Page 966 - Total War on PTSD
P. 966
So, on Friday we put his vest on him and took him out one last time to the pet store. He enjoyed his last outing. On Saturday we went to get coffee and then to the vet. He was still doing his job to the end. When we went into the room and he was comforting me to his last breath. The rest of the weekend I basically shut down and didn't talk at all.
On Monday when I saw Valor she came up to me and jumped up on me and held me for several minutes knowing that I was not doing so well. She is what got me through the next week. She stayed close to me all week and comforted me all week until she knew I was doing better. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have made it through the week easily.
I am retired from the U.S. Army, as an LTC after over 28 years of service to my country. I have deployed with both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Army and completed no less than nine tours under Desert Shield/Desert Storm (DS/DS) in Iraq with my total deployed time being four and a half years. I started with the Navy in DS/DS on board USS LEFTWICH (DD-984). After DS/ DS I changed over to the Army I completed my tours in Iraq with the Ranger Regiment.
While in country, every night we would go on missions to see who we would get each night and during the day we would be working on what we needed to run the missions that night; so, we were always running patrols in different areas. What I miss the most was when I was on RDF (rapid deployment force). If someone was in trouble in any unit we would show up and help them out. Some of the most fun we had was when we would come flying in helo's and would either fast rope or come in and flare the chopper and come running out and kick some major tail.
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