First Recon Marine's Battle to Heal

When you watch movie heroes pretending to have their lives on the line, pretending to feel the heat of bombs blowing up, pretending to feel the muscles in their body tense to the point they feel as if they will break, pretending to feel all the emotions of risking their lives, you need to remember real life heroes live what the movie star heroes get paid for pretending.

My friend Lily over at Healing Combat Trauma knows the difference. Her sense of humor, along with an appreciation for attractive people like Rudy Reyes in Generation Kill, has done a magnificent job linking the imaginary with reality. While Generation Kill is about the invasion of Iraq and some of the men sent to do it, she adds in a piece of life from long ago from a real life hero. He was not glamorized for what he did in Vietnam or what came after in his life. Rob Honzell is like far too many heroes who never knew they were.

"Make that -- 'Swift, Silent, Deadly' -- and ridiculously hottt!"
That's a modified Paris Hilton-ism, we know, but... of course we're talking about Rudy Reyes, former 1st Recon Marine, playing himself on the HBO series, "Generation Kill," from the book of the same name, by Evan Wright.

From Healing Combat Trauma

July 28, 2008
Swift Silent and Deadly - That's First Recon Marines - But It's Also Combat Trauma and PTSD


Rob Honzell, who, like Rudy Reyes, was also a Marine sergeant in First Recon -- but in Vietnam -- has written a good book about his experiences. He calls it "First Person: Combat PTSD," and it's pretty eye-opening. I had it on my bookshelf for quite a while before I opened it and really gave it a read -- but when I did, I couldn't put it down. Rob in the meantime has become a friend, and frankly I was feeling guilty about not having taken his book more seriously; so I did. It's quite a book.
If you know Rob at all, you know that the reason he's willing to plumb the depths that he has in this book, and draw water from the deep end of the pool, is because of his deep, abiding and heartfelt concern that veterans today not have to go through what he's gone through as a combat veteran with PTSD. Rob spent "one year, seven months, and twenty-one days" as a Recon Marine in Vietnam -- and has fought courageously ever since, to keep a toehold in the land of the living, and the land of the sane. For anyone who thinks that Vietnam vets with PTSD just check out of life and don't contribute to society, Rob isn't in that mold. He had his fun -- years as a traveling musician in Canada (he was a drummer in a bar band) -- but also his serious side -- decades spent in law enforcement as a police officer, police chief, K-9 officer, and criminal justice teacher. He's completed his master's degree, and is struggling to complete a Ph.D. in psychology -- so that he can help other veterans, with PTSD.
First, though, he has to get his own case in check, and that's been an arduous battle since Vietnam, where the nightmares and hallucinations started, while he was still in combat. Killing dozens of people, up close and personal has left its mark -- in his book he gets wistful over snipers having it easier, because at least they kill their targets at a distance, and don't have to get soaked with their victims' blood, or watch them take their last breath, from inches away. By the end of the book, when you realize how many people Rob killed in combat, and then also realize the kind, caring person he is (evidenced by his work in law enforcement, for instance -- his book shares some good stories about that) -- you can see why his experiences in Vietnam got to him.

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