I haven't been able to watch the whole thing yet, but I'll echo Greg's comments, especially about improvising when you don't have the resources you need. Full disclosure: I spent close to 2 years in Iraq: I never made it to Afghanistan.
The smells she mentions at the very beginning is absolutely a real phenomena. It'll knock you off your feet and you'll never forget it. I will somewhat disagree however about the rich not sending their kids. While there is some truth to that I am sure, I think it is important to mention that I knew several well off kids who just wanted to join. There are plenty of kids from poor families that don't. One Jr officer I was in Fallujah with was a congressman's son and a few others came from very well to do families. There are people from all walks of life in the military, and people who joined for every reason that can be thought of.
On the PTSD front, I have heard it is more pronounced these days after the Vietnam era(ish) because in earlier wars there was time to decompress and talk to teammates on the long ride home. Now they're back in 2 days and thrown out into the world, albeit with some relatively minor screening by a psychologist. I hope in the 15 years I have been on the outside they have amped that screening up.
While I'd have to really think about it, I suspect more guys from my units have committed suicide after getting back, including at least 2 senior SNCOs, than we lost in actual combat. That is just the ones that I know about...there could be even more that I never heard about. PTSD affects everyone differently and even very mentally tough people can be broken down by it.
I haven't finished watching it either. I'm around half way maybe. She makes plenty of great points though. The improvisation to complete the mission is huge, esp in the Canadian Armed Forces, or at least it was during my time. One instance that comes to mind was the need for an incubator as we were air medevacing an infant, newborn actually, from a village in Bosnia via Herc. The flight team consisted of myself, a Cpl Flight Medic and a Capt Flight Nurse. We built an incubator from a cardboard box, a space blanket lined it. We hooked an O2 bottle to the box and ran a canula into the box. Every once in a while the nurse would place baby inside the front of her flight suit for warmth and so I could exam it. The child was successfully evac'ed however, the mother never turned up. We were told that she was too ill to travel. We were a Medevac flight for [bleep] sake! More like, she was taken as a sex slave.....
Smells, damn straight, I can still smell the mass graves we found on another tour in Bosnia. Plus, the smell of death and destruction from the shelling of Sarajevo will always be with me.
The things humans do to one another are horrifying to see. I'll leave it there.
As for VAC offering MAID to veterans, that is a most despicable thing to discuss with someone reaching out for help dealing with PTSD. This current government is a coalition of evil in Canada.
Jeff
