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| April 6, 2007 Alaskan in Exile by Neil Zawicki, insurgent49 It's been a quiet week here at the facility. Nurse Nancy let me spend a little time in the garden and my session looking at Karl Rove Flash Cards was relatively easy. Still, I'm a little bit confused. Yesterday, we got some new patients. Actually, we got 22,000 new patients, all of them former U.S Army soldiers who have been labeled as having personality disorder. This is two divisions. Two divisions worth of soldiers with personality disorder. What's strange is that they are combat veterans. A lot of them were badly wounded, but will receive no medical benefits, because their present state has been attributed to a pre-existing condition. A pre-existing personality disorder. They're kind of like ghosts, all of these thousands of soldiers cast aside by the government since 2001 … lost. I seem to remember the military being very specific about inducting recruits, so I'm not sure how two divisions worth of troops slipped through the cracks with pre-existing personality disorder. I thought maybe I was hallucinating as a result of the Apple Newtons and the Thorazine, but then I picked up the newspaper and read an article about the 22,000 ghosts that are now here playing ping pong and sharing smokes. I guess it's real. But, these were soldiers who served their country and endured hardship and mental anguish and injury. Now, the government won't help them because they were all mentally off to begin with? I asked Tony, our candy machine repair guy what he thought about two divisions of soldiers being labeled mentally defective and therefore not entitled to medical benefits for their wounds. He said he had an idea of what was happening. "It's simple," he said. "Take these candy machines. Sometimes they get broken, ya know because kids kick 'em or try to pry 'em open for money. But when that happens, the company has a lot to lose in trying to fix them, so they'll have me fill out a report saying the machine was defective from the get go, and that way we just get a new one from the manufacturer and we don't have to eat the cost of fixing it. It happens all the time. It just costs less to call it defective than to try to cover the cost of fixing it because it broke from regular wear and tear." I thought that made sense, but I am after all here because of trauma experienced from seeing Karl Rove rap. I wanted a second opinion, so I asked one of the soldiers what was going on. "How'd you end up here? I asked him. "I served in Ramadi in 2004 and a mortar round exploded right next to me," he said. "The army decided I was now deaf not because of the explosion, but because of a pre-existing condition, so they said I didn't get any medical help for my wounds because I had a personality disorder before I joined." "Did you have a personality disorder?" "No. I was fine until I went to Iraq and got blown up and lost my hearing." "Why would the army do that to you?" He shrugged. "To save money I guess. Fuck it, let's play some ping pong." How 'bout that. Tony may only be the candy machine repair guy, but he sure is perceptive. Later, a couple soldiers and myself made an army recruiting poster in the day room out of macaroni, some red paint and some glue. This is what our poster said: "You made them strong, we'll make them Army Strong, and if they get hurt, we'll say they're nuts and we'll throw them out on the street." "Perfect," said Walter, a former infantry squad leader, "let's send it to the Pentagon." Neil Zawicki, exiled Alaskan, is Editor at Large for Insurgent49, a former reporter for the Alaska Star, and winner of the Alaska Press Club's 'Best Columnist' award. He is now living out the rest of his days in an undisclosed location in Oregon. He can be contacted at hondo23@gmail.com 'Alaskan In Exile' appears on insurgent49.com every Friday. |
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