PTSD hits soldier's family hard after suicide

PTSD hits soldier's family hard on the Cape
Cape Cod Times
By Cynthia Mccormick
June 16, 2013

To fellow players at the Battlefield Game store in Killeen, Texas, 24-year-old Christian Estrada was a good-natured and enthusiastic presence.

The solidly built Iraq War veteran could appear gruff at first, but his face practically cracked open when he grinned.

Estrada responded to teasing about his poor dice-throwing skills with good-natured retorts, and regularly helped out at the new store, which is building a clientele devoted to tabletop miniature war games.

"He was a very good man," Battlefield Games employee Carlos Wong said. "He had such a memorable smile. He was definitely a hard worker. He had a lot of patience."

Estrada spent hours using a fine-tipped paintbrush to bring color to his own tabletop army, the Legion of Everblight.

His family says it was Estrada's real- time war experiences that ultimately undid him.

Honorably discharged from the U.S. Army post in nearby Fort Hood in 2010 for a disability his family says was post-traumatic stress disorder, Estrada shot himself dead in his Killeen apartment June 5.

His sister, Tatiana Garcia, of South Dennis, calls Estrada a casualty of war.
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