The War Within: Veterans struggle with PTSD

The War Within: Veterans struggle with PTSD

February 21, 2012

Lindsey Kovacevich

JEFFERSON COUNTY - Running from the enemy, trying to stay alive, shooting to kill. It's war.

Veterans and men and women now serving in the military share a special bond. An experience they say you can't understand unless you've lived it.

Many have come back from war and are now living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Some of the men and women who fight for our country come back broken, hurt. They find it hard to work their way back into society.

The Vietnam War brought tens of thousands of young Americans into a combat zone where the enemy could be hiding anywhere. Guerrilla warfare that took its toll on the body and mind. Some turned to lives of crime, drugs; anything to numb the pain.

Experts say for many all of that is linked to PTSD. The criminal justice system is trying to help veterans fight the war within.

"I've seen guys commit suicide while we in the bush. Stick that rifle in his mouth. I mean to actually witness something like that, that's a trip," says Herman Columbus who's a Vietnam veteran. He adds, "they pop out of the ground like little rats and start firing at you. Never know where you're walking. What to expect. Sometimes the jungle is so thick you can't see from me to you."

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