Six tours and back to heal

I keep trying to tell veterans that PTSD does not care if they support the mission they were given or not, support Bush or not, because in the end, that really doesn't matter. What matters is they were a human willing to serve. PTSD only cares that it can feed off of trauma and it doesn't get more traumatic, more horrific than combat. It doesn't know if the person held a gun, had the gun pointed at them or cleaned up after the shooting and blowing up stopped.

This is a perfect example of what I've been talking about. David Cox served six tours as a nurse in Iraq. Even now as you will read, he would go back if he could. So please stop letting people get away with attacking combat veterans with PTSD as being cowards, being lazy, being "un-patriotic" or all just being against Bush. Don't pass them off as if no one pays attention to them because people do. It has nothing to do with character, being brave or anything else because it comes to people from all sides. It is nothing to be ashamed of because they are wounded humans who survived an abnormal situation. Can you get more abnormal than combat? They do not all end up with the same level of PTSD and they do not all end up snapping or committing suicide. Sadly they do not all heal either. Some never seek the help they need. They just need someone to reach out to them as one human to another human. No politics and no judgements. Just help. It's one of the reason why I keep my personal views of Iraq off this page and out of my videos. I have other ways of expressing that. Why can't we all do that in the proper time and the proper place?

America has finally made peace with Vietnam veterans but look how long it took to do it. Don't let it be thirty years before we find a way to just co-exist as humans with these newer generations of wounded veterans. David Cox is a combat veteran in need of help to heal along with his family. He deserves no greater and certainly no less than veterans and their families who not only fought in Iraq but did not agree with any of it. We all support what was begun in Afghanistan and they too deserve no less and no more than veterans of Iraq. They all serve this country and they all pay the price. The least we can do is stand by their side as Americans helping them.

Soldier struggling to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder returns to civilian life

September 23, 2007
By Jerry Davich Post-Tribune staff writer

David Cox didn't hesitate to answer the question.
Kim Cox choked up before her husband could reply. She knew his feelings all too well.

"Even knowing the outcome and problems I have now," Cox said, staring past Kim, "I'd do it all over again, no doubt about it."

David reached for a sip to drink. Kim reached for a Kleenex.

Since the war in Iraq began, David has served six tours of duty as a critical care nurse for the Indiana Air National Guard. He helped transport roughly 500 critical patients during 156 combat missions, body after body, death after death.

It all caught up to him earlier this year.

Cox, a staunch supporter of the war from day one, lost 57 pounds in one month while in Iraq. That's when he stopped sending photos of himself back home to Kim. That's when he couldn't shake the nightmares and the sadness. That's when Kim knew something was wrong with her husband of 30 years but couldn't do anything from 7,500 miles away.

Finally, an explanation: David had post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. He still does.

After finally arriving home in June -- he's been home only nine months in the past four years -- he went away once again, but this time for residential treatment in an out-of-state military medical facility.
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http://www.post-trib.com/news/davich/570674,davich.article