First Sergeant Cory Remberg is one of the best (or worst?) examples of how America has betrayed some of the best troops who fought in our most eye-brow raising wars. Sergeant Remberg attended President Obama’s State of the Union speech on February 4th, at which the President spoke about him and the severe injuries he suffered while he was deployed.
Dr. Phillip Leveque mentioned in an article for the Salem News that he had treated 1,000 military units who have come back from war who suffered from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Dr. Leveque shares that Sgt. Remberg was deployed ten times during his time in the military. It is Dr. Leveque’s opinion that the Army Rangers, Navy SEAL’s, Marine Force Recon and other high quality soldiers have been wasted on senseless missions. He goes on to share an old Army proverb: “If anything can go wrong, it will.”
Dr. Leveque served in the Army Infantry in an elite group which were called Battalion Scouts. They were the scouts, point men and forward observers. He goes on to share that the regular infantry men were jealous of the scouts because they were separate from them. Sadly, he also reported that out of the seven men in the group, four of them were lost—one by accident, one by illness, and one due to being captured. With more than a 50% loss, he states that very few regular Infantry groups suffered such a high casualty rate in such a short span of time.
During the Second World War, just after D-Day, many Infantry companies undergone 200% replacements of casualties over the span of 11 months. Dr. Leveque also said that some units have a 300% replacement rates. During his time in WWII, 300,000 Combat Infantry men were killed in total.
Today, Dr. Leveque speculates that there are about 40,000 Combat Infantry Veterans who are in the same boat as Sgt. Remberg. They have sustained severe injuries, and it is the doctor’s belief that these soldiers require and deserve anything they want or need. He goes on to say that for the 40,000 and others, the cost to care for them would be at least one trillion dollars.