Staff Sgt. Scott Snyder another face of PTSD

Warrior Hotline Program Helps Soldiers With Post-Traumatic Stress
Wednesday, March 19, 2008

By Melissa Underwood

Staff Sgt. Scott Snyder and his wife, Angela, were sitting down in their Moline, Ill., living room to watch a war movie and eat some hot wings. A few minutes later, Snyder was screaming and begging Angela to admit to him something he knew for certain: that he was dead.

Snyder was having a flashback. Not only did he believe he was dead; his senses told him he was in Iraq, at the Balad airbase on his 17-month tour of duty with the Illinois National Guard. He was clutching his M-16, and he saw missiles and mortars exploding in the distance.

“I can feel the heat, I can smell the air, I can hear the sounds,” Snyder, 41, told FOXNews.com. “While that’s happening, I am here, in the Quad cities, running on auto pilot.”

Physically, Snyder was safe at home in Illinois. But, because of his post-traumatic stress disorder, he can be thrown back into the heat of battle without warning, at any time.


Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder caused by a traumatic event in which someone’s life is put in danger.

Common signs of PTSD include sleep and memory problems, anger, nightmares, anxiety, frightening thoughts and trouble concentrating. A soldier suffering with one or more of these signs may have seen a fellow soldier get injured or die in combat, interacted with gunfire and explosions or encountered other trauma.
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In Iraq or Afghanistan, they are not alone. They are surrounded by their comrades, all supporting each other, all on edge and on guard watching over their buddy. When they come home, they are alone yet too many are still waging a battle their lives depend on wining. PTSD is the battle they face. Very few will commit suicide while deployed compared to veterans committing suicide when they are back home, supposedly out of danger. This is when they need us the most to support them, insure they get the help they need and stand with them while they heal. When they come home, we need to watch over them as closely as their unit did while deployed.