UK former sergeant major wanted to go to jail instead of being a burden

Iraq war veteran: Haunted, in prison, now homeless

Case study: Former sergeant major John Dale's life began to unravel two years ago, when 20 years of military service brought nightmares and flashbacks

Karen McVeigh The Guardian, Monday 5 July 2010

John Dale has completed 20 years of military service, in Iraq – the last time in 2006 amid some of the fiercest fighting of the war – and Sierra Leone and Northern Ireland. His plan was to leave the army and join the police or fire service.

But today, aged 40, the former sergeant major and father of three children is homeless, living in a tent in the garden of the Margate house belonging to the brother of his wife, Kerry.

He had been released from prison in April, after being found not guilty of the attempted murder of Kerry. The charge, he says, came about after he lied to police so that they would lock him up, so that his family, who had watched helplessly as he fell apart, would not have to "babysit" him any more.

Dale's life began to unravel two years ago, when his regiment, the 1st Battalion, the Light Infantry, was preparing to return to Iraq on what would have been his fourth tour. He never made it. The nightmares and flashbacks he increasingly suffered but had tried to suppress, became impossible to ignore. He saw dead children everywhere. He couldn't see a way out and tried to kill himself.
read more here
Iraq war veteran Haunted in prison now homeless