PTSD Continues To Take Toll After Soldiers Return

PTSD Continues To Take Toll After Soldiers Return
OPB News - Portland,OR,USA

BY APRIL BAER

Portland, OR December 4, 2008 6:21 a.m.

For thousands of young men and women coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan, the price exacted by war is obvious.

Anyone can see the evidence left by scars, burns and amputated limbs. But other wounds are invisible.

April Baer profiles one young Army veteran whose life is in pieces after a harrowing tour of duty.

Some guys you look at, and you can just tell they were in the military.

But if you walked past John Blaufus on the street or ran into him in a coffee house, you might never guess this tattooed, shaggy-haired 26-year-old witnessed some of the worst the war had to offer.

But to understand John Blaufus, you first need to know about the coffee.

John Blaufus: "I love Stumptown Coffee -- it’s my favorite coffee. I actually used to get Stumptown coffee sent to me in Iraq. I had a French press I would bring in the Hummer or the Stryker. I’d have one hand on my rifle and one hand with a cup of coffee."

Anne Blaufus: “John and coffee are like peas and carrots.”

This is John's mom, Anne Blaufus.

Coffee even helped her keep tabs on him while he in Iraq, with the Fifth Infantry Regiment Stryker Brigade. On days when he wasn’t able to call, he’d use a debit card she’d sent to buy a coffee. That way she could check the account and know he was alright.

Anne says her son's thoughtfulness was part of the reason she had to send so much coffee.

Anne Blaufus: “John, you know he was constantly giving everything away -- that is John! If he thought you needed it, John just put it forward.”

The coffee helped with a lot of things, the 4 a.m. missions, the uncertainty of what lay behind each door in a house-to-house search.

And Blaufus says what the coffee couldn’t fix, his staff sergeant could.

John Blaufus: "When I got to Ft Lewis, my duty station, I met Staff Sgt Julian Melo. He was just really like a father to me. We really relied on each other."

Norma Melo: "He just was the sweetest, sweetest young man, truly felt like he was an adopted son.”

This is Sgt Melo's wife, Norma Melo.

Norma Melo: "I remember my husband coming home and saying, 'He’s going to be OK, I just need to make sure that I keep him under my wing', and I just started laughing and thought, ‘You could keep him under your wing 'til he’s an old man, you’d still feel the same way’.”

The men's bond became especially important as they moved with their Stryker Brigade through increasingly dangerous areas, from Baghdad, through the Second Invasion of Fallujah, into Mosul.

On December 21st, 2004, a suicide bomber struck the base where Blaufus was assigned, killing twenty-three men, including Julian Melo.
click link for more