A troubled soldier, a tragic ending and many unanswered questions

[unhappycamper]

A troubled soldier, a tragic ending and many unanswered questions
By Kevin Dougherty, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, March 23, 2008

Last September, Army Pvt. Jeremiah W. Carmack wrote of how he had found the girl of his dreams, someone who gave him focus and a renewed sense of purpose and hope.

But the 30-year-old soldier also noted on his MySpace blog that he and his German girlfriend were having difficulties, and that he was feeling blue and confused.

“I just wanted to get this out there and off my mind,” Carmack wrote, “because keeping things locked up inside leads to bad things in life.”

Tragically, the muse would prove quite prophetic six months later.

Ten days ago, Carmack, armed with an M-4 carbine left a Schweinfurt military post and made his way 20 miles east to the small farming community of Altershausen, where his former girlfriend resides with her mother. Thus began a sequence of events that ended a few hours later when Carmack was fatally shot in a fallow field following a standoff with a German SWAT team.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53538

[mac2]

1. You have to wonder if these soldiers have mental problems

because of the war or had them when they entered the service. They needed mental help but didn't get it. Most young men would have just moved on.

Like many of the shootings here in the US the shooter is dead so we will never know. Was he a Manchurian Candidate etc.?

"That also must have been the sentiment of Anne Frank, the 23-year-old woman at the heart of this saga." Anne Frank? This story is murky is not the word for it. He shot no one but ended up dead?

Are people in Germany allowed to have guns? The hate of American military certainly will be promoted with this event. Be careful of those gun happy Americans on your soil!!

[noamnety]

2. The way that article is written makes me want to throttle someone.

I can't think of a single reason why they would opt to include character assassinations of the woman in an article about her being restrained and threatened with death by a stalker who breaks into her house.

Their disclaimer that Schmitt recoiled at the suggestion she should somehow be blamed is not sufficient. It should never have been in here to begin with. :(