Marine's death shows tragic results of PTSD

[DesertRat]

Travis Twiggs, a Marine veteran of five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, drove his car over the roadside curb and stopped at the rim of the Grand Canyon.

His older brother, Will, was in the passenger seat. Spent Budweiser cans and an empty bottle of Jagermeister littered the floorboard.

Travis, absent without leave from the Corps, had spent much of the previous week on the road.

Three weeks earlier, he had been photographed next to President Bush during a rally at the White House to support wounded veterans. Now, he was poised for a fatal fall.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/09/20/20080920twiggs0914.html

[crim son]

1. Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be soldiers.

It isn't just the shrub's military that does this to our boys. Or was the boy already a lost cause, finding meaning only in the business of war?

[DesertRat]

4. It sounds like his pain was caused by his 5 tours

That pain began after Travis' second tour in Iraq. He couldn't sleep. He couldn't focus. Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Travis volunteered for a third tour, even though his daughter America had just been born. Kellee told him to go get this war stuff out of his system.

"You go, you get those boys home and you be done," she told him. "Family time for a little while, OK?"

During his third tour, in October 2005, two of his men died in an explosion. They were in a tent that housed the bathrooms at a temporary base. Travis, a staff sergeant, blamed himself for not thinking to move the restrooms to a safer place.

[crim son]

6. I believe you're right.

I was making a fairly useless, general point.

[aikoaiko]

2. brutal.

just brutal.

[grannie4peace]

3. what a sad tragic story

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Oh. My. God.

:cry: