Page 15 - Total War on PTSD

the bone, that my clothes cling to me while the rain tries to wash away my pain. I see it all and hear it. But I feel nothing but that deep dread that carries one question: does that incoming have my name on it?
Every day, and at any time of day, when I hear any sort of unexpected noise, I may go into barely controlled panic mode. My reaction includes immediately looking around for escape routes and examining everyone and everything around me as a potential threat, my anxiety and heart-rate rising by the second. That’s my PTSD. I returned from my Afghanistan deployment back in 2011 but, for part of me, it might as well have been just an hour ago.
I was ordered to Afghanistan in 2010 to work with the Third Naval Construction Regiment (3NCR), an outstanding Seabee regiment that has since been decommissioned, and was deployed for seven months. 3NCRs job was to support Operation Enduring Freedom and, under the direction of Captain Donald Hedrick, was in charge of four Naval Mobile Construction Battalions (NMCBs), one Air Force Engineering Command, two Army Combat Engineer Battalions, one Army Engineering Command, and three Army support units. 3NCR was responsible for construction engineering and engineering support in the Afghanistan theater, and played an essential in international security for coalition forces. Those of us who remained on the base (Forward Operating Base or FOB) never ‘officially’ saw combat. That is unless of course, like me, you lost count of how many rocket attacks and other attempts there were to penetrate the base perimeter and kill us there really were.
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