Warrior, Wasted....

What is a "warrior, wasted"? It is a warrior, trained and experienced in fighting for good, who is fired, retired early, or dismissed without cause, usually in a way the prevents them from returning to their career as a warrior. We see this more in Law Enforcement, but it does occasionally happen in the Military as well.

All too often the warrior has educated themselves beyond their superiors and has begun or tried to begin changing the status quo to be more efficient, effective, or transparent, which their supervisors have decided is not a good thing.

Sometimes the warrior is warned, as I was, that they are "getting too big for your britches", but just as frequently they are just "stabbed in the back", with their career-ending complaint coming without warning, usually from someone near them that they trusted.

In Law Enforcement this creates a conundrum, as the warrior has protected, served, and frequently saved the lives of the person(s) who will turn against them. This betrayal has lifelong effects on the mindset of the warrior, and "breaks" them, causing depression, mistrust of "the system", and may result in self-harm or other detrimental actions by the warrior.

Why the "wasted" part? Because thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars are poured into these warriors to train them in warfighting, peacekeeping, Law Enforcement, medical trauma response, and other skills that are desperately needed, and that the warrior remains perfectly capable of performing, but they aren't allowed to any more.......what a waste.