Page 963 - Total War on PTSD

“The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” - Andy Rooney
Courtenay: When I was working late one evening on the Kandahar base, one of our DFACs was hit not 1/4th of a mile away from my workplace. I was standing outside by the bunker when it happened...in the 'perceived safety' of the concrete bunker by my work building. I knew that often the enemy would drive as close as they could to the perimeter to still be in range, and would have missiles loaded to fire out of their tubes one after the other, adjusting trajectory based on the success of the previous missile. They would usually stay in place for two or three missiles and then speed away...but the enemy would often be targeted and blown up before they could escape.
I would often see tracers launched when planes and helicopters landed and took off, to keep missiles from hitting their intended targets. I heard the rocket fly overhead, with a loud whistle- like sound, and experienced the feeling of air being sucked out around me, kind of like I was holding my breath and couldn’t exhale. That night three of our Navy personnel and a couple of Army personnel were injured. I stayed up all night taking care of casualty reporting and collection of information, only leaving the early the next morning once everything has been completed and I had permission from the Commodore to leave...and even then, I only managed to get a couple hours of sleep because I was so spun up about the whole incident. Afterwards I often considered changing the DFAC I went to but decided not to because I really didn’t go out to eat all that much anyway...because I was afraid to be anywhere where I was around too many people.
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