Thank you, Al Holm, for raising support and awareness for our soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A civilian told me that he knew an Army cook diagnosed with PTSD. When he said he thought it was a joke, the career soldier in me told him that I always like to give the soldier the benefit of the doubt. A recent Press article praised Jimmy’s for sending his pecan roll recipe to a civilian woman and her Kuwaiti husband, subcontracted cooks in Iraq. Accounts from my much younger colleagues support the fact that Bush-Cheney-Halliburton are doing all the cooking along with many other supporting roles.

Let’s face it. Not everyone is wired to be a combat soldier/Marine. Throughout history our military has had an abundance of vital supporting roles for an individual to serve his or her country. Then came no-bid contracts, hiring foreigners to mingle with soldiers, masquerading as support troops and profit margins.

So you have a young individual who enlists and is shipped off to Fort Lee, Va. There he learns the finer points of meat inspection and storage of various produce. He spends the first years of his career serving chow to knuckleheads. Then he goes to Afghanistan or Iraq. He’s doing the same job as the knuckleheads who spent the first years of their careers at Fort Bragg learning first-contact battle techniques and aggressive killing protocol.

A recent HBO documentary showcased a young lady with PTSD. I admit I was skeptical. Then I learned that she witnessed the removal of an enemy skull cap through her rifle sight and felt the whiz of the terminal bullet into her battle buddy. The job she trained for? Public relations. Her job was to make people like her.

Now I know there are video armchair super-troopers who will say that anyone who joins the Army should expect to fight. Yeah, the Coast Guard too. But for great men like Al Holm who witnessed firsthand the effect war can have on a combat troop, thank you. You’re saving lives.

JOE HENDRICKSON

Coeur d’Alene