Guardsman dead day after return from Iraq

[Nambe]

MERRIMACK, N.H. (AP)

A decorated member of the New Hampshire Air National Guard died at his home Wednesday, just a day after returning from a six-month tour of duty in Iraq.

Tech. Sgt. Dave Guindon, 48, of Merrimack, was a member of the 157th Air Refueling Wing based in Newington. In Iraq, he and four other members of the unit provided security to Army convoys. They returned Tuesday. Air Force officials were investigating the cause of death. ..

Guindon joined the unit's logistics readiness squadron in 1997 after having served 23 years in the Navy, Naval Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, Air Force Reserve and New Hampshire Army National Guard.

"Trained by the Air Force as a vehicle operator, he was called upon to perform an Army combat mission in Iraq, ..

[roguevalley]

1. How appalled do we have to be before this changes? I think I'm there now.

[Fridays Child]

2. Just like that? No cause of death? No questions?

Don't they even bother with trying to fool us, anymore?

[flordehinojos]

3. are they trying to avoid calling the death a SUICIDE? Perhaps a

Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome suicide? Who knows what they made him do that brought turmoil to his spirit. And Bush pushes on raping the souls of these young men and women who have to kill for his illbegotten war.

[floda]

4. he shot himself in the head

What a waste, sigh.

N.H. guardsman commits suicide
By Associated Press
Saturday, August 21, 2004

MERRIMACK, N.H. -- A decorated member of the New Hampshire Air National Guard killed himself at his home Wednesday, just a day after returning from a six-month tour of duty in Iraq.

Tech. Sgt. Dave Guindon, 48, of Merrimack, was a member of the 157th Air Refueling Wing based in Newington. In Iraq, he and four other members of the unit provided security to Army convoys. They returned Tuesday.

The state medical examiner's office told The Telegraph of Nashua that Guindon died Wednesday afternoon after shooting himself in the head. Air Force officials were investigating the death.


http://www3.milforddailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=54133

[Algomas]

5. When dear god, will this country Wake the Fu*k Up?? The whole world...

must think we are a bunch of morans!! Whatever happened to tar and feathers?

[enigmatic]

7. Oh man....

This is horrible. My heart goes out to his family; what they must be going through right now..

[TXDemGal]

8. He leaves behind a wife and daughter n/t

n/t

[0007]

11. He may have found something wrong at home upon his return!

It sure was happiness, was it?

[NNN0LHI]

13. Or he may have seen or done something in Iraq that was bothering him?

It is all speculation at this point.

Don

[screembloodymurder]

18. Or maybe he didn't trust

his own emotional stability. Maybe he sacrificed himself for his family.

[Swamp Rat]

6. Dave, may you rest in peace...

:cry:

[Democat]

9. Horrible story - these are the men and women that Bush sacrifices

How very sad.

This man was a decorated soldier fighting because his country asked him to. If he ran for president against Bush, or supported anyone other than Bush, the Republicans would tar and feather him and call him a traitor. That is the America that he returned to.

That is what we are up against. This is what we are fighting for. American men and women dying who not need to die. Rich men send other people's children to war and then spit on them if they make it back from war alive.

Rest In Peace

[fujiyama]

10. This is terrible

Simply terrible...

ARGHHH! Damn these worthless chickenhawks...Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Wolfowitz...Fuck them. They should be rotting away in a prison.

[Xipe Totec]

12. You Write With Flowers

You write with flowers, Oh life maker,
with songs you give light,
with song you enshadow,
those who must live on the earth.

One day, you will destroy eagles and jaguars,
we only live in your book of paintings,
here on this earth.

With black ink you will erase
what was brotherhood,
community, and nobility.

You enshadow those who must live on the earth.

- Netzahualcoyotl


Rest in peace, Sergeant Guindon.

[Mari333]

14. My brother in law shot himself and died and left 2 kids after Vietnam

This time around, same things happening..
The * admin, lying thugs, arent letting the truth leak out..our soldiers are going thru the same thing, coming home, dying because of what they have seen.
Even the tip of the iceberg isnt being shown as to whats going on in Iraq.
Blacked out media.
http://www.bringthemhomenow.com

[TahitiNut]

15. This sounds like the Vietnam returnee syndrome.

The articles seem to imply that Guindon was rotated individually and not part of a unit. We have no social support fabric for these people. The experience of a combat zone alters a person's sense of reality. "The world" assumes mythical characteristics in the mind of the soldier as (s)he survives day-to-day awaiting repatriation. The reality of the individual's return often departs monstrously from the built up emotional need - leaving them, literally, with no place to go.

All the neoconservative emphasis on 'family values' is just another way of saying "dig your own foxhole" to someone looking for cover. Such 'advice' is too little and too late - and is merely a facade for "fuck you; I got mine" survivalism.

I'm all too familiar with the first-hand experience of a returnee who confronts betrayal on his return. At the time a service-person relies most heavily on the implied social promise of reciprocation for their personal sacrifice, they find appalling enmity rather than support. (Just imagine the reaction of a child who, after running happily to his parent, gets kicked in the face by that parent.) In my opinion, it's literally a 'crime against humanity' to violate and betray the expectations of individuals like this at their time of greatest reliance on those expectations - expectations carefully nurtured to induce their very service.

[TransitJohn]

16. So sad.

;( :grouphug:

[rfkrocks]

17. But STILL this country sleeps

the cost of war goes on generations after it ends-not one thought of consequences went into this war y the general American public-but this poor man pays the price-there will be many more with post-traumatic injuries-this is not America-some alien parasite resides in her breast now -God have mercy on our beloved land and its people-we have wandered far in a land that is waste

[UpInArms]

19. I am so sorry for the family, friends and

loved ones of this man :cry:

His records show that he has been in the service for over 23 years - and after 6 months in Iraq, this dreadful decision ....

oh my ...

:cry: