A Hero Takes His Own Life – PTSD And Living With Ghosts

As someone who served in both Vietnam and Iraq, I have seen my share of the horrors of war. I may be sixty-four years old, but I still see the faces of my young soldiers in Vietnam like it was yesterday - the ones who lived and the ones who died.

There is an ache in my soul that is always there. But I have lived with it for so long that it has become a part of who I am. I call it “living with ghosts”; the body bags, the torn bodies, the blank faces, the jungle clearings, the crashed helicopters, the smells, the sounds….

When I was first married almost forty years ago, my wife said she would wake up in the middle of the night, and she could see my silhouette creeping through the room like I was holding a rifle on patrol. I would wander around for a while then return to bed. She said she was too scared to wake me up. My night "patrols" stopped eventually – to her great relief – but I never remembered them.

I was lucky, and I learned to cope with the bad memories even though a passing thought can bring goose bumps to my arms. Like many veterans from America's wars, I can't forget the horrors. But all men and women are made differently. Some can learn to live with the ghosts, but others cannot.

Remember my fellow warriors: It takes a warrior to ask for help. Your brothers are here for you. Seek help, contact the VA, talk to a college counselor, do something, do anything, but do not give up. You would not quit on the battlefield, so do not quit back here.

The following story is about a young captain who did his very best to help soldiers who were both psychologically and physically wounded by war. He counseled them on the battlefield, and he tried to help them heal at home. Unfortunately, his own soul’s pain was magnified by the suffering of others, and he eventually committed suicide. Like the inmate in the “Green Mile,” he took the pain of his fellow troops as if it were his own while trying to teach them how to live with what they had endured.

Don't read his story to learn how he died; read it to learn how he lived.....

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VET WHO SAVED MANY IN IRAQ COULDN’T ESCAPE DEMONS

The Blaze

March 18, 2013

He had a knack for soothing soldiers who'd just seen their buddies killed by bombs. He knew how to comfort medics sickened by the smell of blood and troops haunted by the screams of horribly burned Iraqi children.

Capt. Peter Linnerooth was an Army psychologist. He counseled soldiers during some of the fiercest fighting in Iraq. Hundreds upon hundreds sought his help. For nightmares and insomnia. For shock and grief. And for reaching that point where they just wanted to end it all.

Read more at: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/18/vet-who-saved-many-in-iraq-couldnt-escape-demons/%20?test=latestnews

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Rest brother, until your fellow warriors are with you once again….

Posted by:

Charles M. Grist

www.MyLastWar.com

                    

War Veterans And PTSD

First Lieutenant Chuck Grist
Shortly before Christmas, 1970 , Northeast of Saigon

In three weeks, I will turn 64. I retired from the Army Reserve in 2009 (with service in Iraq as well as Vietnam). In 2010, I retired after twenty years as a police officer.

Back in 1970, I arrived in Vietnam as a twenty-one-year-old Army Ranger lieutenant. I would serve as an infantry platoon leader in combat where I would experience the deaths of men I knew as well as participate in the killing of the enemy soldiers who wanted to kill us.

Every day was lived on "red alert" where you were ready for something terrible to happen. When there was no action, there was the threatening silence of the jungle around you that was filled with bad guys. Who wouldn't remember most of this, no matter how long ago it happened?

Before you read the article below on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), check out this LINK to an article about the general statistics of Vietnam veterans. You will probably be surprised, and you will also learn that the guy with the work for food sign at the overpass is probably NOT a Vietnam veteran.

I encourage my fellow Vietnam veterans, my fellow post-9/11 veterans, or the veterans of any war to seek help if you need it. You are my brothers and sisters and I care about you.

No veteran of any war can escape the curse of the memories, those ghosts that often come to you in the dark of night. Some can handle the memories just fine, but others cannot.

As a poster in the local Veteran's Administration clinic says, "It takes the strength of a warrior to ask for help."

The following article from Stars and Stripes talks about retiring Vietnam veterans like me and the possibility that PTSD might rise from the shadows even forty years after the war:

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Retirement might unleash PTSD symptoms in Vietnam veterans

By Leo Shane III
Stars and Stripes
June 20, 2012

WASHINGTON — It took Sam Luna more than 35 years to get treatment for his post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I didn’t realize anything was wrong,” the combat-wounded Vietnam veteran said. “I thought I had adjusted well after I came back. I had a job, I had a family, everything looked great from the outside.”

But shortly after he retired in 2004, his anxiety attacks and stress levels increased. A trip to his local Veterans Affairs hospital triggered war memories. The former soldier started to notice the hair-trigger temper his wife had complained about for years.

He found himself thinking more often about the war — and the friends he lost.

“It was like I had a black box on the mantel for years, but I could ignore it when I left for work every day,” he said. “When I retired, it was still sitting there, waiting for me.”

Mental health experts say that kind of delayed trauma isn’t unusual. Major life events such as retirement often trigger personal reassessment and forgotten memories.

But for Vietnam veterans who returned decades ago to a harsh reception and limited mental health options, that could mean a new wave of stress and serious psychological issues as their generation enters retirement age.

The average age of a Vietnam vet is 65 years old. More than 5 million of the nation’s more than 7 million Vietnam-era veterans are between 60 and 70 years old, according to data from the National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics.

An additional 1 million are expected to turn 60 within the next five years.

“A lot of people coped with the traumatic experiences in war by throwing themselves into work when they got home,” said Tom Berger, director of the health council at Vietnam Veterans of America. “Now, after being a workaholic for 40 years, they suddenly don’t have that structure in their life anymore. I expect there will be more and more folks seeking out help for those issues.”

But Berger and other veterans advocates worry that if there is a flood of new cases, the already struggling VA mental health system won’t be able to handle it.

In retrospect, Luna said, his PTSD should have been obvious.

His wife, Gloria, said after he returned from Vietnam, the 22-year-old soldier never spoke about the war or his injury. He punched walls when he got angry. He stewed in silence over things that caused him stress, and he lashed out at her and their children when it became too much.

“I knew he was different, but I figured that just happens when men come back from war,” she said.

For his part, Luna said he just “forgot” everything he saw overseas. He blocked out the stress of patrols in hostile areas, the men who got hit by sniper fire and the snare trap that shot a wooden spike through his right leg.

Once he was well enough to do so, he found work with the Texas criminal justice system as a probation officer and threw himself into his career.

“I just didn’t want to deal with that stuff,” he said. “I didn’t think there was anything I needed to deal with.”

John Edwards, a rifleman who was entering Vietnam the same year Luna was leaving, said he saw the same pattern in his war experience. After two years of violent scenes and close calls, he just wanted to return home to a “normal” life. He found success in a series of technology firms. He was diagnosed only recently — more than 40 years after his return — with PTSD.

“I didn’t feel right, and someone told me I should go in [to the VA] and talk with someone,” he said. “It wasn’t about getting benefits for me. It was about getting help.”

He’s getting that help now. Berger said it’s a common story heard by those at Vietnam Veterans of America, one that shows the need for mental health services for all ages.

But he worries an influx of cases like his could overburden the VA medical system.

“They just don’t have the resources to handle that,” he said.

Last year, more than 476,000 veterans received treatment for PTSD from VA hospitals and clinics, up dramatically from about 272,000 in fiscal 2006.

Iraq and Afghanistan veterans make up a large portion of that increase but still account for only about one-fifth of all PTSD patients. More than half of the new cases come from earlier wars.

In response to the demand, VA officials have added almost 7,000 new mental health specialists in the last six years. But in April, the VA inspector general sharply criticized department officials for overly optimistic estimates on wait times for mental health appointments.

Fewer than half of patients requesting an initial evaluation were seen within two weeks, and many facilities took months to schedule even basic visits.

VA officials have promised changes, vowing to hire 1,600 new mental health professionals nationwide and to fill 1,500 existing open positions across the country.

Dr. Matthew Friedman, executive director of the VA’s National Center for PTSD, said officials haven’t begun preparing for a wave of retiring Vietnam veterans seeking mental health care.

In the past, they have issued alerts around anniversaries or other large public events that might trigger war flashbacks — when the movie “Saving Private Ryan” was released, for example — about the possibility of new patients, but studies haven’t shown a significant jump in therapy visits following those markers.

“But anecdotally, I can tell you I’ve seen a lot of veterans [following notable dates or events] who just want to talk informally with someone,” he said. “We know anniversaries are important, and they evoke a lot of memories.”

The Defense Department last month launched its 50th anniversary commemoration of the Vietnam War, pushing those veterans’ experiences and memories to the forefront again.

Barbara Van Dahlen, founder of the nonprofit counseling organization Give an Hour, said the combination of that and the veterans’ ages create a “perfectly normal” situation for mental health issues to resurface.

“I don’t want to suggest that all of these veterans will need professional help,” she said. “But it’s a situation where the memories and the emotions are bubbling up. For some, it’ll be a conversation with their children or their wife, sharing things they wanted to before didn’t feel like they could. Some will need more help. The important thing to know is that it’s normal and important to address those issues, and not just to shove it away again.”

Veterans of Foreign Wars deputy director Gerald Manar, a Vietnam veteran, noted that he saw more visitors to the Vietnam Wall on Memorial Day last month. It wasn’t just veterans either, he said. Many families were there, asking questions and listening to stories.

“Vietnam veterans were slapped with a lot of unfair labels when they came home,” Manar said. “Millions went off to war, served with distinction and honor, and then came back to be major contributors to the middle class. But that doesn’t mean they dealt with everything.”

Friedman said from a treatment perspective, the age or combat era of a mental health patient doesn’t really matter.

“PTSD is PTSD,” he said, noting that recent advances in treating younger vets can be easily translated to older generations.

Luna, who is in counseling with the VA to deal with his PTSD, works with Vets’ Journey Home Texas, running weekend therapy retreats for veterans of all eras. They mainly work with younger veterans, in the hopes they can deal with their war traumas more quickly and more definitively than the older generations. But he said he’s also started hearing from a large number of Vietnam veterans who have just retired.

Said Luna: “America has no idea what the Vietnam vets are still going through.”

shanel@stripes.osd.mil
Twitter: @LeoShane

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Charles M. Grist
Author of the award-winning book My Last War: A Vietnam Veteran's Tour in Iraq

Remembering The Past - And Learning From It

Lieutenant Chuck Grist - Vietnam

I returned from Vietnam on August 8, 1971. A week or so later, I received a phone call from Charlie Wadsworth, a columnist with the Orlando Sentinel. Since I was a “hometown boy” back from the war, he asked me to come down to his office for a brief interview, which I agreed to do. At the time I was a twenty-two year old Army first lieutenant with fresh memories of dead friends, dead enemy soldiers, the smell of the jungle, and a country that didn't care where I had been.

To put the following column in context, the war was winding down, and the “Vietnamization” of that war was in full swing. In the last years of the war, those of us in combat became the victims of the drawdown in the sense that supplies were reduced, artillery rounds were saved, and other cost-saving measures were implemented.

These money-saving measures put us at grave risk, and we became bitter about it. Since America had decided to pull out of Vietnam short of victory, the most frequent comment in my unit was that none of us wanted to be the last soldier to die in Vietnam.

By the way, as I made my way home on August 8, I was spat on in the San Francisco airport by a group of "hippies" and called a murderer by a faceless coward in an Atlanta airport crowd. My family was glad to see me, but I took my uniform off that night and didn't wear it again for almost ten years.

Charlie Wadsworth was a legendary reporter in Orlando. His “Hush Puppies” column appeared daily:

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HUSH PUPPIES

Orlando Sentinel

August 17, 1971

By Charlie Wadsworth, Columnist

Another young Orlandoan is freshly and safely home from a year in Vietnam.

Here are some excerpts from an absorbing conversation with Lt. Charles M. ‘Chuck’ Grist, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Grist:

“…I sincerely believe the reasons we went into Vietnam were good but I don’t like the way it is winding down. Support is harder to get, and in my opinion it is time to leave Vietnam altogether.

“…If after a decade that we have been there the South Vietnamese can’t do it now they won’t ever do it.

“…When you come home it hits you immediately. The people in the U.S. seem to be oblivious to what happens outside of the U.S. I think the people are concerned about Vietnam, but can’t comprehend what has gone on over there and what is going on now.

“…The war stinks, it really does.’

Lt. Grist was with the 1^st Cavalry Division in the flatland regions some 60 miles northeast of Saigon. He was a platoon leader for seven months.

He talked about the narcotics question, and his answers may be different from some of the reports you have been reading of late.

“We never had a problem with it (drugs) in the field in any way in my platoon.  When I became executive officer, I found some problems – some severe – in the rear areas.

“I found it restricted to the rear of both company and battalion, some bad heroin addiction.

“The thing I found is the people in the field won’t allow it. Every now and then someone would try it but his buddies squared him away in a hurry.

“We got some replacements once. A sergeant found one of the replacements on some stuff. He said he had found the man and straightened him out, and he also told me that it would not happen again.

“You had to have utmost cooperation in the field, and people who would not cooperate were kicked out. You make good friends out there. That’s where you make the real friendships, and a man will cooperate and straighten up rather than risk losing the friends he has made, or adding additional risk to the job they’re doing.

“With the units pulling out as they are, it is hard for units to get support, to get things like clothes, for example. Flying time of helicopters has been cut back. That is why in my opinion it is time to leave Vietnam altogether.

“…I think I accomplished what I wanted, to go out there and find out what it really is all about. I want to know what I’m talking about, not just someone shooting off at the mouth. It was the single greatest experience of my life,” he added.

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That last sentence may seem unusual, but for a young man who had given so much, I guess I was attempting to justify that the scars on my body and soul were somehow worth it all.

Following this interview, I began a two year decline from the happy-go-lucky Airborne Ranger I had been before my tour in Vietnam, to a guy who saw only darkness, who drank himself into oblivion on a regular basis, who tried college but dropped out after only two weeks, and who partied like there was no tomorrow.

If not for the timely arrival of the woman who would become my wife, who knows what ditch I would have ended up in. Debbie inspired me to put the past behind me and move on.

We are now in the midst of a drawdown in Afghanistan. As we slowly withdraw our brave warriors, surely some of them must be asking themselves, “Will I be the last G.I. to die in Afghanistan?”

We must not allow the political desire to leave Afghanistan to permit a lack of support for our troops. No shortcuts, no lack of supplies, no lack of artillery or air support, and please continue to welcome them home – not like you welcomed me home from Vietnam – but just like you welcomed me home from Iraq…..

Charles M. Grist

www.MyLastWar.com

War Veterans Get Some Help With PTSD Claims

Here is an article from AOL on recent changes which will make it easier for war veterans to make claims for post-traumatic stress disorder:

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Post-Traumatic Stress Rule Change Could Ease Vets' Access to Benefits

Hundreds of thousands of veterans of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam could be affected by new government rules meant to make it easier for them to apply for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder benefits.

The Veterans Affairs Department regulations would throw out a requirement that vets document the specific events that led to their condition, such as bombings, firefights or artillery shellings, the New York Times reported Thursday. PTSD, as it is called, is characterized by irritability, flashbacks and a lack of emotional responsiveness in the wake of witnessing or experiencing past trauma.

The regulations could take effect next week and may cost the government as much as $5 billion over several years as disability claims are granted, congressional analysts told the Times.

Veterans have complained for decades about the difficulty and amount of time required to track down old combat records. Some veterans groups also say current rules discriminate against those who were deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan -- many of them women -- but did not serve in combat roles.

Under the new rule, the Times said, the government will grant PTSD compensation to veterans who can prove they served in a war zone in a job consistent with the traumatic events they say caused their condition. It would also permit compensation for vets who had a strong reason to fear traumatic events -- or stressors -- even if they didn't actually experience them, the report said. The Defense Department will continue to review all compensation claims submitted to the military branches, yet there are concerns that the liberalization could lead to a flood of fraudulent ones.

But Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said in a statement to the Times, "This nation has a solemn obligation to the men and women who have honorably served... and suffer from the emotional and often devastating hidden wounds of war. The final regulation goes a long way to ensure that veterans receive the benefits and services they need."
 
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For further info go to the Veteran's Administration website at http://www.va.gov/ .
 
Charles M. Grist
http://www.mylastwar.com/  

The Tragedy of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.

Warrior Ethos

After I returned from Iraq in late 2004, I was patrolling the streets as a cop in Central Florida. One afternoon, along with other officers, I was dispatched to a shooting. As we arrived at the apartment complex, a man met us and said his room-mate had shot himself.

Not exactly sure what awaited us, another officer and I entered the apartment – handguns at the ready – to search the rooms one-by-one. As we reached one bedroom door, there was a note taped above the door handle. With the other officer covering me, I pushed open the door.

The young man was lying on his back in bed and blood was splattered across the wall behind his head. One hand was on his chest, but the other was out to his side. Next to that hand was a forty-five automatic handgun. The bullet had entered below his chin and traveled through his head until it exited the top of his skull.

Not knowing yet whether we were dealing with a homicide or a suicide, we secured the scene and waited for the detectives to arrive. While we waited, I made a quick visual survey of the apartment and what I found made my heart begin to tighten with sadness. The note on the door was a suicide note from the ex-soldier and that note was also displayed on the computer screen in the man’s room. He was only 24 years old.

On the bedroom dresser were several souvenirs from Iraq: old Iraqi money with pictures of Saddam Hussein, photographs of his fellow soldiers in the desert, his Global War on Terror Expeditionary Medal and other special things that only an American G.I. would bring home. On the fireplace mantle in the living room, the young veteran’s helmet sat quietly in its desert-camouflage cover.

I have experienced many scenes of death as a police officer, from natural ones to gruesome homicides. Some of these people died because it was simply their time, such as the elderly woman who died at her kitchen table as she clutched her asthma medication.

Suicides are among the saddest deaths because the victims managed to fool their co-workers, their friends, the professional counselors and even their families. Many who knew them saw the sadness, the frustration or the despair, but those closest to them never really believed these seemingly-strong family members or acquaintances could really take their own lives.

As a war veteran who has seen his share of death and who has lost friends and comrades to whatever enemy we faced at the time, I am saddened that fellow soldiers could hurt themselves without at least trying to talk to one of us. Among all people, we are the ones who most understand the reasons for their pain. They are our comrades and they are part of us. Why won’t they let us help them?

This young man was only 24, but he had so much he could have given the world. He experienced the very worst of mankind, but he also saw that even good can come from the tragedy of war – the gift of liberty to those who were oppressed and hope for the pursuit of happiness among those who knew so little joy.

Had he found the courage to live, he could have taught others what he learned at war and one day his own children would have witnessed the depth of his experience. His act of pure selfishness robbed his family of his presence, but the world will never learn the lessons that are now buried forever in the depths of his anguished soul.

The following article appeared in the El Paso Times today and it tells the story of another young veteran who gave much to the world, but whose life ended because of post-traumatic stress disorder that led to a drug overdose.

A heroic photo of Specialist Joseph Dwyer appears above and our sympathies go out to his family:

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Overdose kills ex-Fort Bliss soldier

By Stephanie Sanchez / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 07/07/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

Former Fort Bliss Army Spc. Joseph Dwyer, whose photograph depicting him carrying a wounded boy to safety during the first days of the ground war in Iraq became a symbol of the U.S. Army, died late last month of an overdose at home in North Carolina, Army officials and police said Sunday.

Officials with the Pinehurst Police Department in North Carolina said no one would be available to talk about the ex-soldier's death until today, but Jean Offutt, a Fort Bliss spokesperson, said Fort Bliss officials were aware of the former soldier's death. The Army Times reported the day Dwyer died that he had apparently taken pills and inhaled the fumes from an aerosol can.

"He was certainly a hero. ... He did have some difficulty dealing with it," Offutt said. She added that Dwyer was treated at Beaumont Army Medical Center. "It is certainly a tragedy."

In 2003, Dwyer returned to Fort Bliss after serving four months in Iraq with the 3rd Squadron of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. A native of Mount Sinai, N.Y., he had joined the Army as a medic two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to El Paso Times archives.

During his tour in Iraq, an Army Times photographer captured Dwyer as he helped a young boy to safety after his family was caught in the crossfire of a battle near Faysaliyah, Iraq. The photo ran in newspapers nationwide, including the El Paso Times.

In October 2005, Dwyer's friends told the El Paso Times he had returned from the war a different person. At first he was a religious man, but then problems including drinking, sniffing inhalants and nightmares started occurring, his friends said. Dwyer suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, they said.

Dwyer was involved an incident in early 2005 in which he crashed his car and said he saw a box he thought was a bomb in the middle of the street, his friends told the El Paso Times. In October 2005, he was arrested for shooting up his East El Paso apartment in which the police SWAT team negotiated with him for more than three hours. No one was hurt.

Offutt said Dwyer's death should make people aware of PTSD symptoms. Details of Dwyer's mental-health history and treatment at Beaumont Army Medical Center were not available Sunday.

"He served his country," Offutt said. "It is unfortunate that these things sometimes happen to soldiers when they return. Our thoughts are with his family, spouse and children."

Valerie Miller Topp, a friend of Dwyer's, said she met him when Dwyer's wife, Matina, was pregnant with their daughter in 2005.

"When I first met him he was heavily medicated. ... He didn't really talk much," she said. "As the pregnancy progressed he began to open up and talk more. They were just a really nice couple."

Miller Topp said Dwyer said the couple moved to North Carolina from El Paso in 2006.

"He (Dwyer) said, 'I just want to go fishing. I don't want anything to do with violence, guns or war. I just want to meet my daughter and go fishing,'" she said.

Stephanie Sanchez may reached at ssanchez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6137.

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I would ask that war veterans of any era never give up, never quit and that they seek help to deal with the memories that seem too painful to endure.

Remember my fellow veterans, when you wore that uniform you were one of the finest citizens and warriors of your generation. You were taught to be strong in the face of adversity, to endure any hardship and to solve whatever problem rose to face you.

You may no longer serve in the active military, but the essence of the warrior is still within you. Never forget your warrior training, your mental strength, that steely resolve and the natural courage that led you to fight alongside your comrades, your buddies and those who were the best friends you will ever have.

You would never quit on your fellow soldiers in combat; do not quit on yourself now. If you need help, please ask for it, but giving up must never be an option...

Charles M. Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Post Traumatic Stress: When the War Doesn't End

When I returned from Vietnam in 1971, I was not the same young man who entered that war with determination, patriotism and a positive attitude. There is nothing glamorous about war. It is a miserable life filled with experiences of unimaginable horror, with moments of burning fear and with the crushing emptiness in your soul because of your dead friends.

Each soldier fights his own war against the enemies that face him in combat; each man brings home memories based on his unique experiences. When he tries to merge into civilian life, he discovers that he is always alone even when he is surrounded by others. They cannot understand where he has been, what he has seen and what he must carry around with him for the rest of his life.

With the memory of two wars, I have known many fellow warriors who have come home to face their families as well as the demons of the mind. Even within this last year, my job as a police officer has brought me into contact with recent war veterans. Some are doing fine; others have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and they are not adapting very well to life back here in the “world”, as we said in Vietnam.

Some of the troubled souls among us once stood tall and proud in their uniforms, they faced the enemies of their country with courage and fortitude and they did so with honor and integrity. When I meet these veterans, I try to remind them that they were once the elite members of their nation’s warrior class, that segment of society that is tasked with protecting everyone else. When they took off their uniforms, they didn’t remove the warrior spirit from their souls.

I haven’t been immune to post-war effects. My first two years after Vietnam were spent as a wanderer with little or no purpose. I lived responsibly sometimes, but I was often irresponsible. My wife Debbie came along like a rose after a storm and she helped me realize there was so much to be grateful for.

My training as a Ranger has always made me a hard-headed person. That training also taught me to never quit. Like almost everyone else, I have been knocked to the ground and I have endured both success and failure. We seldom know what we are made of until we fail or endure tragedy. Then we must get up, dust ourselves off and move on. It is this renewal that makes all the difference in life.

To my fellow warriors who cannot seem to find the way to cope with the memories of war, I ask them to remember who they were in battle. Reach into your soul and extract the essence of your warrior spirit. Put away the drugs and alcohol, stand up and move ahead with your life.

As you face a new day, you must re-awaken the pride you once had in yourself, you must stand a little taller and you must become a warrior once again. If you need help or someone to talk to, your fellow warriors will stand by you now just as they did in combat.

Nothing defeated you in battle and you will allow nothing to defeat you now.

You will never, ever quit.

SFC Chuck Grist