Kiley's Struggle

The struggles our soldiers go through during war are horrendous. The battles that rage on without end, sleepless nights, and hefting their dead comrades off the battlefield to be returned home to families who are waiting to see them one last time, takes a toll on their mental health. No one ever envisions battle this way; I don't imagine that anyone imagines dying. Death is a common occurrence among soldiers in battle; so much so that the battlefield begins to look like a banquet for the bugs, as Kiley described it to my husband.

Kiley is a friend of my husbands; he is the medic for their platoon. The platoon had received word that the Taliban were planning a series of attacks during the day, and for this reason, they decided to travel at night. This particular story occurs after sleepless nights, and being on duty all hours. The night was described as being the darkest of dark, no moon, and heavy cloud cover. You could not see the person in front of you, it was that dark. All the men in the platoon were taking extra measures to deal with the lack of sleep, and monotonous darkness.

Kiley being the medic had to deal with all the men's wounds, and dead bodies. He began to act differently according to my husband. He began to speak of bugs, and their mutated DNA, and how they were going to get him. He began to dig at his skin, making new wounds, and tearing open the old ones. Kiley could no longer deal with the war, the bodies, the darkness and the fear.

He no longer talked in logical sentences, they were scattered and short. He became apprehensive, and the platoon could feel the tension building. They knew that something was going to happen, and were on edge as well. He described the war to my husband as a big banquet for the bugs. The war was pointless to him. The next morning he took some medication, and shot himself in the foot. My husband did not blame him and neither did the platoon.

I chose to tell you this story because yet once again we have a case of mental illness, later diagnosed as PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. My husband and his fellow soldiers are exposed to circumstances that we cannot imagine, and should be privy to the best treatment possible when they return home. Kiley returned home and received treatment for his disability, and is now taking medication for his illness. The medication controls his illness, but he still has occasional flashbacks of the war.