Leap of Faith Saved Veteran From Fighting PTSD Alone

Longview veteran praises VA for helping save his life
CBS News 19
Posted: Oct 30, 2015

"There isn't any way to make people forget what happened to them in combat," Lusk said. "You can't make the memories go away. But you can find peace. My life's been better since connecting with the VA."

LONGVIEW (KYTX) - When war veterans come back home, the fight doesn't stop there as many people struggle to ease back into society. For one Longview veteran, he is still here today thanks to the help of those close to him going through similar struggles.

Leaders from the Overton Brooks Veteran Association Medical Center held their second Longview town hall meeting in the past three months. Larry Lusk served in the Vietnam War and went to the meeting Thursday to voice some of his concerns. However, Lusk's biggest fight came soon after he returned from war.

"Getting into the late 80s, my life was pretty much falling apart," Lusk said. "It ended up I had PTSD pretty bad."

Even being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Lusk still didn't want to talk about what he was going through.

"I didn't want to have anything to do with the army, with the VA or anything," Lusk said. "I saw a lot of bad things happen. I had some friends get killed right beside me."

Around that time, after a fellow combat veteran encouraged Lusk to get help, he took a leap--a life-saving leap.
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