Wounded vets have bigger problems than Call of Duty 4
Eric HallBack in the 1980s rumors of Vietnam veterans freaking out over scenes from movies like Apocalypse Now and Platoon were of great interest around the water cooler. The story sounds like an urban legend - but it was a time when symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder were just coming to light and I’m certain the story sold plenty of movie tickets.
Who wouldn’t want to see the Vietnam War movie that was so real it caused veteran’s to have flashbacks at your local theater.
Call of Duty 4
This time around it’s a video game, Call of Duty 4, that is about to capture the imagination of the mainstream press. Only this time the veteran is a very real retired Marine named Eric Hall. A veteran of the Iraq War, Hall suffered severe leg injuries and bore witness to horrors hopefully most will only see in a video game.
Hall’s family says he had been playing Call of Duty 4 and acting strangely before he disappeared a week ago. A search has been ongoing ever since.
It’s too early to say if the mainstream media is going to take this story and draw a witch hunt over the video game industry. It would be a shame because the real story here isn’t the choice Eric Hall made in entertainment choices. The story the press might want to draw attention to is the real-life stresses and uncertainties of a wounded veteran trying to rebuild a life in the civilian world.
Hall had been embroiled in a struggle with the US Department of Veterans Affairs over pay owed to him by the US Government. There is a dispute over vacation pay and the rate of disability he deserves.
Too often the US government likes to use rhetoric about war veterans, referring to them as heroes, citing sacrifices and the like. These heroes are regular people, they have bills to pay and probably don’t appreciate having their lives put on hold while years are devoted to a struggle over pension benefits. And like anyone else Eric Hall’s age, they like to sit down and play video games.
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