Page 971 - Total War on PTSD

“I’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.” - John Steinbeck
Courtenay: One thing I enjoyed during my time at Kandahar Airfield was the USO tour performance and, more specifically, Robin Williams. Aside from an unexpectedly high amount of ‘colorful’ words, his performance was top-notch.
The only thing he said that seemed a little off was when he shouted “Hello Kandahar!” and he just didn't seem to have the heart to back up his exclamation...to me he just seemed a little down.
Even so, he told a lot of jokes and made it worth it to be there, and was a temporary distraction to where we all were. The unfortunate thing about the venue was that Army personnel were taking up all of the area close to the stage, making it difficult to get a good view to back up sound coming from the speakers surrounding us unless you brought binoculars with you.
On the flip side however, before and during the performance I kept thinking that the entire area could be targeted, many military and civilians could be killed or injured, and, in my opinion, that the performance wasn’t worth anyone’s life.
I remained on the fringes of the audience and left well before the show was over. Even before I got home, being around a big crowd and lots of noise was a trigger for me. It has remained so even today. I just deal with it in ‘small chunks’.
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