Staff Sgt. James Wilson survives battleground but loses a war with another enemy

He was a Marine, a cop and citizen soldier. He was trained to do it all and he was fearless. He was still just a man. This man carried more on his shoulders than he could carry alone but that is what he thought he had to do.

"Nothing frazzled Wilson. Not the enemy. Not the snipers. Not the landmines. Not the drug dealers he chased as a cop. Wilson was fearless. The Marine Corps had drilled that into him. “You eyeball me, boy, I’ll smack you,” he liked to taunt.

Wilson returned home in November, the Pennsylvania National Guard’s Company C, 1st Battalion, 110th Infantry having finished its 10-month tour in Afghanistan. Wilson had volunteered for it two years ago when he returned from his tour with the 56th Stryker Brigade in Iraq."

He faced all of this and still did his job, did what was expected of him. This story tells of his life but it also shows just how strong PTSD is. They face bullets and bombs in combat, but walk away. What they cannot walk away from is a much stronger enemy determined to destroy them. This one won't retreat unless the men and women coming home from combat are trained to use the only weapon that can defeat it. Getting help.

U.S. Army SSG. James Wilson, Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul security forces team leader during a village patrol in Afghanistan. DANIEL SHAKAL, For The Patriot-News/file

Staff Sgt. James Wilson survives battleground but loses a war with another enemy
Published: Sunday, August 07, 2011, 12:01 AM
By IVEY DEJESUS, The Patriot-News

The truck barreled past Robert Rafferty as the light turned green. Rafferty swerved and slammed the brakes.

The 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee veered off into the opposite lane where Eisenhower Boulevard dips under the Pennsylvania Turnpike overpass in Lower Swatara Township. It hit the curve and flipped over twice, landing on the roof.

Rafferty jumped out of his car.

A man had crawled halfway out of the driver’s door. He was bald and wore a brown jacket.

“Hey, mister, are you OK?” Rafferty asked.

“Yeah,” said the man on the ground.

The truck was on fire.

“I have to get you out of here,” Rafferty said.

“OK,” said the man.

Rafferty leaned to pull him out, but the man reached back for something in the truck.

That man, Staff Sgt. James C. Wilson — Jimmy to everyone who knew him — had always carried a gun. A fascination kindled at a young age in the woods near his father’s Huntingdon home had lured him into the military and law enforcement.

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Staff Sgt. James Wilson survives battleground but loses a war with another enemy