Courage After The Battle: The story of how Armed Forces Personnel survive their mental and physical injury after leaving the Armed Forces

Courage After the Battle covers the unseen area of what happens to service personnel after they have left battlefield to leaving the service. It shows how they have struggled to be acknowledged in the early years before WW1 and how they are still struggling today. The slippery slope to Drugs, Alcohol abuse and eventual Homelessness, PTSD and how all this as well as other mental and physical injuries affects the family unit. Courage After the Battle contains details for charities and organisations that can give the much-needed help as well as details of the pain, frustration and suffering service personnel go through every day. Imagine this, you are out on a routine patrol when all of a sudden, all hell breaks loose. There is a loud sound, your hearing is impossible above the whistling inside your ear, you can see people’s mouths move but not hear anything. The whole area is covered in dust and bits of debris flying around and you are completely disorientated. What do you do Next? The first thing to do is gather your thoughts quickly, assess where the explosion has come from, is it the only threat or are there enemy shooting at you, are you in cover? Is there a possibility that your route also contains a larger secondary device? Is everyone ok or are there injured, do they need a CASEVAC (Casualty Evacuation) and is the area safe for a CASEVAC to be taken to the rear areas for safe extraction to the medical facility. This plus any number of other things go through a soldier’s mind in a matter of seconds and this along with the rest of the patrols lives depend on everyone doing what they should. A blast injury from direct or indirect explosion can cause traumatic amputations or substantial soft tissue loss and neurovascular damage which will possibly later result in limb loss due to tissue and other initially unseen damage from the shock wave. The other members of the patrol can also administer basic first aid and get you evacuated preferably via a MERT (Medical Emergency Response Teams) Chinook helicopter. Gather your thoughts and try to understand the mental trauma you have just suffered. So, starts the long and painful road to rehabilitation and building your life again. Eighty-five percent of veterans think that after serving their country, there is not enough support and some even feel completely forgotten, lost in the system that is civvy street. Courage After the Battle covers this post injury and trauma along details of treatments and help that is available. It also covers the family and spouse and how they suffer alongside their loved ones who suffer in silence and can occasionally receive the brunt of the frustration with the system.