A soldier's injuries cripple body and mind

How many more? How long will it take before we get this right once and for all? I've been reading stories like this since 1982 and they don't get any easier to read. I can also assure you, they don't get any easier to live with after either.

I want every family to still have their veteran with them and not bury them. I want every wife (or husband) to still have the person they wanted to spend the rest of their life with still by their side. I want every child to grow up with them knowing they are loved by them and for every parent to stop having to bury a son or daughter needlessly. I want every veteran to know nothing about PTSD is their fault unless they think it is no longer a gift to be compassionate. To know that the person they were before is still inside of them trying to get out from behind the pain and the walls their mind has built fortified by drugs and alcohol. This I want them to know so they may heal and live. When we read about PTSD numbers we need to remember behind every number is a family that is just as much war wounded as their family member is.

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

"He served in the Persian Gulf War, and after he returned home he joined the Los Angeles Police Department and the Army Reserves. In December 2003, he was called up for another tour in Iraq. A first lieutenant, he was assigned to an ordnance company at Ft. Buchanan in Puerto Rico."

Jennifer Sinclair weeps during a memorial service for her brother in June. Army Capt. Peter Sinclair had spent years on a regimen of painkillers, muscle relaxers and anti-anxiety medications to cope with debilitating back pain and severe post-traumatic stress after returning from Iraq in 2005. (Benjamin Reed / Los Angles Times / June 21, 2008)

A soldier's injuries cripple body and mind
Capt. Peter Sinclair returned from Iraq with debilitating back pain and haunting memories of war and death -- dogged enemies in his fight to rebuild his life.
By Jia-Rui Chong
Peter Sinclair rummaged through the closet and found what he was looking for.

His roommate, drawn to the commotion, saw Pete raise a gun to his head. Daniel Jennings managed to yank it away. He locked up all of Pete's guns.

"You can't stop me," Pete said.

Jennings and Pete had served together in Iraq from 2004 to 2005, but this was a year later and Pete was struggling.

Daniel encouraged him to lie down and left to get help once Pete seemed calmer.

"You're a good man," Pete said.

But he could not shake the images of war: dismembered children, mutilated bodies. Alone in his house, Pete called his parents. His sister Jennifer answered.

All he could do was scream, "Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye!"

He found a 7-inch knife and plunged it into his wrist.

As the blood spread across the floor, Daniel returned with an Army friend. They took the knife away and stopped the bleeding. Paramedics and police officers soon swarmed the house in Garden Grove.

As an officer in Iraq, Pete had won praise and promotions. His commander had called him "one of the finest, if not the finest young officer in the 298th Corps Support Battalion."

But Pete had come back from war with a broken body, suffering from back injuries and painful memories. Doctors, nurses, psychologists and physical therapists treated him, but few were able to help.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are challenging, if not taxing, veterans medical services. So far, nearly 36,000 troops have been wounded, many returning with injuries that in previous conflicts would have killed them. Some, like Pete, endure complications from physical and emotional trauma that neither surgery nor therapy nor medication can easily resolve.

read more here
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pete2-2009nov02,0,4375826.story