Sandy Hook First Responders are starting to break down

[Starbuck]

This is gonna be bad.
Not all that many people were allowed inside sandy Hook school. I don't know if many people realize it, but the only people taken away by ambulance died at the hospital. All the children were shot more than once.

Some first responders will never recover..

Authorities say the victims were shot with a high-powered, military-style rifle loaded with ammunition designed to inflict maximum damage. All the victims had been shot at least twice, the medical examiner said, and as many as 11 times. Two victims were pronounced dead at a hospital, while all others died in the school............

Firefighter Marc Gold, who rushed to offer help even though his company was not called, said he is haunted by the trauma of the parents and the faces of the police who emerged from the building.

"I saw the faces of the most hardened paramilitary, SWAT team guys come out, breaking down, saying they've just never seen anything like this," said Gold, a member of the Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Department. "What's really scary to me is I'm really struggling, and I didn't see the carnage."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/20...#ixzz2FeoqWCYz

[NJCardFan]

There is evil in the world. Simple fact. And of course the weapon is still being blamed.

[Hawkgirl]

I'm sure some of them wished they didn't see what they saw. Those images will stay with them forever. My prayers go out to them. I've worked trauma rooms in major medical centers and we somewhat become desensitized to gore and horrible accidents...but seeing something like this that was done deliberately to children must tug at different strings. I wouldn't want to be in their shoes.

[Odysseus]

I'm sure some of them wished they didn't see what they saw. Those images will stay with them forever. My prayers go out to them. I've worked trauma rooms in major medical centers and we somewhat become desensitized to gore and horrible accidents...but seeing something like this that was done deliberately to children must tug at different strings. I wouldn't want to be in their shoes.

It's horrible. In Iraq, I was stationed at Balad, which had the largest coalition hospital next to Arifjan. We'd get locals in when their facilities overflowed, or when they were combat casualties. The jihadis used to target children, especially when there were Americans present, so we'd see a lot of them. One of the worst incidents was when a suicide bomber detonated in a group of kids while one of our guys was giving out candy. The next day, another one blew himself up at the funeral for one of the kids. The worst thing about it is that Lanza and his ilk are disturbed and acting out of insanity, while the terrorists who ordered those attacks were rational actors making deliberate decisions.

[southernlady]

Back decades ago when I first joined the NG as part of the ROTC program, one of the Sgts I was working with had been one of the responders to the Jim Jones mass suicide/murder of over 900 (over 200 were children). He said that he could not get it out of his head...it haunted him for years.

So yeah, I can see this happening...those individuals will need help getting thru this just as the rest of the town will. I hope that someone/s goes in and helps with cleanup later...someone will have to clean up all the memorials afterward.

[Starbuck]

For those who have never been through trauma like Sandy Hook:

It is described as the same sort of "playing it over and over" that we all get when we have been involved in a serious accident. The "I can't get it out of my mind" sort of thing where you keep hearing the sounds and seeing the sights of what you were a part of.

Only, it never goes away. Not ever. Not for a moment.
It is exhausting, and all consuming. You think about it all the time, no matter what else you are doing. Your sense of humor is gone. Concentration; gone. Sleep; sporadic. Many of them will suddenly burst into tears for months and months.
Some of the first responders know what they are in for, others may not really be aware. There will be marriages destroyed. Some may drink excessively, there may be outbursts of unexplained anger.
And the very worst of all will be that 20 years from now, when the worst of the post traumatic stress is still ongoing, no one will connect the abhorrent behavior with what happened in 2012. Probably, not even the first responder/victims themselves.