Page 744 - Total War on PTSD
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CHAPTER 3 - PAYING THE PRICE
JP the Great Dane - Bill (William): My total service time was 30 years and six months during which I served in the Army from January 1981 to November 1994 and the Air Force from November 1994 to August 2011. I completed the following deployments: Bosnia 1997, Bosnia 1998, Kosovo 2000, Afghanistan 2002, Iraq 2003-2004, Afghanistan 2009. In the Army my primary was Communications (O5B) - Radio Operator, then Light Infantry Reconnaissance (Fire Team Leader). With the Air Force I started out in Communications (on a Liaison Team), and then changed over to become a Flight Medic.
A lot of the things I went through in the war zones...I admit I try to forget. I just don't want to remember living in someone else's misery. The one that truly sticks out in my mind all the time, as a person on a Liaison Team, during my last tour I became friends with a British Soldier. He was blown up twice in less than five minutes and I didn't even recognize him. I just remember his arms dangling. So, I told the guy who was helping me to watch his arms, and my friend looked up and said, "Hello Mate." And I said, "Oh it's you." We got him into the hospital and everything and we didn't know it at the time, but he had shrapnel in his eyes and he couldn't see me. He was telling me that, when he came out of the OR and he was awake and able to see again that I was the first one he saw. Of course, I was happy for that. You know it's a strange thing,
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