Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Military Returnees from Afghanistan and Iraq

This composite case history presents several kinds of war-zone stressors that have been experienced by returning veterans from Iraq or Afghanistan (1): feeling helpless
to alter the course of potentially lethal events; being exposed to severe combat in which buddies were killed or injured; having personally killed enemy combatants and, possibly, innocent bystanders; being exposed to uncontrollable and unpredictable life-threatening attacks such as ambushes or roadside bombs; experiencing postcombat
exposure to the consequences of combat, such as observing or handling the remains of civilians, enemy soldiers, or U.S. and allied personnel; being exposed to the sights, sounds, and smells of dying men and women; and observing refugees, devastated communities, and homes destroyed by combat.