I am a Disabled Iraq War Veteran who doesn't know what to do with the rest of my life. Ask Me Anything.

What happened? (I suggest seeking out vet support groups in your area).

I have two broken bones in my lower back and neuropathy in my lower legs. I have PTSD and panic attacks on a weekly basis. I have dealt with the VA (the worse thing to happen to veterans since going to war), vet centers, Wounded Warrior Project (the most helpful by the way), and different organizations. I just got a job last week working at a dog kennel and groomers which has helped out a lot. I would like to try to figure out what I wanna do with my life. Its funny I thought I would be working in the major motion pictures when I was a kid or acting on Saturday Night Live... silly but I thought that would make me happy. I wanna get my life together but I need to get my medical problems under control.

Just want you to know, THANK YOU. You're a hero to me. Use your GI Bill and take some theatre classes maybe?

I stupidly used my GI Bill on BS in Criminal Justice and CSI from Virginia Commonwealth University. WORST POST IRAQ IDEA I HAVE HAD.

Oh and you are welcome, but I am no hero. I am a normal man put in a abnormal situation and asked to survive 12 months. I did a job and got paid terribly for it LOL.Thank you for saying so it does still mean a lot to me to know that people have not forgotten about us.

If you are funny - it might be a good idea to get a camera and make some videos for youtube. someone will notice.

I have been told I am funny, I have a very dry wit though. I don't know about kids these days with their SWAG and YOLO. Thats all I see on the interwebs. When I was growing up in Mississippi I would have been beaten for saying SWAG to my parents. LOL. I think my biggest issue is finding something that is original for youtube, everything has been done. I guess I should try something cause as my dad used to say while buying lottery tickets, "You can't win if you don't play".

Thank you for your service.

Things you could do:
* Coding
* Computer technician
* Public Speaker
* Photography
* Desk Job
* Stock Market
* Go back to school/get a degree

Just some examples, goodluck with what ever path you choose!

I have a degree in Criminal Justice and Crime Scene Investigations (I was a MP and loved detective work) but I can no longer compete with physically and mentally stable kids these days trying work in law enforcement. I thought about going back to school to become a nurse and work for the VA so that veterans do not get the same kind of treatment that I get.

Were you in the Infantry? My cousin was an RTO post surge and had some very traumatic experiences in Iraq. He came home and was immediately discharged because of his PTSD. He is completely on disability now and is not able to function like he once did. I can completely relate with you man on this subject. I've seen what it can do to people. What was your MOS? If it was a job that you liked and you obviously have experience in then maybe you could take that up as a career. Obviously school will be covered under the GI BILL if you already don't have school under your belt.

I was an MP that worked for EOD and most of my issues stem from the things I saw that I did not expect cause I was not an EOD specialist. I did not know what bodies blown to pieces looked like.

You could be a personal fitness person

HAHAHA, I am fat now. LOL I could just see me telling someone to lose weight.

sexy but fat.

Thank you for your service sir

No problem.

This is a great AMA. It's probably not getting a ton of upvotes due to the time of creation.

Well I'm new to reddit I did not know about all this voting. I just wanted to get stuff of my chest and tell people the unbridled truth about what actually went on there. Thanks for looking though and voting.

Since it's AMA: what do you think of American army/service worship now that you've been there, done that, and returned home? How has your view on this changed from when you were enlisted until now? Thanks for doing an AMA!

I am not sure I understand the Question. What worship are you referring to? Spiritual? Military Worship?

It's a culture I'm unfamiliar with. Military worwhip isn't something I have in my country. I notice lots of "Thank you for your service"s on Reddit. I just want to know how that makes you feel now, and how it made you feel when you first enlisted.

It used to make me slightly embarrassed to see so many people thanking me for doing a job I did not love but now I just take it stride. I did not join the military to get thanks but am thankful for people's thoughts and responses both bad and good. It is sometimes overwhelming here in America with all the right wing people thanking you then stabbing you in the back when money is tight or the left wing hating you but at least trying to help you recover. It is honestly something I never expected or wished for.

Like you said, become a nurse. There are many jobs in the health care field you can do, and different types of nurses -surgery, mental health, pediatrics, etc. Good luck and take care, from Toronto!

It depends on the triggers for your PTSD. You don't want to be a nurse if the sight of blood gives you nightmares. There is always blood at some point in Nursing, along with screaming, pain, people asking to die or dying unexpectedly depending on your specialty.

So, what are your triggers?

Large crowds, excessive noise, and the super market.

How old are you?

29 years young. LOL old people say that all the time. I have gray hair now.

Not sure what kind of advice I can give, but I just wanted to say thank you for serving our country. Trust me, your sacrifice was not in vain.

You're welcome. I hope not. Every time that I look at the news and see politicians arguing over money that technically is being sacrificed on a daily basis, it makes me wonder what any of it was for and if my life was just a pawn in the grand scheme of terrible people. There is not a lot that makes me angrier than when a group of people who get paid to take care of this country and her citizens bitch about money. Stop paying 3 million to defend DOMA and use it towards your debts. That's what I had to do, I wanted a car so I got rid of credit cards, gamefly, the gym membership I did not use. I need to get off my soap box.

When the pawn gets to the other side, it becomes a queen.

awe that is the nicest thing I have had said to me in a while.

No question, but thank you.

you are welcome.

don't know what to do with your life?
why not zoidberg?

LOL (V)(,,,)(V)

Thankyou for taking part in a criminal invasion and killing people defending their country.

You are right. I never claimed that my hands were clean but they were tied. I never killed anyone who was defending their country. I only did it to defend myself and the Iraqi Civilians who needed it as well. I did my job to the best of my ability and with a clear conscience for myself know that I have helped more people who actually lived in that country. Most of the people we dealt with were not Iraqi but were there to fight a war against Americans. I also did not commit any crimes toward any person, place, thing while I was there and I had a philosophy which was I am in a war I do not agree with but that does not mean I have to give up my humanity. I tried and did make it a point to take care of others and you should read some of my other replies you may learn something. Your view of what I did is sadly misguided and that is why this is an AMA and not you getting to play Judge and Jury. You have the right to your opinion and in some ways I agree with you but this was a terrible way of going about you trying to make an invalid point.

None of them were trying to defend their country? You think they were all there to just kill civilians, and also kill Americans for being American? You don't think it had more to do with ending the occupation and less to do with killing people for being American?

And yes if you were involved in the invasion, you did kill people who were defending their country. Iraqi soldiers and conscripts manning stations who's only job was to stop a foreign army from invading their homes and cities, were killed by invading American soldiers. You honestly don't think any of the people you killed were just trying to defend their country, or fight off an invader?

If one day Chinese or Russians invaded America, and said they were just trying to protect you, and that anyone who tried to kill them was doing it for the sake of killing Chinese or russians, not to defend their country, what would you say to that? If someobody invaded America, would you not take up resistance against them?

Even if you yourself personally had altruistic motives, that does not hold against the larger act of taking part in a war of aggression. Each person is the master of their own actions, each person is free to make decisions. If you are in a war you do not agree with, you have many other options available to you as a person, other than just simply following your orders.

I don't know what town you are from in America, but just imagine this picture. You are in your home with your family, and you see a column of Russian tanks going down the street just outside your home. You are not allowed to be out at night in your own town, you cannot even approach them or do anything suspicious lest you be killed. Once in a while, one of your friends, or neighbours are 'accidentally' killed. How would you feel towards them? Would you see them as the good guys, or would you see yourself as the good guy if you picked up a gun and started fighting them.

See again you are blanket blaming me for something others have done. Actually I know I did not kill any Iraqi's personally. The people I know that I killed were Iranian, Sudanese, and Pakistanis. They did carry their identifications with them and they did shoot first. if they were just protecting their countries then they should have been in their countries. Yes I did have other options suicide was one the other was prison (which meant I would probably have been killed cause I was a police officer and you don't get special treatment in federal prison). It is not my fault that I signed a contract prior to America voting in George W. Bush for a second term. This is the problem with people who have not been to these countries to fight in a war. We worked tirelessly with Iraqi citizens to make their homes and families safe. We bent over backwards helping leaders, civilians, and their own military. Most civilian casualties in OIF 5-6 were killed by what you claim are freedom fighters who would set up bombs that killed innocent Iraqi civilians.

So yes I am proud of what I did for the People of Iraq. I saw more civilian casualties come from IED's made by "civilians" than our own troops. They were being killed by what you would call their own people.

I am not proud of what some soldiers have done but that does not mean that I did not do my job to the utmost personal respect for a people who I have actually met. You should take a trip to Iraq you might actually come away liking the people whom you argue for even though you do not know one of the many friends I still have there.

You honestly expect me to believe that everyone you killed had identification, that they were Iranian, Sudanese, and Pakistani? You honestly don't believe any of the fighters were Iraqis who were fighting for their country? Yes many of them killed civilians, and were bad people. But I do not think the ones who did not kill civilians, but only hit American military targets are bad people. Any country in the world would resist an invasion and occupation similarly. The only reason some Iraqis fought along the US forces is because they saw Al Qaeda as a greater threat eventually, most of them would have dedicated their fight to pushing out the invader if it was not for Al Qaeda.

what you actually believe is irrelevant due to the fact that you have no evidence to prove other wise and trying to prove anything to a person who is so obviously so hell bent on making me seem like a bad person is a waste of valuable resources. Do you not carry your license when you go somewhere? Most people do. Is it so hard for you to believe that people in the middle east would carry some form of Identification? Your information has been tainted with what I would like to call bullshit. I do not think that people who were fighting for their country are bad people and you are right about that but of all the IED's found in Baghdad in 05-06 the forensic evidence of what type of equipment, resources, and technological advances used to make "bombs" were not based out of Iraq and they were coming from known "bomb" makers in other countries. You are highly misinformed on what was actually happening in that country.

Yes, there were people in Iraq from other countries. Yes there were bad people, yes there were terrorists who tried to kill civilians. Yes many of them weren't even Iraqi. You cannot put them all under one group. There was a legitimate resistance, resisting the occupation, and many fighters of this same anti-occupation resistance are the same ones who fought Al Qaeda and terrorists. I dare say you seem to be the misinformed and naive one, placing them all under one group.

Just like you are placing me in a group of people who invaded that country. I did a job and my job was Protecting innocent lives I did not murder people for fun. Infact I am plagued everyday of my life from the things that I have witnessed. You have never been to Iraq you do not know the struggle that those people go through on a daily basis. More Iraqis were killed in Iraq by an Iraqi dictator in one day than in the entire 10 years we were there. Do your homework and turn off the news.

So you weren't involved in the invasion? You weren't involved in fighting any resistance?

More Iraqis were killed in Iraq by an Iraqi dictator in one day than in the entire 10 years we were there.

What... Are you serious? Please tell me you're not serious. When ever were one million, or even 100,000 Iraqis killed in one day? If you're so sure, give me the details and date of when this happened.

Sorry. I had it wrong and I can admit that. Under Sadam there were upwards of only 600,000 deaths as reported by human rights watch advocates. Violent death due to combat were in the 100,000s and death due to us being there is 1,000,000 plus. That does not mean that US Army soldiers personally killed them. His largest one day total was 12,000 Kurdish Iraqis.