By James Dao / The New York Times The act of killing is as fundamental to war as oxygen is to fire. Yet it is also the one thing many combat veterans avoid discussing when they return home, whether out of shame, guilt or a deep fear of being misunderstood. But a new study of […]

Military Experiment Seeks to Predict PTSD By Alicia Chang / Associated Press Two days before shipping off to war, Marine Pfc. Jesse Sheets sat inside a trailer in the Mojave Desert, his gaze fixed on a computer that flashed a rhythmic pulse of contrasting images. Smiling kids embracing a soldier. A dog sniffing blood oozing […]

The Sensitive Soldier: Can US troops be rewired to be impervious to trauma? In the wake of Fort Hood, Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum launched a groundbreaking program to eliminate PTSD. By Gail Sheehy / The Daily Beast “How am I going to get people to focus not on tragedy, but on resilience?” Brigadier General Rhonda […]

Here’s some powerful testimony from SSG Eddie Black, a veteran of the Marine Corps (Desert Storm) and the Oregon National Guard (OIF2) about his return from combat. Eddie now gives free talks for veterans on PTSD. You can email him here.     “When I got back from Iraq, all I wanted to do was go […]

An event that hasn’t happened since World War II is making history in Indiana as an Indiana National Guard combat division is deployed to Afghanistan. A send off ceremony was held Tuesday for the 38th Infantry Division “Task Force Cyclone” at the division’s headquarters in Columbus. It’s the first combat deployment from the headquarters in […]

Here’s an article from ABC News about what a soldier needs in the field. It’s written by someone stationed with troops in Afghanistan. I agree with most of it – mail is super-important while you’re overseas. Chow was a little more difficult for me since I’m a vegetarian, but Katie and her mom sent me […]

Here is part of a post from Susan Katz Keating about watching her father suffer PTSD. It’s powerful – and recognizable for many of us who have loved ones suffering post-combat. You can read Susan’s blog here. I awakened late to the sound of violent pounding on the front door of our home in Riverside, California. By […]

By Golnar Motevalli / Reuters The majority of the 17,000 extra U.S. troops being sent to fight a growing Taliban-led insurgency in southern and western Afghanistan should be on the ground by mid-July, the U.S. military said on Sunday. A further 4,000 troops are arriving to train Afghan security forces and they will be deployed […]

From the Associated Press: The Pentagon is prepared to leave fighting forces in Iraq for as long as a decade despite an agreement between the United States and Iraq that would bring all American troops home by 2012, the top U.S. Army officer said Tuesday. Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, said the […]

Mark and I and our good friend Bruno were interviewed while we were in Afghanistan. Read the article here.