How to Heal a Moral Injury

Sometimes, the warrior whose finger pulls the trigger is wounded.  They don’t bleed. But they do hurt.

The concept is called “Moral Injury.” Thirty-nine-year-old Mark Jarrett lives it daily.

“I was well-trained, well prepared, to go and fight my nation’s battles. I did my job professionally," said Jarrett. "What I was not prepared to do, is what I did. Which is kill little children.  I did it for my country.  And absolutely I feel like I murdered people. That’s moral injury.”

Jarrett is one of more than a hundred who gathered at the Loudermilk Center in downtown Atlanta Friday for a one day conference called “The Warrior’s Journey: Exploring Ethics, Morality, and Healing in Military Service and War.”Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility at Georgia State and Veterans Heart Georgia put on Friday’s symposium.    More on the symposium here.