Page 390 - Total War on PTSD

because it was their country. One time, we had a suicide bomber enter our base and they didn't even pat her down. She detonated the vest and killed a few of their commanders and Soldiers. Next thing you know the commander's brother took over for him since he was killed and our first mission out was directly to this lady's house. The Iraqi Army took her brother and father out into the street and executed them in the middle of the road right in front of us. That was their form of justice. Another thing that made Iraq so difficult was families trying to help us out. There are people there who would leave Iraq in a heartbeat to come to the U.S. but it just wasn't an option for them. They would help us out and get tortured for that. I remember guys giving us intel and then the next day we'd see them completely dismembered. They were just trying to help us out. War is one thing but to torture people at that level is just about as insidious and evil as it gets.
I spent most of my time in Iraq bunking with Chris Bales, a heavy equipment operator from southern California who was 10 years my senior. We called Bales "Old Balls" because he was so much older than everyone else. We were tent mates for the duration of our 15 months in Iraq. When Bales' marriage went sideways while he was away, he leaned on me for support. Together we endured everything from the death of fellow Soldiers to monotonous nights on watch. We were reunited in Afghanistan with the 187th, but not as bunkmates. Bales was a specialist who often served forward duty on patrols, and he was critically injured on one mission. "I was hit twice," Bales said. "I took the first round in my lower back. I was still in the first and trying to go back and warn the others that it was an ambush. They were walking right into it. The second round went through my thigh and clipped a nerve under the femur. My leg did this weird
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