Marine with PTSD joined to save lives not take them

This is what I keep saying. Too many forget why they wanted to join the military in the first place. It was honorable to want to save lives and protect the country. When they stop believing that, they regret what they did for love.

The number one post on this site is "For those I love I will sacrifice" and from a tattoo on the chest of Pfc. Kyle Hockenberry, who was injured by an IED.

It pretty much sums up how they all feel. They are ready to face danger and ready to save a life even if it means they lose their own. If you want to see how much they care about each other, go to the link below and see the pictures going with this article. If you want to know why they are willing to do all of this, read it and know this isn't about killing. It is about caring.

They risk their lives because they love and that requires a deep emotional connection. In other words, the strength of their ability to care. It also opens the door to feeling the tremendous emotional pain. Once they understand this, know where the pain is coming from, they can begin to heal. Until then all the horrors of war stay with them until they no longer remember why they went.

Local Marine carries memories of war, for better or for worse
Cleveland Advocate
By STEPHANIE BUCKNER
July 26, 2013

Freedom does not come without a price, and that price for United States Marine and Cleveland resident Adam Brochin is constant anxiety and persistent memories of his active-duty experiences, which haunt his dreams like a roadside bomb waiting to explode.

According to the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), an individual can develop PTSD after being exposed to one or more traumatic events, including serious injury or threat of death.

Some of the symptoms associated with this affliction are disturbing and recurring flashbacks or dreams, high levels of anxiety for an extended period of time, or a complete numbness affiliated with memories of the events which the mind has deemed traumatic. Approximately 20 percent of those suffering from the disorder in 2009 were veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

For Brochin, PTSD is something he has come to be very familiar with in his everyday life. This affliction has been amplified by the fact that a friend, fellow soldier and PTSD sufferer took his own life because of his personal traumatic combat experiences.

“I joined the military because I really wanted to make a difference,” said Brochin. “I remember sitting in my first period English class on 9/11 and watching the trade centers go down. People around me who knew that I was going into the Marine Corps just looked at me and I was just thinking that this is why I joined. I wanted to save lives, not take them. I wanted to protect what we have and support the American way of life.”

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PTSD I Grieve from Kathleen "Costos" DiCesare on Vimeo.