ND Guard members work to bring PTSD into the spotlight

ND Guard members work to bring PTSD into the spotlight
Fargo, ND (WDAY TV) - It would be easy to get lost in the numbers and percentages. Those returning North Dakota guard members who suffer P-T-S-D. That is until you see a face, a name. Today, the hard work and perseverance of a few North Dakota guard members paid off when Senator Kent Conrad met with them and focused the spotlight on a problem kept in the dark too long.
By: Kevin Wallevand, WDAY



Video
PTSD awareness
It would be easy to get lost in the numbers and percentages. Those returning North Dakota guard members who suffer P-T-S-D. That is until you see a face, a name. Today, the hard work and perseverance of a few North Dakota guard members paid off when Senator Kent Conrad met with them and focused the spotlight on a problem kept in the dark too long.

Friends will tell you Joe Biel was a soldier's soldier. Confident, a battle buddy who served the North Dakota guard in Kosovo with two tours in Iraq.


“He was amazing, just amazing that is one word that wraps it up. He was selfless and would give you the shirt off his back. He would give you the last ten dollars in his wallet.”


But just months after Joe returned from Iraq to the Dakotas, PTSD pushed him over the edge. He took his own life at the age of 36.


“We did not recognize it. We were all going through the same thing and we were all having our own issues and having our own problems at the same time and there just wasn't enough support there for him.”
go here for more
http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/34380/