PTSD recovery began when vet hit bottom

PTSD recovery began when vet hit bottom

Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Michael Macor / The Chronicle
Mike Hofler, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghan wars, began his recovery after a jail stint for a fatal accident.

Monday, May 30, 2011

It didn't even take a full week after mustering out of the Air Force in 2005 for Mike Hofler to find trouble.

Four days into civilian life, he accidentally hit a man with a truck on a freeway off-ramp in Nevada and killed him. While awaiting trial, he became so edgy that he couldn't go to sleep at night until he'd loaded a rifle and placed it next to his bed.

He developed a hair-trigger temper, and he started drinking too much and delving into cocaine.

But it wasn't until he hit bottom by starting a one-year jail term in Nevada in 2006 for the fatal accident - for reckless driving and leaving the scene in a panic - that Hofler, 32, woke up to what he needed to do.

How could a man who gave four years of his life in military service to his country, doing combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, have careened so far off the rails, he asked himself as he lay in his jail cell.



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