I feel for the Iraq vet. I haven't seen my best friend in "half a DECADE" because he killed himself. The way it shattered me changed my life forever. I do think, however, that their qualms are relatively irrelevant to the OOP's qualms, regardless of the fact that OOP is extremely out-of-touch and lacking in any sort of real-world perspective whatsoever. I think if OOP were a teenager or sheltered young adult or whatever, them expressing those feelings to a family member or therapist would be more appropriate, but goodness gracious begging strangers for money for a luxury like that is incredibly out of touch and honestly just fucking weird behaviour.