Out of the dark night of post-traumatic stress

Out of the dark night of post-traumatic stress
By JoANNE YOUNG
Lincoln Journal Star

Jack and DeeDee get the initial credit.

The two blue-eyed Siberian huskies, the breed known to pull heavy loads through difficult conditions, saved Allen Gabel in the dark months when a silent war raged in his mind.

He dragged the doubts and second guessing from two deployments in Iraq through his days and nights.

What if his actions and those of his fellow National Guard members as they pulled supply convoys through deserts and cities were wrong?

Was there something he could have done differently? Something he should have avoided?

Were those people truly the enemy?

The thoughts haunted him after his first deployment in 2004. They returned after his second assignment there in 2008.

"I was thinking I could go buy a gun. Even driving down the road thinking I could just drive into that pole," he said.

But Jack and DeeDee needed him. He didn't really want to leave them, even when nothing much mattered anymore.

The anguish caused 1st Sgt. Gabel of Lincoln to isolate himself, spending most of his time at his job with the National Guard or sitting at home, drinking beer, dashing to the grocery store only when he had almost completely run out of food.

He couldn't face the small groups of people he might encounter, traffic, objects he saw by the road.

"Everything reminded me of being on mission out on the road."
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