PTSD: Private battle of Capt. Nate Self made public

A private battle made public
Veteran hopes account of war, PTSD struggle helps other troops
By Sean D. Naylor - Staff writerPosted : Monday Jun 23, 2008 6:31:13 EDT

After surviving one of the most vicious firefights in the war in Afghanistan, Capt. Nate Self knew he had to write about it.

Self led a Ranger platoon in a daylong battle on Takur Ghar mountain that claimed the lives of seven U.S. servicemen on March 4, 2002.

Self said that “as soon as we came off the mountain,” he felt there was a message he had to spread. “There was kind of a personal side of the story and what the Rangers had experienced leading up to it that needed to be told,” he said in an interview with Army Times.

What he could not have guessed was that by the time he finished writing his story, it would have expanded to encompass the tale of another tough battle — his own with post-traumatic stress disorder, which continues to plague him.

Now 32, Self, who left the Army in 2004, gives his account of both battles in “Two Wars,” a book published this month by Tyndale House Publishers Inc.

Although others, including this writer, have written detailed accounts of the Takur Ghar battle, Self is the first combatant to publish his version of events. His tale of the battle is searing, but for many military readers, Self’s description of how PTSD almost destroyed his life and his family will make an even deeper impression.

As Self recounts in the book, the PTSD sneaked up on him over the months and years following the hellish battle on Takur Ghar’s frozen mountaintop.

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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/army_nate_self_062308w/