Page 973 - Total War on PTSD

“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” - Roger Caras
Courtenay: Unlike Michael, I did view my PTSD as a personal weakness for a long time...and especially so when I was in the process of being medically retired. Now I have PTSD related triggers that still bother me but I feel like I have found more ways to deal with those triggers. I don’t see it as a weakness any longer.
One place on the Kandahar Airbase that I frequented was the laundry trailer closest to my barracks...which was still a bit of a walk. I usually went there at least once every two weeks to try and uphold some sense of dignity and cleanliness within a constant baptismal of dust on base, in my office and otherwise.
One day when I wasn’t doing laundry, I heard that a rocket had hit my laundry trailer, destroying it, and killing and injuring multiple civilian and military personnel. The next day I went to check on where the trailer was and found that it had already been removed, and it looked like nothing had ever been there in the first place.
I felt like they should have left it there for at least one day so others could ‘process’ what had occurred. In the very least I thought that something should have been there in its place, to honor what had happened and to help others with a sense of closure.
Instead it simply disappeared, like it was never there in the first place, and that made me mad. I guess I do understand that, since there were local nationals on base, that it may have been better that they didn't have something like that to photograph with their always present and used cell phones.
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