Texas veterans remind others they do not have to fight PTSD alone

Veterans try to combat depression, suicides after return to civilian life

Houston Chronicle
Robert Downen
May 11, 2019

But little of that prepared them for their new battle - the war with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide that has claimed 14 men from the battalion since they returned in 2006.

Smith’s funeral was the third that year. O’Neel felt like he’d failed him. Danny O’Neel could not help but feel guilt as he stared over his former sniper’s casket.

As a 23-year-old squadron leader, he’d protected Adam Smith and the other soldiers of the Army’s 3rd Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment while deployed to one of Iraq’s most violent parts.

Sadr City in 2006 was “terrible,” “one of the most dangerous places on earth,” O’Neel said Saturday.

Some men lost limbs; nine lost their lives.

“We want to remind them all that they didn’t go through war alone,” Faun said. “They didn’t have gunfights alone. And they don’t need to battle things at home alone.”
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