Air Force Staff Sgt. Pearsall Turns Lens Into Healing PTSD

Veterans Portrait Project new passion for former combat photographer 
The Post and Courier
Prentiss Findlay
November 27, 2014

"The physical pain was one thing. I was trained well enough to just kind of suck it up and keep going. I just wasn't prepared for the emotional anguish I was going to feel," she said.

Retired Army First Sgt. Eugene D. Smith enlisted in
1966 at the height of the Vietnam War.
He retired in 1992.
He was photographed for the Veterans Portrait
Project in St. Louis. Stacy Pearsall

Stacy Pearsall prepared to focus her camera on veteran David Ball as she softly sang "Let It Go" over and again, a tune from the Disney movie "Frozen."

She recently completed a year of coast-to-coast travel for her Veterans Portrait Project.

In 33 cities, she photographed men and women who served their country including a 99-year-old Bataan Death March survivor.

In West Ashley, she added another veteran to the list of more than 3,000 for whom she has done portraits. She and assistant Cali Barini set up lights and other equipment in Ball's garage where he was photographed.

It was a good day for Pearsall. The post-traumatic stress disorder that can keep her at home in Goose Creek was at bay.

Pearsall said that she is getting better emotionally.

The portrait project has been a saving grace for her. 

"Four or five years ago I wouldn't be able to sit in this room where we are sitting. I would be buried in the corner over there. I've been pushing my comfort zone to get myself out of this repetitious funk because that's what PTSD does to you," she said.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Pearsall was wounded in 2004 and 2007 during tours of duty in Iraq when improvised explosive device blasts hit armored vehicles in which she was traveling. She received the Bronze Star for her actions helping rescue wounded soldiers. 
read more here