Page 33 - Total War on PTSD

mind relives my own experiences, which often seem to pale when compared to the stories that are being shared. I can feel myself sitting a little taller in my seat as well.
If you are one of those men and women who still carry the war with you, then I believe this book will help you to deal with your memories better and will cause you to sit a little taller and sleep a little better. And I hope it will inspire you to reach out to others who can’t seem to leave their war behind. You may be surprised to find that when you begin to help others with their struggles that your sadness will start to disappear too. That adage that, You never stand taller than when you stoop to lift someone else up is true.”
The Expectant Soldier I Never Knew
A couple of weeks before Christmas, 2010, one of our subordinate units had an Mine-Resistant
Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle strike an Improvised Explosive Devise (IED) during route clearing operations. Two soldiers in the vehicle were killed, and two others were injured, one with life-threatening injuries. One of our Navy Battalion doctors, a renowned orthopedic surgeon from Seattle Washington, who spent most of his time at the Role III hospital in Kandahar, spent nine hours in surgery in the operating room, beginning the moment that the soldier arrived, trying to save his arms and what remained of his hands. The patient would be airlifted to Germany later that night for additional surgery and treatment.
The base commanding officer, General Hodges, contacted our command requesting that our CO, Commodore Donald Hedrick, and I, as Command Master Chief of the Task Force, assist him in presenting our soldier with a Purple Heart as soon as the patient had recovered from surgery and before his flight to Germany was scheduled to depart. Captain Hedrick was in Kabul, Afghanistan, and would not be back for two days, so I represented the command alone.
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