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I couldn't say something because it could cause more harm, but I was causing harm by not saying something.

Dan Alfaro (US Army, 2002-2014) describes how overhearing a conversation led him to experience moral injury.

Transcript

I had an event where I was

we had time off
and I was in the tent

by myself reading,
and I happened to hear

a group of guys I knew who had
gotten back from a mission.

They were

on the other side of the tent,
so they didn't know I was there.

They were talking about some of
the things that they had done

when they were out
on the mission and

to me were

extremely shocking.

Knowing these people and knowing

that they are good people,

I had a really hard time
understanding

how they can

laugh and joke about something
that sounded...

tragic.

I had a hard time dealing with

my never saying
something to anyone.

It was one of those situations
where

in a million years
you couldn't have imagined it.

But there I was like straight
out of some kind of a movie or a

novel or something.

I couldn't say something

because it could
cause more harm,

but I was causing
harm by not saying something.

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