Beth Ford Roth
Home Post BloggerBlogger Beth Ford Roth was born into a military family and has covered issues important to service members and their loved ones for many years. She has worked as a broadcast journalist in both commercial television and public radio.
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Without the distractions of combat, symptoms of PTSD began plaguing Carlos’s everyday life. He began to drink heavily to blot out the depression and anxiety he was feeling. And the guilt.
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In the days following the suicide car bombing in 2004, Carlos didn’t feel angry. He didn’t feel frightened. He didn’t even mourn the men who were so brutally killed that day. Carlos didn’t feel anything at all. He was completely numb. -
There was a shyness about Carlos, despite his intimidating appearance. Muscles earned from years of required physical fitness bulged under his black shirt, his sleeves pushed up to his elbows to reveal a maze of tattoos covering both of his forearms. -
I first met Carlos Cruz in 2012, two weeks after he officially retired from the Marine Corps. It took quite a few email exchanges to nail down the time and day of our meeting. One of the most marked symptoms of the Traumatic Brain Injury Carlos suffered in the suicide attack is his inability to remember small details. -
The force of the explosion knocked Carlos unconscious. When he came to, he had momentarily lost his hearing. The chaotic world before him was silent, but the facial contortions of the Marines who had survived told him that they were screaming in horror. -
Carlos Cruz was part of a three-vehicle convoy patrolling the scorching, silent Iraqi desert. Carlos, a Marine lance corporal at the time, was in the rear of the convoy, lying down in the back seat of a Humvee. The only protection he had from outside attack was a Kevlar blanket covering his body, and sandbags pushed against the window. The Humvee itself had no armor.
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