Too many bring the war home in the form of post-traumatic stress

Soledad O'Brien: For veterans, the war comes home
CNN
By Soledad O'Brien
August 12, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Documentary airing on CNN looks at the fate of returning Iraq/Afghanistan veterans
Soledad O'Brien: Too many bring the war home in the form of post-traumatic stress
The documentary follows the lives of two veterans, who cope with return from war
O'Brien: The two entered a program that used meditation, equine therapy, counseling

Editor's note: Soledad O'Brien hosts "The War Comes Home" on CNN Tuesday at 9 p.m. The former CNN anchor is CEO of Starfish Media Group and reports stories for HBO Real Sports and other media organizations. Follow her on Twitter: @soledadobrien Cameron O'Brien contributed to this article. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors.

(CNN) -- Delon Beckett is losing it. He's drunk, stumbling around his living room wrestling with his 3-year-old daughter, Jayla. She kicks him in the groin, and he mumbles "stop."

He can barely stand up and walk but he drags himself to the stairs, pushing her away and faltering. His wife, Emme, is not far behind, putting herself between Delon and two kids, picking up the things he knocks over. Her husband survived the war in Iraq. Now, at home, he wants very much to die.

This fly-on-the-wall scene of Delon opens my documentary "The War Comes Home," the first long-form project from my new company, Starfish Media Group, for air on CNN. The documentary follows the journey of two men crippled by the traumatic stress of returning from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Delon Beckett and Garrett Combs were among the 2.5 million warriors we sent to fight our most recent wars not knowing what we would get back.

The painful scenes reflect the bravery of these men in opening their private pain. It's hard for toughened warriors to acknowledge their suicidal tendencies even to friends, family and therapists. To reveal them to the public takes a special brand of guts.

My aim in displaying their raw moments was to give a human face to the disturbing fact that nearly 8,000 veterans of all wars buckle from the stress and kill themselves each year. So far in the Iraq and Afghanistan fighting, there have been 6,802 veterans killed in action or in accidents, according to Costs of War, a Brown University project tracking those wars. Just do that math.
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