Ghost Whisperer- Haunted Hero

"The first casualty of war, is the truth" - 1918 US Senator Hiram Warren Johnson

With the return of so many, in slow bursts, from Iraq, this episode touched more than a few cords with me. As Melinda accompanies her husband in welcoming home a friend, Matt, and veteran, she's instantly treated to the sight of the ghosts of his friends who didn't make it home in one piece. More than one returning vet from various wars have spoken about seeing their friends, family members, or colleagues following them home from the grave. Many live through haunting's of their own, be it spiritual ones, or their own memories refusing to grant them peace. Haunted Hero offers a new spin on the trauma many returning vets live through.

The haunting continues in the form of, at first, small things. Jumping at sounds. An ice-cream 'bleeding'. Bad dreams where he's shouting at someone to 'let me go'. All of which could be counted as part of post traumatic stress disorder, and perhaps some of it is. But the ghost is real as Melinda can see it. So just how much of what he is going through comes from the ghost, the haunting. As Matt stands outside to tell Jim what happened Melinda starts to hear the gun fire from the description of the events. The ghost making its presence felt. She see's it. The fire fight. The chaos. The fear involved in the situation - she lives through it all, watching it happen again and again in her basement.

And for the first time the ghosts can't see her. They ignore her. Trapped in the replaying of the past they are either unable, or unwilling to acknowledge her.