Is this anyway to treat a soldier? One of the worst stories I've read

If this were made into a movie, no one would believe it, but it's not a movie. It's the story of a soldier's life and how he was treated because someone does not know what the hell they are doing and too many others don't care. At the age of 20, Dominic Meyer had seen the horrors of war, the death of his father, injured by a hit and run and then labeled AWOL because of it. Then topping off all of this was being pulled over as the newspaper reported AWOL soldier nabbed with weapons leading to his arrest and pending trial. Why? Because he was hit by someone that didn't care and then no one in the chain of command at Fort Hood bothered to notice why he wasn't back on base from his leave.
Meyer did his duty. He went where he was sent, risked his life and had his life at risk in Iraq.

Two months ago, before he was released from jail, a court-appointed psychologist interviewed Dominic to do a risk assessment.

"The (inmate) does appear to have some reactions to his combat experience in Iraq," the psychologist wrote. He doesn't spell it out as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) but that's clearly what he's talking about.

Just think about that the next time you read a story and ask yourself what if it happened to you or someone you love? How can he not feel as if he was betrayed for his loyalty to the country? How could he not feel as if this is one bad nightmare followed by more?

Soldier's wartime furlough offers no respite from trouble
Asbury Park Press - Asbury Park,NJ,USA
February 1, 2009


EATONTOWN — Last winter his father died. Two weeks later Dominic Meyer was on his way to Iraq. Soon he would be pulling another soldier out of a burning Humvee. The man was returned to his family a triple-amputee, blind and deaf.


Four times in the space of four months, the unit was jarred by the sound and the fury of a roadside bomb. Jangled nerves are evidently part of the bargain. Sometimes adrenaline is your only friend in Iraq.

Meyer was shot three times while he was there. His flak jacket may have saved his life. His buddy wasn't so lucky. He was killed by sniper fire.

There is no emotion in Meyer's voice. There's something in the way he looks at you, though. His eyes tell you they have seen far too much. "He has an old soul," says his mother, Dana Spencer.

Dominic Meyer is 20.

The Army sent him home in July, 18-day leave. On the 17th day of his furlough he was hit by a car in Sayreville, late at night. The driver didn't stop. Six months later his knee still bothers him. He walks with a cane.

After the hit-and-run accident, there was some mix-up. "In the confusion of having him formally transferred back to Fort Hood (Texas) for treatment, he was designated AWOL," his mother wrote in a letter to the Press. It's complicated. The doctor at Fort Monmouth has to talk to the commanding officer at Fort Hood who has to talk to the commanding officer in Iraq. Lot of paperwork, maybe a letter doesn't get stamped somewhere along the line, who knows.

By Sept. 29, Meyer was ready to report for duty. He was anxious to rejoin his unit in Iraq. He packed up his gear and loaded it into his 2003 Ford F-150. He would drive through the night, less traffic.

But before he got on the road, he was pulled over by the police, around 11:15 p.m. Someone called complaining about a pickup truck and a motorcycle racing up and down the street.

Meyer's registration was expired and he had no insurance. Then the officer saw the butt of a bayonet sticking out of the defroster vent.

The next day there was a story in the local paper: "Man AWOL from Army found in Sayreville with cache of weapons." In addition to the bayonet, the story went on to say that police had found two handguns, several magazines of ammunition, several knives, a hatchet and an unspent hollow-point bullet.

Meyer spent the next 57 days in the Middlesex County Jail. His bail originally was set at $100,000, with no 10 percent option. Under New Jersey's tough new gun law, enacted last year as a means to combat gang violence, Meyer could be facing mandatory prison time.
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