(IRR = individual ready reserve)
I got out of the army on 31 OCT 2007, started a civilian job, bought a house, and my wife was pregnant with our first child - all within about 4 months. Life was going great for me and in June 2008, I got a certified letter from the DOA calling me to active duty for “400 days, unless extended”. I was to report to Fort Benning in September for readiness training and subsequent deployment to Iraq.
That event flipped a switch in my head and I went totally off-the-rails crazy and it was the start of my PTSD getting kind of serious.
I ended up not getting deployed as I think I scared the crap out of them as I would call the office handling IRR recalls daily and rant on the phone about murdering Iraqis, asking them if they thought that I hadn’t killed enough Iraqis for the nation when I was in Iraq in 2004, and eventually I told them that if they were going to send me to Iraq that I’d go to the local recruiting station, shoot myself, and make a scene. I was dead serious (pun not intended, but it sure works!), but I was never planning on shooting anyone else. I might have issues with suicide, but even in my craziest of states I’ve never thought of hurting anyone else.
Anyways, I expected the cops to come to my house and take me away, but that didn’t happen. The IRR people kept trying to call me and I wouldn’t answer the phone. The next morning I got a handwritten note overnighted to me from some 0-6 telling me to get psychiatric help and giving me a certificate of honorable discharge!
I’m almost certain that the recordings they have of my calls were probably used for training to demonstrate how to (or how not to) handle a crazy vet getting ready to face recall to active duty.
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