they make people wonder. This is where I find the difficulty. How do I come across to people? My wife and daughters have said that friends of ours and theirs consider me quiet or standoffish. Im not sure if Ive always been like this or not, because I have no baseline to judge myself from. I dont know how I was 25 years ago. I dont know if I scare our friends where we live today. My daughter has explained that she just tells people that I dont like people in general. The truth is that I like being social. I enjoy being around people and laughing, or drinking beer, eating good food. Being able to just hang out and enjoy life is why I sacrificed so much of my life to our country and citizens. Hopefully American Sniper will help bring these issues to light. Maybe people will understand why those of us who have answered the call behave the ways we do. And maybe the Warriors will open themselves up to the the ones they love, and heal the invisible scars earned with their Honor.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 14:04:17 +0000
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