Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for April 24, 2010

Bravo zulu! It’s a bit too tidy if this is the denoument, but I appreciate that Mel is self-aware enough to understand she still needs help.

GEE1G: But you mean “@#$%^&*&^%$#” in a good way, right?

Way too tidy indeed. I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ll see of Mel, but I guess it’s time to peek in on some of the other characters. Hope it’s Alex and Toggle.

Looks like the blockage is opening up.

I’ve got something up my sleeve, but I can’t pull the trigger till the right time. I’m sort of itchin’ for Mr. Butts.

This is way too bucolic an ending and not how it usually plays out in real life. The stigma attached to getting mental health help in the military, especially if you have a clearance (which you lose for the duration) would have had a real-life Mel frothing at the mouth at Roz. I’ve been in Roz’s shoes and I know.

Mel conveniently gets a female chaplain (I’m STILL going WTF?! over that one) who just happens to know about a stress relief program, and a “good guy” (if clueless) CO who is willing and able to transfer his “best mechanic” out in the middle of a deployment. Not everyone is so lucky.

In closing, anyone who thinks Mel is a “psycho” because she suffered an unprosecuted command rape needs a serious kick in the behind.

Had a brother in the CO’s shoes. He got several of his “battle scarred” GI’s into the stress relief program (without them having to go back to the states), he said it didn’t take much to get them back and better than ever, was well worth it to send them & no, their buddies did not get on them for it since it was handled essentially “in the field”. The military is a lot better about things like that than it used to be (fortunately!)

Gee and I thought the Captain was gay. Well done G.T. Lovely, soft touch.

Alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo, foxtrot, golf, hotel, india, juliet, kilo, lima, mike, november, oscar, papa, quebec, romeo, sierra, tango, uniform, victor, whiskey, x-ray, yankee, zulu.

I learned that almost fifty years ago and it stuck.

As for the storyline, since it is Saturday, it may be the end of the sequence of recent days, but in the world of Doonesbury, this story is clearly not finished. (I have to wonder about people who don’t like happy – or at least hopeful – endings.)

Mental Health? When I was at HQMC I went to the Chaplain instead of the shrink. Didn’t want to trade my clearance for a rifle in SE Asia.

there’s knowing you need help, being able to ask for help, and being able to receive help. sometimes many years between those humbling and crucial realizations. basically they took it to the Highest Command, and the orders came down accordingly through fallible human beings.

when human beings are taught to kill other human beings in the name of God and Country and Service and such, returning from “active duty” can take a lifetime…..how to reconcile such actions and such aftermaths?????

and rape is spirit-murder, and employed as such in warfare itself.

Fantastic, I’ve been in the commander job and it can scare you if you think your actions are misinterpreted.

Have a Great Morning Everyone.. Locutus

Randgrithr, I agree that the ending is “bucolic,” as you put it, and also that Mel would more likely be steaming mad at Roz about now. I don’t know about this “restoration center” Beyond a link someone helpfully posted the other day, but we had a combat stress team (I think that’s what we called them) where I was in Iraq. Although it’s not a career ender, word gets out to the whole unit that the soldier was sent there, and there seemed to be a lingering stigma when the soldier returned. Besides, I didn’t think Mel was that ready to admit she needed help.

The rest of your post I disagree with. I’m pretty sure her clearance would have been suspended, rather than lost. Suspensions happen for all sorts of reasons, and it’s no big deal. She won’t be handling classified at the restoration center anyway. Having a female chaplain is certainly convenient, but not implausible. The chaplain wouldn’t just happen to know about a stress relief program, it would be her job to know.

Seabrook wasn’t just being a good guy. He was worried about loosing one of his best mechanics completely due to stress or loosing her for a few weeks. One other more political part of Seabrook’s decision: If Mel had a break down, and it became known to the battalion or brigade commander that Seabrook had been advised by the chaplain to send her to mental health before it happened and that he ignored the advice, Seabrook would be in serious trouble himself. I’ve seen company commanders get relieved from command for similar decisions.

Rather sweet.

Why so many double posts?

Chrisnp, much depends on the level of clearance but back in the day, a suspension was difficult to lift once it was imposed. In the case I was involved in, a coworker was drinking heavily, losing stripes almost monthly for his behavior and ended up a slicksleeve in correctional custody after a DWI. Because he’d lost his license I was asked to pick him up on the day of his release from CC. He asked to stop by the AAFES and came out with a case of beer… that was when I felt it necessary to say something to my NCOIC. He was reassigned stateside and never got either his stripes or his clearance back as far as I know. To truly illustrate that no good deed goes unpunished, as soon as this happened, guess who ended up with his job. snerk Mind you, I managed to hold it down quite competently for 3 years.

To be fair, I never would have considered a chaplain for counseling. At the time, it was completely out of the question. I was the unit’s only practicing Wiccan and most of the people around me were Evangelistic Christians. It… wouldn’t have worked out at all well.

Pschearer, it’s not that I don’t like happy endings. It’s that I had hope that this thread in Doonesbury would raise the general public’s awareness of what countless women in our military are going through on a daily basis. Their stories don’t end anywhere near as prettily, and there’s still an immense amount of work to be done to correct the sexism and vicious injustice that they face. I would consider the prosecution, court martial and dishonorable discharge of Mel’s original perp to be the REAL happy ending.

Chrisnp, He doesn’t want to “lose” her, not “loose” her. Save those extra Os for when something isn’t tight.

I think I’m sort of an average Doonesbury reader … I read the strip to be entertained and sometimes to be informed. I have to admit I didn’t have any idea that there was a stress management program at the Bagram Airfield until this plot line came along. I think Trudeau sometimes just wants to raise awareness of something, not necessarily make a big statement.

antburman: You could still be right. Nothing we’ve seen indicates that he isn’t.

dah di di dit di di dah dit di di dah dit

and

di di dah di di dit da dah da di da dit

Eighteen weeks in Radio Telegraph Operator’s School, MCRD, San Diego, CA. Feb - Jul 1967. Ten weeks after - three years in Vietnam, Republic of with units of the 1st Marine Division. From the day I left the school never heard another dah dit. Lots of voice traffic though. Talked a lot to naval guns, airdales, and combat control.

interesting. A Soap opera approach at the start with the heroine all wrapped up in her deep problem that gets treated by people who genuinely care about her as a person instead of as a symbol. How un-Hollywood and un-Fox. Bucolic? More like the real ending if everyone does indeed care about her.

Holy Smokes! just read this in the NY Times. Hope Mel’s unit isn’t like this. Maybe this isn’t that happy ending.

http://nyti.ms/cuz3IQ

Naw, nothing bad ever happens to anyone in Doonesbury. Zonk’s never had to get a real job, Jeff still has a job, BD just lost his leg below the knee, Duke’s still free, and Tog’s ‘bout to kick the trailer. Don’t sweat it Mel.

FriscoLou,,, Sad…… Good story about the sad facts. While all cannot be cured, there should be better results than this.

The first step to solving a problem is knowing you have a problem.

I’m glad Mel and Roz are still BFFs. It may be the end of their sequence (for now, at least…), but it sure looks like a happy ending to me.