Why Are So Many U.S. Artillery Gun Crews Who Were Deployed To Bombard The Islamic State Facing Health And Psychological Issues?

U.S. soldiers assigned to 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, fire their M777 A2 Howitzer in Syria on Sept. 30, 2021. (Cpl. Isaiah Scott/Army) 

DNYUZ/New York Times: A Secret War, Strange New Wounds, and Silence From the Pentagon 

When Javier Ortiz came home from a secret mission in Syria, the ghost of a dead girl appeared to him in his kitchen. She was pale and covered in chalky dust, as if hit by an explosion, and her eyes stared at him with a glare as dark and heavy as oil. 

The 21-year-old Marine was part of an artillery gun crew that fought against the Islamic State, and he knew that his unit’s huge cannons had killed hundreds of enemy fighters. The ghost, he was sure, was their revenge. 

A shiver went through him. He backed into another room in his apartment near Camp Pendleton in California and flicked on the lights, certain that he was imagining things. She was still there.  

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 WNU Editor: This story hits close to home. My father commanded artillery units for the Soviet Army during the Second World War. Aside from suffering hearing loss, he was haunted by nightmares from that war for the rest of his life. My father's best friend (and my Godfather) also served in such a unit, and he committed suicide 20 years after the war. Everyone blamed his war experience for his suicide.