Sgt. Jacob Blaylock won't be counted

Battle on the homefront

December 23, 2007
By Jon Seidel Post-Tribune staff writer


Sgt. Jacob Blaylock won't be counted among the casualties of the Iraq war.
But he, like many soldiers, was haunted by its ghosts.

Blaylock, 26, was a fun-loving man when he went to Iraq, his family said. In photographs, he tends to be the one giving a thumbs-up to the camera.

When he came home from war, though, his family said he wanted a beer, he wanted a cigarette, and he never wanted to go back to battle.

Blaylock, who grew up in Calumet City, shot himself this month. He left a note behind in his glove box for his family.

"I'm sorry I let everybody down," Blaylock wrote.

Blaylock was living in Houston, but his father, Ricky Blaylock, lives in Lowell.

Ricky Blaylock said his son's depression medication, from doctors who were treating his son for post-traumatic stress disorder, arrived the day after the suicide.
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http://www.post-trib.com/news/710044,soldier.article

Main Entry: ca·su·al·ty
Function: noun
Pronunciation: 'ka-zh&l-te, 'kazh-w&l-, 'ka-zh&-w&l-
Inflected Form(s): plural -ties
1 archaic : CHANCE , FORTUNE (losses)
2 : serious or fatal accident : DISASTER
3 a : a military person lost through death, wounds, injury, sickness, internment, or capture or through being missing in action b : a person or thing injured, lost, or destroyed : VICTIM (the ex-senator was a casualty of the last election)
http://reference.aol.com/dictionary?dword=casualty

"I'm sorry I let everybody down," Blaylock wrote. Yet the truth is, he didn't let anyone down but we let him down. We allowed him to be yet one more of the uncounted. Can we be so blind that we allow his life, along with all the others wounded, end by an enemy just as real as the one they were deployed to fight? This enemy follows them home. How can they not be counted when they die as a result of this wound? I've asked this question thousands of times of the years. How can they not be counted as wounded at all? Do you see their numbers included in on any news reports of the casualty counts? We're lucky if we even see a close representation of the real counts, the true picture of the prices they pay.

We allowed him to have to wait for medication and therapy too long. We did not have it ready for him when he needed it any more than we had it ready in the 80's or the 90's when Vietnam veterans needed it or others from other wars. Before Vietnam ended we had he excuse of lack of knowledge but that excuse was obliterated when the world paid attention and every nation was conducting studies. We didn't have the excuse in 2001 or 2002 or 2003 or any other year of these occupations. What are we claiming we are still waiting to learn? What is it that we think we still have yet to learn about this wound documented throughout the centuries? Is there anything new to learn about the cause or the devastating results? No. The only thing we have yet to learn is what is the most effective treatment to fight it.

We know early intervention works the best but we don't practice it. If we did, none of them would have to wait for therapy and medication to begin. We know we cannot prevent it but we don't acknowledge it when wars are being planned and the projected casualty figures are taken into account. We ignore all of this at our own peril by setting up failure upon failure. Failure to take care of them increases the likelihood of suicides, criminal activity, drug and alcohol abuse, divorce, homelessness and residual casualties in their children. We set up society as a whole for failure when we will have to support the survivors in the end because we refused to take care of them when it was the most promising to help them recover. We fail them all the way around.

So another warrior takes his own life waiting to have his wounds treated. Another soldier dies and his name is recorded no where. Another family left behind wondering why this "grateful nation" was not so grateful for the service their son was willing to provide and let him die. kc