JOSEPH MWENDA/AFP/GETTYIMAGES
BUSH
AT PEACE
number of others listed PTSD as
an official diagnosis.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Manuel Colon, 39, was out on patrol with
an Afghan Army unit in Lwara,
Afghanistan, in 2004 when improvised explosive devices injured
several of the Afghan soldiers.
“When you’re talking about
coming back and trying to figure
out body parts to specific people
that are still alive, they’re yelling and all this stuff, and putting
them all down and trying to figure out what was going on. The
burning of the skin, the smell, the
HUFFINGTON
06.16.13
blood,” Colon said. “That one specific thing just kind of sticks to my
mind over and over again.”
“Can PTSD be treated? I believe
possibly,” Colon said. “I’m not a
doctor. But it all depends on the individual themselves … How much
did they endure? How much was
implanted in their mind that just
can’t be erased? And some of us are
dealing with it better, and some of
us are not dealing with it that well.”
AT A DINNER IN WACO with the
veterans and all the other riders the evening of the first day,
Bush was in rare form. As he
ran through the list of sponsors
and donors who helped fund the
Bush speaks
at the
University
Teaching
Hospital
in Lusaka,
Zambia,
during a
ceremony on
July 4, 2012.