Word: batchelor
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Psychiatrists divide symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder into three categories. Batchelor, found to have the disorder, fits every bill, including: nightmares and flashbacks; estrangement and emotional numbness; irritability and difficulty sleeping. Every night he fights sleep, knowing it will bring a replay of the day his unit was sent to rescue a patrol that had been ambushed in Sadr City, Baghdad, and fell into a ferocious firefight. "It was like the entire city was shooting at us," Batchelor says, pacing around the room. "I saw the guy shooting at me. He was on a rooftop, and I saw the muzzle...
...year later, the only visible evidence of Batchelor's wound is a couple of small, chicken pox--like scars. But mentally he's a mess. He has 14 different bottles of medications to help him control his temper, his migraines, his depression and more. Still, he often flies into inexplicable fits of rage. He has cursed out commanding officers, hit his father, pushed Kristy and pinned her down...
...Batchelor's fury does not extend to the Iraqi people, or the U.S. Army, or the government that sent him to war. "Even knowing the way things turned out, I wouldn't change a day of it," says Batchelor. "When you put on that uniform, you're part of something a lot bigger than yourself...
...gain "life experience" that Batchelor joined the Army in August 2001, dropping out of the branch of Texas A&M University in Commerce, Texas. He had spent three years working toward a degree in criminal justice, and now hopes to find a way to complete it without having to sit in classrooms full of people, a prospect he can't bear. He walked out on a job answering phones for a credit-card company last month and spends his days on his father's farm in Kemp, Texas, working...
...wife has left me, and I need to see a shrink," Batchelor says, chuckling. "I laugh about it because, hell, it can't get much worse." --By Amanda Bower/ Copperas Cove