As for my exagerrated experiences, feel free to google my website and check out the photos. If you look closely you can see the blood splattered on our vehicle. You can also view the photos and video of me on joint foot patrols with Iraqi police. I'm one of very few, if not only, women who was allowed to do such a thing. I am very proud of my service, but the only people the media want to interview are the ones with problems.

It's just too bad that more women don't want to speak up and share positive stories, but it sounds like from your posting that your deployment was probably spent on the safety of a base, no doubt stressed from all that paper work!

Its nice that you are doing so well and take so much time to express it. And not everyone is as unaffected as you apparently are by the horrors of war...or perhaps you simply exaggerate what you say you see. There are many many MEN from all different wars who have had similar or worse experiences in war...so what is your point anyway?

Thank goodness the treatment and support for PTSD has improved. Maybe some day men *and fellow women* will stop binding the feet of women by maintaining the sexist mentality because the disempowering, undermining weight of this psychological burden is a huge thing to already be lugging around when you enter the war zone. The people wearing the same uniform you have on, whom you are supposed to be able to trust and count on tearing you down...

Anderson Cooper, we're all products of our life experiences and to say Keri will never be the same seems a bit stigmatizing although I agree things like this do change you forever -but it doesn't have to be in a bad way. At crossroads there are choices to be made.

Where is the article highlighting what an excellent job woman have done handling the front lines along side men?

I too served in Iraq, from 2004 through 2005. I too drove and manned the gun for many missions and had convoys in front of me attacked. I had people in my unit die and get burned almost to death. Is everyone really surprised that this still happens in wars? The last time I check this is the military and the military does fight wars, yes where people actually die. Anyone who joined the service just for the extra college fund or thought they would just get a free paycheck and never see blood shed was kidding themselves. The military hires you to do a dangerous job. In your initial training you learn to shoot at human shaped targets and dodge mock explosions, some people, female and male, can’t handle it. Plain and simple, they shouldn’t be in the service.

I sympathize with this young lady, but please remember that she is not the norm. I am happy to report that I served in Iraq, have a wonderful management job, home, and husband. I am eight months pregnant with my first child and finishing up my masters degree. Matter of fact, all of the women I know who served with me are doing just as well for themselves. Not too shabby for someone who has dodged bullets.

So please save us the pity and just give us a little nod of respect and a simple thank you for serving. That’s all we ask.

I'm sorry for what you had to go through and the struggles you continue to face.

I wish there were a way to speak to you face to face or to hold you in a hug.

I admire, appreciate, and applaud you, not only for your extroardinary service, but in your determination to persevere.

My heart breaks for you. Your struggles are my own. And though I may never really know you, Keri, I want you to know, you have my love, and my heart.

Thank you, and God Bless.

I myself suffer from PTSD, as a result from getting hit by a drunk driver. The main injury I incurred was a Traumatic Brain Injury-followed by PTSD, Depression. This happened in 2002, but I never received proper treatment til 2006, I still get freaked out at stop lights, as the drunk driver slammed into my car, while I waited for the light to change. There are 'silent' sufferers, because we look good on the outside, but on the inside we can be pretty anxious.

Here in Colorado we do have many agencies/organizations to assist with this issue, what we lack, though, is ACCESS to these various agencies. Therefore, I've been creating a resource bank so that others don't have to slip through the cracks, like me. I believe more research needs to be done regarding both PTSD and TBI.

Thanks again for highlight this stark reality.
Beth

After all the sacrifices we make for everyone else's services surely we should be able to receive whatever help we need to readjust to life as a civilian. After all we rehabilitate criminals and work to reintroduce them to society why is this so hard to do for such selfless individuals as our soldiers.

Finally, this young lady and others like her both male and female, would not be suffering this way if we'd never been tricked into going to war by this administration.

I for one feel it is time to bring my fellow comrads home. They've liberated Iraq, their mission is over.

Second, I was an infantry private when the politicians started forcing the Army to put more women in combat-support jobs. We told the world that women are no less brave than men, but that mixing more of them with men in war would cause more problems. We also said that combat would hurt them and their kids more than men. The generals told us to make it work, whether it really worked or not, and we obeyed.

Here we are 30 years later, "One expert, who councils women veterans, says the numbers [for PTSD and MST] are even worse." Of course the numbers are worse. We told the world as much, and now the experts and feminists hate us even more.

America is still luring women into uniform to substitute for able-bodied men who won't repay their birthright with a few years of military service. Why are people so shocked to see that when we put women into the meat-grinder of war, some of them come out as hamburger?

For women like Kari-and men-who have fought and suffered for our country, we must honor the deal America made with them. They deserve the best medical care available for their war injuries of body or mind. Shame on us if we betray them.

Kari, hang in there, things will get better if you don't try to go it alone. I pray for your full recovery, or at least as much as any person can have who has been through war. I hope your daughters do not have to suffer likewise in their day.