JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES
THE RECRUITS
mas is common. In 2004, even
before multiple combat deployments became routine, a study of
3,671 returning combat Marines
returning from Iraq found that
65 percent had killed an enemy
combatant, and 28 percent said
they were responsible for the
death of a civilian. Eighty-three
percent had seen ill or injured
women or children whom they
were unable to help. More than
half — 57 percent — had handled
or uncovered human remains.
HUFFINGTON
03.16-23.14
The intense kinship forged
among small-unit combat troops
can enable them to endure hardship, loneliness and peril. But such
close relationships also put them
at risk of excruciating grief at the
sudden, violent death of a loved
comrade, something that happens all too frequently. In a 2013
Wounded Warrior Project survey of its members, all severely
wounded combat veterans, 80
percent said they had a friend seriously wounded or killed in action.
In a similar finding, an extensive
2008 field survey of combat and
support troops in Iraq and Afghani-
A U.S. Marine
yells for other
Marines
after an IED
exploded
while they
were under
enemy fire
in Mian
Poshteh,
Afghanistan,
in July 2009.