Page 950 - Total War on PTSD

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” - Will Rogers
Courtenay: I remember doing triathlons and biathlons years ago, as well as, when I was still in service, qualifying on various gun ranges. I think the running and shooting biathlon was my favorite event even though I didn't get any practice for it. In addition to Ballet until my late teens, I was also a competitive swimmer for a while, until all the other girls started looking like reasonably fit football players and I stayed small and couldn't keep up with them anymore. Even though I am sure I wouldn't be able to tolerate a gun range now, at least not without earplugs, I always used to enjoy qualifications for the M16 and the 9MM and did very well on both.
This is something I still do today but I learned to constantly listen to my surroundings on base so that I could tell from the sounds of the ambulances and fire trucks if something had happened, or still was. I could also generally tell how bad the rocket attack was from listening to find out what types and how many emergency vehicles were engaged...and that it was a false alarm when none were called.
Some of our personnel had to make regular visits to the burn pits to destroy/burn documentation, etc. We all dealt with air that full of dust of baby powder consistency as well as metallic particles. The Poo-Pond permeating everything on base, especially on windy days, when you’d step outside and the smell of sewage would burn nose hairs, and on bad days it left a rotten smell on our uniforms. There were some military service members who deployed to the area a 2nd or 3rd time...and some seemed to be okay when they returned home...but there were others with issues who shot themselves or used other means to end their lives, such as
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