Clayton M. Rankin Colorado Army National Guard, Bronze Star with Valor

Clayton M. Rankin Colorado Army National Guard, Bronze Star with Valor

Northern Kuwait

By Kris Antonelli © Stephens Media LLC 2009 www.americanvalor.net

Clay Rankin, a police officer in suburban Denver, knew what it was like to kill even before he was sent to the Middle East in the first Gulf War. He and a fellow officer fatally shot a man who had taken a pharmacy clerk hostage in 1990.

But a year later, the military police officer returned to his job as a civilian police officer with the Northglenn, Colo., Police Department with grim scenes of burning oil fields and charred bodies stuck in his mind. Old haunts, familiar streets and routine police work were distorted by the memories of war. He had nightmares, anxiety and flashbacks. He un-holstered his gun during routine traffic stops. One night, while sitting in his cruiser in a parking lot and completing paperwork, he heard a noise behind him.


“I opened the door, rolled out on my stomach and took my gun out,” Rankin said. “It was a just a kid walking across the parking lot.”

The department’s psychologist diagnosed him with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Rankin didn’t believe it. His symptoms had to be a reaction to the toxin gases he was exposed to during his tour.

“I just chalked it all up — the nightmares, the flashbacks, my over-reactions — to the change, because you never come back the same,” he said.

Although the police chief tried to find an assignment that would take Rankin off the street, it was not possible in a small agency such as Northglenn’s. He had no choice but to retire.

Finally, in 1995, his marriage and family life strained by his recurring symptoms, he went to a veterans administration hospital looking specifically for PTSD treatment. In therapy, he learned techniques to manage his symptoms. His health and personal life improved. He started a private investigation business, which became successful.

But at the start of the second Gulf War, Rankin’s passion for law enforcement led him to join the National Guard as a military police officer. He believed he was well enough to handle redeploying with his old unit to Iraq. He landed at Camp Udairi, in northern Kuwait at the Iraqi border, just as the ground war began. Standing in line at the PX in March, Rankin waited to get supplies needed to push north when a terrorist in a white pick-up truck plowed through the line.
read more here
Clayton M. Rankin Colorado Army National Guard, Bronze Star with Valor