Iraq War Veteran Accused Of Fatally Stabbing 2 GIs

[sabra]

Source: AP

Spc. Joshua Hunter Expected To Be Arraigned On 2nd Degree Murder Charges In Cases Of Waide James And Diego Valbuena
Soldiers' Bodies Found In Apartment Just Outside Fort Drum Army Base In Upstate N.Y.


ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ―
Relatives of a Fort Drum soldier accused of stabbing his two Army buddies to death said Thursday that he told them he saw his best friend "blown to pieces" in Iraq and came back a changed man: abusive, violent, sleepless, edgy and plagued by flashbacks.

Spc. Joshua Hunter, a military policeman, was expected to be arraigned on second-degree murder charges Friday morning, three days after the bodies of Waide James, 20, and Diego Valbuena, 23, were found in their apartment just outside Fort Drum, about 140 miles northwest of Albany. Hunter and the two victims served in Iraq at the same time in the same battalion.

They all were based at the wind-swept Army post near the Canadian border, home of the much-deployed 10th Mountain Division, and shared an off-base apartment.

Hunter's wife, Emily Hunter, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that her husband was outgoing before he went to war, but when he returned stateside, he was an emotional wreck.

"He wasn't in any good mental shape at all," Emily Hunter said. "I tried to get him to go to therapy. They prescribed him medicine and stuff, but it just wasn't enough."

Read more: http://cbs5.com/national/Joshua.Hunter.stabbing.2.1349722.html

[whopis01]

1. "He saw his best friend get blown up to pieces and he tried to put him back together,"

What the hell can you even try to do to help someone who has been through that.

[SemperEadem]

2. that's a shame

(sarcasm)I wonder if the right wing media is going to call this a terrorist attack, too. (/sarcasm)

The fact is: veterans who return from too many tours of duty do not have any good support structure to greet them when they come home so that they can effectively process out emotional trauma they experienced in battle. To think that they do is laughable. Our country's mindset is to basically "walk it off, there's nothing wrong with you" to these soldiers and marines returning from battle. We don't want to acknowledge that war changes people and not for the better.