THANK GOD

[diane07]

My son was diagnosed with depression on monday and his doc signed him off, he is in the army. At 7.30 this morning two big meathead guys turned up to take him back to deepcut barracks. For anyone who has not heard about deepcut..........it is the barracks in which all them soldiers killed themselves(apparently). As you can imagine being his mum, i went straight into the biggest panic ever, they told me they were going to take him back to discharge him and bring him home, it was torture watching them put him in the van, and there was a huge part of me that was thinking what if they don't discharge him, if they don't he will top himself because there is no way he can go to afghanistan for 6 months, well to my absolute delight he saw the army medical officer and they have discharged him and they are bringing him back home. I am so relieved.
There is a programme on tv tonight called UNDERCOVER SOLDIER it is about deepcut barracks and catterick barracks anyone who watches this will understand my worry.

di xx

[Worrier]

Hey Diane,

Glad you got your son back and it seems like that is the best thing right now. I know how worried you have been and I completely understand because as you know my OH is in the military.

Now you can stop panicking and take care of him and spend some time together.

Just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you and glad to hear things are okay.

Natalie

[milly jones]

aww diane im so pleased that hes homw

give him a big cuddle from me

hugs

mills xxxxxxxxxxxx

[diane07]

Thank you so much for your support, the relief i feel is immense, the whole family is so pleased as we all go through the stress of the phone calls that we got from him, he's upstairs unpacking his clothes as i type and by the look on his face all his worries have just been lifted off his shoulders.

di xx

[Veronica H]

Hi Di
What a dreadful day for you. I am so glad he is back.

Best wishes to you and your family
Veronica

[marie1974]

hi di, how awful and i am so pleased he is home, i too would be very concerned. hugs xx

[milly jones]

watching it now di xx

[Cathy V]

Hi Di, it was a prog that i wanted to watch too as i saw it advertised last week when i was in uk, but cant get it here in germany. Im going back 16 years to when my second son Marc was in the army (hes 33 now) he started off in Catterick and after he passed off, he went to Colchester...he went AWOL from there because of bullying. He actually came back to our house and stayed while we were away on holiday, and 2 days after we came home the MPs came for him and took him back for a 'hearing'.

They confined him to barracks for a week and fined him but he left the army soon after that and came home for good. I felt so guilty for years after coz he used to ring me all the time when he was doing his training and beg to come home and i made him see it through, but at that time i dont think he was being bullied..only at Colchester by men in their 30s, married with kids and who should have known better, my lad was only 17 at that time.

They hung him up on the back of a door one time and another time they played russion roulette with a gun at his head. I sent in a complaint and they said they would look into it but they never did...*******s (sorry)

I can relate to your feelings totally. Im glad hes home and safe.

Love to you both xxxx

[milly jones]

omg di this is awful

never let him go back hunny

keep hold of him close to u

milly xxx

[diane07]

cathy,



how awful that it was for you hun, and your son, through all my 19 years of anx hun nothing has made me feel so useless as my son joining the army and not being able to help him leave. He belonged to them and not to me, i felt that he had been taken away from me. I feel more for you than i do for me, quite honestly.
I looked in the bin tonight and all his army cards were in there,
milly sweetie you are my tower of strength.
Donna and veronica
such angels you are and i thank you for helping me get through this
such good friends here
thank you all
di xx

[milly jones]

so how are things today hunny?

are u and he ok?

just let us know please

was thinking of u so much last night and trying to imagine if it were j after that programme

dont ever let him go again pet

love u loads

milly xxxx

[kendo59]

What you have to understand is the need to make training as near to real combat conditions as possible, so that if your son was captured by the enemy, he would not crack under torture. There is an old saying "The harder you train in peace - the less you bleed in war".

I was in the US.Marines back in the late 70's, and believe me, what you see and hear on TV is nothing compared to what really goes on. I had sergeants point a razor-sharp sabre at me so the tip just touched my stomach, and ordered to "FORWARD MARCH", knowing that if I disobeyed, I would get court-martialled for disobeying an order. From a platoon of 76 guys, only 55 passed training, and 5 died IN TRAINING!! We would be wakened in the middle of the night by the sergeants throwing a soaking wet blanket over our heads and beating us with boots and flashlights. We would go on 15 mile runs in the desert in full kit, and if anyone fainted, they would have a sergeant standing over them screaming obscenities and kicking them in the ribs until they got up again. We would have a rat put into a tub and the tub put on our stomach/back and feel the rat scratching to get out, and we just had to stand to attention without moving. We would be threatened that if we didn't qualify as expert rifleshots, we would be chopped up and buried out in the desert. There are many cases that could be deemed 'bullying', but it is their job to sort out those who are tough enough to make the grade, and those who will crack under pressure.

[diane07]

Yeah milly,

All is good today, i feel on top of the world to have him home, we all do, he's just got himself a pizza delivery job while he's looking for something full time, how fast was that, thats the seargent major bit in me........ you gotta get a job son......lol!

He did however say to me this morning how relieved he is to be home and how its peace of mind knowing he's been discharged, as last time he was home he had gone awol and thats scarey knowing that someone will eventually come for him. I'm hoping his depression will go now that he is out. Lets hope so

di xx

[diane07]

I agree with you kendo, as these lads have to be ready to fight with the enemy, my brother has been in the army for 25 years, he extended his service, and he is the army lol, he was born for it, sadly my son wanted to be so much like him, but mentally couldn't do it, i think what happened is i moved in with my current partner after he had joined and every time he came home he so wanted to be a part of it, it didn't help the fact that i have been so poorly as this has been and still is a great worry to him. An accumulation of things built up and then he started getting down, after going awol and being put in clink for two weeks he kinda picked up again, but very quickly went back down hill, i couldn't pick him up so he had to get out

at the end of the day if i was in the army i wouldn't want my son standing next to me with the enemy in front, because i wouldn't trust how capable he is on looking out for me and covering my back.

di xx

[lorac]

Hi Di

I am so pleased you have your son back and hope he gets better soon.

Carol