Returning Middle East soldiers cope with stress disorder

Returning Middle East soldiers cope with stress disorder
Michael D. Abernethy / Times-News

“The guys who make the best soldiers are the ones who’ve lost the fear of dying.”

U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. E-5 Jamie Gregory, 34, says this matter-of-factly while describing two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“An I.E.D. could explode or a bullet could come at you any time. You can’t stop it from happening, so why worry about it? You have to get over it,” Gregory says. “Once you do, you never lose it.”

It was several weeks into his first tour in Iraq in 2004 when he accepted the possibility of death. He knew military benefits would provide for his wife and two children. And at least there would be a purpose to his death there, rather than being killed by a drunken driver on an American highway. When he was deployed a second time — to Iraq first and then moved to Afghanistan — with the Alpha Company 30th Special Troops Battalion with the National Guard in 2009, he was more prepared for what life in a war zone would look and feel like.

As a crypto-linguist, he worked with Afghani civilians gathering military intelligence. He feels blessed that none of the 84 in his unit was severely injured or killed in 25 off-base missions.

But he was wounded.

When he returned to Alamance County in January, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was found to be suffering from a traumatic brain injury — likely caused by a blast, though he’s not sure when the initial injury occurred. When he first arrived home he couldn’t relax. He woke up in the middle of the night in a panic, looking for his weapon. He still has trouble remembering large numbers.
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Returning Middle East soldiers cope with stress disorder