PTSD:When the front lines of combat are at home

When the troops come home the families have to fight for them. If we don't, they don't get taken care of. Odd coming from the same country that managed to send millions to wars on foreign lands claiming how much it was necessary for the sake of this nation. You would think that when they came home with wounded bodies or minds, this same nation would be ready to take care of them as much as they prepared to send them into combat. You would also be very, very wrong.

The suffering of the men and women serving this nation is not new. What this generation is going thru is the same as other generations before them. The difference is people across this nation have mobilized to deploy on the front lines of this nation to have our veterans taken care of. Quiet heroes arise daily, educated, trained and ready for battle to save the lives of the ones that did come home from combat.

Rev. Mosby is one of the warriors for the warriors battling for lives that do not need to be lost.

The Rev. C. Diane Mosby talks about her son’s struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder Thursday at the Virginia Wounded Warrior Program summit at Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center. (Rosanne Weber/staff)

Summit hopes to reach veterans
News Virginian - Waynesboro,VA,USA

By Jimmy LaRoue

Published: November 6, 2008

FISHERSVILLE — “If this is what I’m coming home to – forget it,” Steven Moore said.

He and his godmother, Angita Szelesta, were in the emergency room at a Veterans Administration Medical Center, where she had taken him to get treated for a drug overdose.

Moore had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury following his one-year of military service in Iraq.

They waited for more than six hours, and in that time, the medical center lost Moore’s records, Szelesta recalled.

They left.

Moore had earned a Purple Heart at age 18 following a roadside bomb attack, and when he returned home, he wasn’t the same.

“Steven says he wishes this was one medal he never received,” Szelesta said.

Szelesta spoke also about her own son, Stan Crowder, and his combat experiences. His problems were similar to Moore’s, following a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, but was able to return to combat.

Szelesta, along with a number of speakers, are taking part in the Virginia Wounded Warrior Program Summit at the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center, which continues today. The conference is designed to increase awareness of combat stress-related issues and brain trauma injuries that affect military members – both active duty and retired – as well as their families.

Rick Sizemore, director of the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center, said the goal is that no matter where a combat veteran goes, that he or she can find the needed help.

“That’s the purpose of the Virginia Wounded Warrior network ... to connect all those various services so that there’s no wrong door for a veteran,” Sizemore said.

The Rev. C. Diane Mosby, of Glen Allen, said her son, Geoffrey Mosby, Jr., served for a more than a year in Iraq. Far from the well-adjusted son she knew prior to his joining the Virginia Army National Guard, when he returned in February 2005 as a decorated soldier, her family noticed that he started having increased nightmares and became more reclusive.

“We began to notice a deep dark, darkness in his eyes,” Mosby said. “It was as if he had separated body and spirit.”
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