After Anaconda, Hero Faced New Enemy

[unhappycamper]

After Anaconda, Hero Faced New Enemy
December 16, 2008
Las Vegas Review-Journal

With a Silver Star medal clipped to his Air Force jacket, 1st Lt. Thomas Cahill spoke humbly about his efforts to pilot a rescue helicopter through enemy fire while flying low over eastern Afghanistan's snow-capped mountains.

His "uncanny skills," his citation read, for keeping the Pave Hawk airborne in thin air at low rotor speed with mortar rounds whizzing by, resulted in saving three men during that mission on March 3, 2002.

"As dark as it was, impacting the terrain was my first enemy," he said five years ago after his award ceremony at Nellis Air Force Base. "I would say it was probably luck."

In the years since Operation Anaconda, Cahill's enemy changed. So did his luck.

His enemy became post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, an anxiety condition that stirs nightmarish memories of terrifying ordeals from the battlefield. It can cause sleep loss and erratic, impulsive behavior and make a person short-tempered.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/after-anaconda-hero-faced-new-enemy.html?col=1186032310810