At a loss for words.

[Freiwillige]

I have just found out that an acquaintance of mine has passed away. What makes this differant is how he passed and why he ended up where he did.

I had heard stories about him for years as he was one of my good friends best friend. I heard of his childhood, His service in the army, Him doing two tours in Iraq and then volunteering to go to Afghanistan. That is when I finally met him when he was home on leave. He was quiet, reserved but very polite and opened up to conversation slowly. He was trying to go to Afghanistan back in 2009 but was having issues with the Army because of his diognosed PTSD. In the end he went and I would not meet him again until December 2010. He was out of the military after serving three tours. Again he had a demeanor about him that is hard to describe, a sense of unease permeated every converstaion we had that night. He was always looking over his shoulder and had a hard time relaxing. Only my friend Roy who grew up with him seemed to make him relax. He was much harder to talk to this time then when I met him last, much more guarded and although not threatening in anyway he was distant and looked like somebody you wouldn't want to mess with. I got him to open up briefly about the things he saw after buying him a beer (We were at a bar) and I knew then that this was one very troubled person.

That was the last time I saw Jeremiah Pulaski, Combat veteran and hero to many. I found out on the news this evening that at the age of 24 his life ended in a hail of gunfire, which oddly enough is how I think he would have wanted it. He was addicted to combat and had real trouble addapting back to civilian life.

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/crime/family%3A-man-killed-by-police-officer-struggled-with-ptsd-03272011

It was a shock to say the least, I do not think that he wanted to actually shoot the officer because I know he had the training that he could have and the fact that he never dismounted his motorcycle and seek cover just makes me think it was suicide by police. either way its tough to wrap my head around this as he was a good person as I knew him.

RIP Jeremiah Pulanski

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100001266250847&sk=wall

Here is his facebook which is open for all to see. I invite all of you to look at this man's photo's, It gives you a feel for who he was and what he stood for.

If you scroll down on his wall he has uploaded a bunch of combat footage from his tours.

In closing I will say this. Jeremiah Pulanski went to war for this country not once but three times. In the end parts of him never returned.

RIP friend :salute:

[Torplexed]

Sorry about your loss. Twenty-four seems way too young, but maybe he had already seen more than most could handle at twenty-four. :cry:

[Gerald]

Sorry to hear about your friend, I hope he finds peace in another world!

[Freiwillige]

I barely knew him, I met him maybe three times in my life. But I knew enough about him to be in awe of him and show him the utmost respect when I did see him. He was likable in a broken sort of way. Cant really describe it.

[CCIP]

:(

Another casualty of war that'll never get counted in the official lists - but a story all too common.

Looking at his pictures is really sad and revealing - you can definitely tell he was a great guy, but not all was right. In between an honest warrior and a guy loved by his family and friends, there was also someone who got pretty torn up mentally and on edge.

[Freiwillige]

:(

Another casualty of war that'll never get counted in the official lists - but a story all too common.

Looking at his pictures is really sad and revealing - you can definitely tell he was a great guy, but not all was right. In between an honest warrior and a guy loved by his family and friends, there was also someone who got pretty torn up mentally and on edge.

I couldn't have put it better.

[frau kaleun]

So very sad. My condolences to you and his loved ones.

[the_tyrant]

Sorry to hear about this, my condolences
:salute:

[Gargamel]

You have my condolences for the loss of your friend. And as mentioned, this is a war casualty that will never get recorded as such.

But I have trouble honoring a man who shoots another (assumed) unarmed man, and then opens fire at a police officer. I have lost friends and colleagues before to these types of actions, and I have little sympathy in my heart for anybody who perpetrates them. I do not know the circumstances of the initial shooting, but he initiated the exchange with the police, per the story. That, in my mind, leaves no room for any excuses.

Yes, he was suffering from PTSD. But how many other vets are going through the same thing, yet they are not out there shooting cops and bystanders? That means maybe there is a lot more to this story than we know.

I'm sorry if I seem harsh here, and you do have my condolences. I'm sorry for your loss, and I hope you and yours can find some closure to deal with this.

[Freiwillige]

@Gargamel. I agree 100%. No its not harsh its fact. I don't know if the man he shot was unarmed or not but I am assuming so. Jeremiah came back with a very short fuse, Nobody that knows him can deny that he came back a different person.

I will let you know more when I find out more facts.

[Freiwillige]

You know as I browse through his facebook pages getting to know a little more about Jeremiah I found this one thing ironic. It was a facebook app called how will you die. It said "Due to your love of guns and the military you are going to die in combat."

He wrote underneath it that he survived Iraq and Afghanistan so that is not how he was going to die.

[Skybird]

One of the doctors I once worked with used to say "PTSD is a vampyre".

It sucks you out and let you die a silent inner death. The final stage where they possibly turn into maniacs shooting around or have chnaged so fundamentally in their personality that theyloose their families, jobs, friends, start moviong around restlessly and everywhere smell another scene of war lurking around the corner of their hometown, he called the "zombie-stage". It is just shadows of their former selfs, empty corpusses (?) that move around. From this stage you never fully recover for all rest of your life. Regarding "zombies", it is an irreversible personality change we are talking here. And all zombies - veterans in this final stage of PTSD - are dangerous, and potential mine traps. Trip their wire, and the rest is is zombie-autopilot.

It is a wanted distortion of statistics that the military does not count it as a regular wounding or death due to combat action - because then the counts of WIAs and KIAs in ongoing wars would multiply, and the people and media would start to ask questions. It's a nasty disease caused by too much combat stress, too much tension, too much constant alertness, too much fear for one'S life, too much horror having been seen. Many woundings that to be dealth with by surgeons are the less serious woundings, compared to it.

Best wishes, Freiwilliger. Get over it soon - you cannot change it anymore.