Page 874 - Total War on PTSD

I was 10 months into my 15-month mission when everything “caught” up to me. I had been driving on with little sleep. Multiple times going 72 or more hours without any rest. I lived on Rip-Its (Small cans of Energy Drinks that we were not in short supply of). I was not eating right. Many times’ I would go a few days without eating. I was privy to a lot of information due to my position and security clearance. A lot of information I cannot divulge. Witness to scenes that played out in front of me and over the radios that myself and my team monitored. Nothing happened in our area of Afghanistan without myself and my team knowing about it or being actively involved in it. I was NCOIC of the TOC as an E-5. Doing the work of an E-7. This was a position two pay grades higher and with a lot more training. Yet, I was capable of doing it. What I did not know, I learned. What I did know, I taught my team. I delegated where appropriate and put my nose to the ground where I could apply myself.
There were two situations that stand out as having my mind “troubled”. We took our first loss on June 1, 2007. "A Warrior, Leader, Father, Husband, American...My Brother." He was killed by a roadside IED. Being in the position that I was, I was part of the briefing that went into detail about our loss. Photos of the tragedy that took my brother’s life. The approach, the destruction of the HUMVEE, the unimaginable that I would rather not put into words and the concealed place where the enemy had detonated the IED. This briefing was VERY detailed.
We took our first civilian casualty July 24, 2007. A child, the age of about 7-10, was killed while a Helicopter was taken off. He reached up to catch a flare they shot off to protect them from heat seeking hardware that might be used by enemy combatants. The child was brought to our FOB and I had to coordinate with the local Afghan Police, Afghan Army, the Governor of
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