Someone is hurting out there. Do you know us?

In my last Blog “It will end when I die…. I hope” A soldier’s wish for his P.T.S.D. turmoil I wrote about Robert Simpson a Canadian Veteran I met that struggles with P.T.S.D. and shared his story.  I recently received an email from Robert and he asked me to share it.  So here it is and I might add it is a very poignant read. Every Soldier has a story, but most are never told. This is Robert putting it out there, so you can get an insight into a P.T.S.D. sufferers mind.

Someone is hurting out there. Do you know us? We are your sons, your daughters, your brothers, your sisters, your mothers, and fathers, aunts, uncles, husbands, or wives. We are serving soldiers, and ex soldiers. We went away to fight a war, to stop a war, to free a country, to stop someone from taking a country. We’ve fought in 2 World Wars, a Korean War; we tried or stopped wars in such places as Cyprus, The Congo, Middle East, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Afghanistan.

We’ve seen, and did terrible things. We all hurt in our different ways. Like the General who in Rwanda could not stop the murdering of his men, or the innocent civilians. Like the Reservist who still thinks of the children in Bosnia who have no roof to sleep under, no food, and no heat, while he stands with his daughter watching a parade. Like the man who almost shot a child in Cyprus, who remembers everyday how he’d seen his son through a sight picture of his FN C1 rifle, until his son died trying to save a friend who fell through the ice?  The man who endured Human Wave Attacks in Korea at night, and would dream of them, and scream out at night. We are the brave men who fought in Europe. The doctors and nurses who tried to save the wounded. There are so many of us.

We have killed, seen friends, and innocent people killed, children, and old people suffer needlessly. We all hurt because of what we’ve seen, or did. Now we may drink too much, be mad for what seems no reason, cry, and won’t talk to you. In many ways it’s because we don’t know how to tell you. We cannot find the words, or we still don’t understand why this had to happen.

We wander lost in our memories trying to make sense of it. Please don’t judge us, but try to understand. Unless you have been there with us you really can’t know what we have been through. We are trying to reach out to you. But we’re not always sure how.

Someone is hurting out there. Do you know us? We are your veterans, your serving soldiers. Please try to understand us. I think maybe that we might need a hug.

Robert Simpson

Ex 8^th Canadian Hussars

3rd Special Service Force

Cyprus 1978 to 1979