# Army presses charges against guardsman freaked out by corpse? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 8, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-presses-charges-against-guardsman-freaked-out-by-corpse/211996 "2003-11-08T00:12:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-presses-charges-against-guardsman-freaked-out-by-corpse/211996/41 "2003-11-11T12:18:07Z")
> [@](#): > > Then again, he is a member of the United States Armed Forces; to have an image of death convert a sergeant into a sniveling blob at the bottom of a Bradley is not only harmful to morale, it’s dangerous to the lives of his fellow warriors and the mission itself, My impression was he wasn’t cowering away knees in chest like Matt Damon in Private Ryan, but instead, discretely approached his superior afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-presses-charges-against-guardsman-freaked-out-by-corpse/211996/42 "2003-11-11T12:41:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by World Eater \* > \*\*My impression was he wasn’t cowering away knees in chest like Matt Damon in Private Ryan, but instead, discretely approached his superior afterwards. \*\* Yes, and told them he was too stressed to do his job because of what he saw. > [@](#): > > The sight upset Pogany enough that he asked for help from his superiors to deal with panic attacks > [@](#): > > The soldier said he experienced a “panic attack” after seeing the mangled body of an Iraqi man and told his superior he was heading for a “nervous breakdown.” > > After that, Pogany said he didn’t request to go on missions nor did the unit ask him to go. > > Pogany said he asked for help but was denied the care soldiers with “combat stress” are supposed to receive. A non-com _officer_ heading for a breakdown and asking help with combat stress after seeing 1 mangled dead body? > [@](#): > > Pogany said he was terrified he would be killed. > > “Until you are faced with the chance you could die in two minutes, that an RPG could come through the window when you are sleeping, you don’t know how you will react,” he said And this guy only saw the body. he DID NOT see the guy actually get killed. As far as what’s in the story, I can’t tell if this guy was ever in a combat situation! Something ain’t right here. ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-presses-charges-against-guardsman-freaked-out-by-corpse/211996/43 "2003-11-11T13:57:49Z")
**spooje** : An NCO is _not_ an officer, but an enlisted person with chain-of-command involvement. (Hence the “non-commissioned” part.) By the way, just so I understand where your judgement that “something aint right” is coming from, what’s your level of expertise? Should I treat your judgement as superior to those Army psychologists who all characterized the reaction as “normal”? Personally, I’m inclined to go with the doctors’ opinions. My only frame of reference is Navy service where the worst I had to deal with as far as casualties around me were sea sickness, electrical flash burns, broken bones and one narcoleptic Div Officer. I’ve pulled injured comrades out of switchgear and machinery, and even with these non-fatalities had to deal with some shakes after the initial crisis was over. Training pretty much takes over and keeps you calm while the shit’s hitting the fan, but doesn’t really help you when your brain’s had a chance to realize what the fuck just happened. I don’t remember an officer ever having a problem giving me or any other sailor time to “get our shit together” after the smoke cleared and the cleanup was done. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-presses-charges-against-guardsman-freaked-out-by-corpse/211996/44 "2003-11-11T15:41:16Z")
xenophon: The “O” in “NCO” stands for “officer.” An NCO is an officer, a non-commissioned officer. That the NCO is also an Enlisted member doesn’t negate the fact of being a non-commissioned _officer_. ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-presses-charges-against-guardsman-freaked-out-by-corpse/211996/45 "2003-11-11T17:28:14Z")
Having been one, **Monty** , I assure you I understand what an NCO is. I was responding to **spooje** ’s emphasis on “officer”, which I assumed was based on a misapprehension that NCO’s are essentially the same as commissioned officers in terms of expectations and standards of behavior. That is not, IMExperience, the norm within the military community. (If I assumed wrongly about your usage, **spooje** , I apologize.) ---
**Author:** ![Matchka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Matchka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Matchka)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-presses-charges-against-guardsman-freaked-out-by-corpse/211996/46 "2003-11-11T17:47:03Z")
You are belaboring the semantics of the term. As was mentioned, a sergeant is an “officer” only in that there are leadership duties required of the position. The Commission granted to lieutenants and up is a different type of contract then an enlistment agreement. The actual role and training differences between an officer and an NCO are vast. Yeah, it sucks that dude couldn’t handle whatever it was he saw, but regardless ofhis rank, it’s just good behavior and good leadership to help your underlings recognize and overcome “weakness.” It appears that poor leadership was exercised in this respect, but then I’m pretty sure none of us know the whole story. Earlier I posted that he may have been a good soldier put into a job for which he was ill-suited and/or undertrained. But it could just as easily be the case that the guy was always whining and snivelling about harsh conditions, constant fear, etc. and that his unit was unimpressed with him as a result. The breakdown would be the last straw. He gets the fast lane out of the arena and he whines to the media and gets himself published as some kind of misunderstood soldier. We’ll never know because the chain of command probably doesn’t feel they need to explain themselves, and if they did their explanation might be improper if further litigation against this malingering version of the soldier is still pending. What we DO know is that it is expensive to train a soldier, and that a good reliable soldier is valued. If something don’t make sense, then do some math and hope the liberal media (joke) tells us the truth some time in the future ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-presses-charges-against-guardsman-freaked-out-by-corpse/211996/47 "2003-11-11T18:09:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spooje \* > **Yes, and told them he was too stressed to do his job because of what he saw.** Sure, just bringing to everyone’s attention that he wasn’t “a sniveling blob at the bottom of a Bradley”. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-presses-charges-against-guardsman-freaked-out-by-corpse/211996/48 "2003-11-11T18:10:58Z")
_everones_\* ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-presses-charges-against-guardsman-freaked-out-by-corpse/211996/49 "2003-11-11T18:14:45Z")
Fuck it. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-presses-charges-against-guardsman-freaked-out-by-corpse/211996/50 "2003-11-11T18:28:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by World Eater \* > > Sure, just bringing to everyone’s attention that he wasn’t “a sniveling blob at the bottom of a Bradley”. **World Eater** : I hope you’ve read my explication for the above hyperbolic _Pattonization_. Also, I left out an apostrophe. It should have been “_friend’s_ face.” :eek: ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-presses-charges-against-guardsman-freaked-out-by-corpse/211996/51 "2003-11-11T18:39:57Z")
Yep, I saw that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/army-presses-charges-against-guardsman-freaked-out-by-corpse/211996.md?page=2)