Two prominent features downtown are a large Confederate flag and a "God Bless Our Troops" sign.

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-cody24-2008may24,0,3493074.story

Iraq put his life on the trigger

BARDWELL, KY. -- When Cody Alexander Morris returned from the war last fall, he carried home a burden -- a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder -- and a new way of playing with guns. snip

He taught the game to his roommates: best friend and fellow guardsman Casey Lee Hall, 18, and a 16-year-old cousin, Cory Adams. The young men would point unloaded handguns at each other's heads, ask "Do you trust me?" and pull the trigger. snip

Morris showed his friends horrific photos from Iraq -- "people with their heads blowed off . . . guts ripped out on barbed wire . . . bullet holes in every piece of body," said a friend, Dustin Newton.

Sometimes, friends said, Morris would show the photos and laugh.

Cody Morris is small and nimble -- 5 foot 6 and 140 pounds. He refers to himself as "not a real smart guy." He has a severe learning disability and reads below the eighth-grade level. He failed fourth grade and repeated ninth grade before dropping out. snip

Morris decided to follow his older sister, Larissa Roach, into the Guard. He was underage, so his mother signed him up.

[BlooInBloo]

1. Sigh.

[T Monk]

2. dumb kids

[Downtown Hound]

3. Funny, they never show this side of military life in the

recruiting commercials. Wonder why?

[Nostradammit]

4. Must have been that "dope" they were smoking

Couldn't have been his experience killing innocent people in Iraq.

Damn dope, messin' up our kids.

[MikeNearMcChord]

5. This young man is proof why we need to fund the VA

How many more stories and tragedies,are coming down the pike?

[TomInTib]

6. Poor dumb bastard should have never been allowed into the Army.

Stupid tool like that would never have made it in before they relaxed the standards.