The sniper with one of the longest kills in Afghanistan has a message for Joe Biden
By Wills Robinson For Dailymail.com
Published: 12:58 EDT, 26 May 2024 | Updated: 13:39 EDT, 26 May 2024
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Sergeant Nicholas Ranstad was twenty minutes into a nap when his spotter woke him up.
Four Taliban fighters were 1.28 miles away from the hut where the Army specialist sniper was living in Kunar Province in northeastern Afghanistan.
If the insurgents had looked more carefully, they would have seen white marks on boulders beside them. Randstad, a 28-year-old Florida native, had been using them for target practice for weeks.
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But what happened to Ranstad in the years that followed has become all too common among veterans from the War on Terror.
That story is one the Pentagon doesn’t want you to hear.
Eleven years after killing the Taliban fighter with a once-in-a-lifetime shot, he walked into the home of a friend, Marine veteran Sean Miller.
Like Ranstad, Miller was a fellow veteran who struggled with PTSD.
He had shot himself in the head.
Ranstad called 911 to report a suicide, but ended up being arrested and taken into custody because of the flurry of emotion he felt in the seconds that followed.
When he saw his friend’s body he was so upset he fired four rounds into the floor of the house.
He then ripped down the Marine flag outside Sean’s home and draped it over his body.
The responding officers read him his Miranda rights and he ended up in jail for several days before being released on a $10,000 bond.
He was charged with reckless use of a firearm and firing it inside a dwelling, and it took 13 months to clear his name.
Ranstad admits his reaction in that moment of rage wasn’t right, but the situation showed signs of a crisis that runs far deeper.
Now 45 years old, married for 18 years and with a child, he has been out of the military for six years.
He was honorably discharged because of his own battle with PTSD and the ongoing effects of a traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Thousands of veterans suffer from TBIs during their service, but trying to get an official diagnosis for them is a struggle.
It means veterans cannot get full benefits – even if they suffer symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, confusion, frayed memory, bad balance, racing hearts, paranoia, depression and random eruptions of rage or tears.
Ranstad’s story and his interactions with Sean before his tragic death are a painful reminder of the shortfalls of veteran care across the United States.
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Maybe the young boys and girls, who don’t make it home, are the “lucky ones”.
Instead of help, they get politicians and bureaucrats and “stolen valor”.
Sorry, but vets should be standing tall for their fellow vets and not tolerate this abuse.
GB GBA
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