A Difficult Situation

One Alpha Marine has lived life in a very difficult way since his return from the Gulf War. Only a few others know and understand this. OAM’s wife, of course, has traversed the difficult time with him, so she absolutely knows. OAM’s in laws, who once did not understand, became his biggest supporters, including his sister in laws.

There were some difficult times before they finally came to see, know and acknowledge that there was a real issue. OAM’s wife, who was heavily involved in conducting her own research research, and gaining access to priority information, helped them to learn. This learning period came after an awful fight with OSM’s father in law. He was refusing to believe the root of the medical issues and only wanted to blame everything on One Alpha Marine smoking marijuana.

Now you have to remember that this was in the early to mid 90’s. Marijuana was still considered a horrible, mind altering drug. Being in your 20’s in the 1990’s some considered it their duty to help others overcome this opinion and educate them on the benefits of marijuana.

One Alpha Marine’s wife understood the value of this natural medicine and the benefits it offered her Marine. Marijuana was not a horrible drug, but it did slightly alter the mind. For One Alpha Marine this effect helped in more than one way. Not only did it help with the severe, chronic pain he had in his neck, lumbar spine, joints, muscles and practically anything important on the tight side of his body; it helped with the penetrating memories of war; bombs exploding, burned human beings, dead animals and ever thing else he experienced. Another positive effect of smoking marijuana was that ir seemed to slow his brain down. When he did not smoke marijuana, his conversations bounced to numerous subjects, leaving the other person trying hard to keep up. He would begin a sentence and in the middle of it begin another sentence. If you were patient enough he would always make full circle back to the original subject; this round about might take minutes or it might take weeks. You just had to stay around for the ending, as you still do today.

One Alpha Marine’s in laws took some time and came to understand that this was more than they originally expected. For the last four years of his mother in laws life, the two of them became very close friends. Hanging out together on a daily basis as she helped keep him in check and stay calm; and he in turn took her to doctors and hair appointments as she had become blind and could not drive.

During the hard times following separation from the Marine Corps, One Alpha Marine’s wife wrote a letter to the Veterans Affairs Administration. She has all but forgotten about this letter until she came upon it, surprisingly, in his Veterans Affairs records where his claims are kept. It is amazing that this letter was written in 1993 (dates on images are incorrect), and reading it, realizing it could have been written yesterday.

This is the letter.