The young soldier with depression and Aspergers died. He probably didn't have a place in the services, but I could be wrong.
@truth_seeker I don't know how many people who have Asperger's or Autism serve,but I do know of one that did. Namely,me.
While I think it can be safely said that neither is something you would wish for,both diagnoses cover a VERY broad range of abilities and disabilities that range from drooling fools to geniuses,and everything in-between. Even the people we laughingly call "normal". Sometimes even the "drooling fools" are geniuses if you can manage to get and hold their attention long enough to get them interested in something. Nobody can ever be certain of what is going on inside someone else's mind. We just base our judgements on what we can see or hear.
The wide range is probably because the medical and psychiatric fields wanted more funding,and the broader the problem the more money that flows in to "cure" it.
I do admit that when taking the broad view,my own Autism is VERY mild. It would have been pretty hard to convince me of that back when I was in the 3rd grade though,and nobody had even heard of it. I'd sometimes come home from school with my neck so stiff from holding it rigid that I wouldn't be able to turn my head,and it wasn't easy to muffle the grunts,either. I usually did that with a lot of throat clearings. Also,I don't remember having any problems with it until the 3rd grade,and for some reason by the time I was in the 5th grade the flinches and grunts had mostly gone away. It's something I have mostly been able to ignore since then because it happens so rarely and doesn't seem to last long at a time.
Asperger's was a different problem. When I was in the 5th grade the teachers were wanting to send me to high school,but my parents wouldn't let them. Later in life my mother told me it was because they were worried that the bigger and older kids would beat me up. Too bad she didn't know I was beating up all the bullies in elementary school by the time I was in the 3rd grade.
The biggest problem I have seen with Asperger's is the lack of social skills. Not that they can't be learned if you are also a sociopath and want to be accepted,but because I mostly didn't really give a damn if anybody liked me or not,and was never even the tiniest bit shy about telling someone I didn't like to go away and leave me alone.
Being "smart" and having zero social skills is not a lot of fun while in school,but it sure didn't hurt me in the army. All they cared about is "Will you do the job we give you to the best of your ability",and for someone with Asperger's it's hard to NOT do the best job you can do. We tend to be more than a little anal.
