War Hero

Marine Lance Cpl. James Jenkins is cornered in an apartment but, this not being Iraq, he could not shoot back.

In intense, ferocious and some of the most intimate fighting of the Iraq War in 2004, Jenkins killed more than 200 enemy combatants. He was a war hero, with many commendations, including a Bronze Star for valor for heroic actions during a fifty-five hour battle with the Mahdi militia in Najaf.

Back in the United States from a second tour, Jenkins, 23, could not sleep and, when sleep came, the nightmares were horrible. Remorse, depression and a surge of adrenaline he could not control, not to talk of the suicidal thoughts, ruled his life, getting him into trouble with the Marines. Finally, he ran for it when he was about to be arrested by the Marines for another infraction. Which was how Jenkins ended up barricaded in that apartment that autumn day in 2005, a sheriff at the door and a U.S. Marshal covering the back door.

Jenkins shot himself in the temple.

The Marines never diagnosed his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and even tried to deny death benefits to his family. Thomas Ferguson, a special agent from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service who investigated his eligibility, described Jenkins as a “salvageable marine” whose untreated PTSD had led to his suicide.

“LCpl Jenkins was a bona fide war hero,” Ferguson wrote. “Unfortunately, it is clear that when he most needed help from the military, the military failed him.”

Among the many crimes of the misbegotten presidency of George W. Bush, the one least remarked upon is the waste he laid to the lives of many young men and women in this war that he lied us into. I am not just talking about the combat dead or those maimed in battle, but the walking wounded and dead among us, young men and women who did not receive treatment for their unseen wounds.

I have been reading stories about these cases in The Nation magazine for some time now, including the current one, Denial in the Corps, but the magazine appears not to have organized its stories in one place. The first one I read was about Spc. Jon Town almost year ago. Town told of how he was wounded in Iraq, won a Purple Heart and was then denied all disability and medical benefits.

I am sure there are stories in the series I have missed and I caught Jenkins’ story by accident. Publications had piled up on me and I was thumbing through the Nation before I consign the February 18 issue to the recycling pile when I came across the story.

The Nation needs to rectify this oversight. It’s a remarkable series. It deserves to be read widely. Together they make up a chronicle of shame not just for Bush and the criminal cabal he surrounded himself with, but for our country. It is a shame because we let this happen and we’re letting it happen.