Triggers

It's approaching an overpass, then getting stuck underneath it waiting for traffic to clear up. It's a discarded box or dead animal on the shoulder of the road lying just a little too close to the pavement. It's the smell of diesel gasoline that stings your nostrils, but in a good way. It's how the sun sets a particular way that immediately transports you back onto MSR Tampa or its Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" playing on the radio. It's all or these and more ...daily occurrences that many of you wouldn't think about twice.

This is the new normal for a lot of veterans coming back from combat. They are reminders of their experiences, both good and bad. They recur daily or creep up and appear without warning. They have the power to twist and distort the logical thinking process, ruining relationships in their wake. They can last seconds, hours, days, weeks, months or years!

Why am I writing this? I honestly can't say for sure why I'm writing this, but I believe this is the culmination from years of extreme highs and lows that I (and those I've seen close to me) have gone through.

I would love to end this with a really fantastic philosophical quote about the  ...duality of man or some crap like that, but I won't. I will however, finish this up with a thank you to everyone who supported and stuck by a service member upon their return and transition.

Stanley Krubrick's ending scene from "Full Metal Jacket"