Pawtucket father who suffered PTSD after Iraq makes up for lost time

Pawtucket father who suffered PTSD after Iraq makes up for lost time
October 9, 2011
By G. Wayne Miller
Journal Staff Writer

Sekou Toure with his son, Sean, in 2007, on the day of his second deployment to Iraq. Sean was 5 at the time.
Courtesy of Sekou Toure

PAWTUCKET — Today is Sekou N. Toure’s turn to pick his son up at school. After stopping for a sandwich, he and 9-year-old Sean reach the apartment Toure has rented since he and his wife separated a few months ago. Their troubles are woven into the circumstances of Toure’s two deployments to Iraq as a Rhode Island Army National Guardsman.

“I don’t know if we need time apart or whatever,” says Toure, in his soft-spoken voice, which carries a hint of a French accent. “I mean, it is what it is. I can’t dwell on that. All I can worry about is Sean –– make sure that he knows that I’m here for him, even though I wasn’t before. That’s the promise I have made to him. He knows that I am here for him, and I’ll do everything I can.”

Sean was a toddler when his father deployed the first time, in 2004, with the 103rd Field Artillery. And he was just 5 when Toure returned to Iraq, in 2007, with the 169th Military Police Company.
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