Afghanistan War Stories, Combat Medicine, and Veteran Survival

On March 18th, 2026, the second entry in The Ledger of Survival will be released.

Between the Wounded and the Living continues the record where the first volume ended — moving...

One of the cruelest parts of PTSD is that even when your body is exhausted, your brain often refuses to let you rest.

People who haven’t experienced it sometimes think insomnia just means “having trouble sleeping.” PTSD insomnia is different. It’s not simply lying awake because you drank too much caffeine or your mind is busy. It’s your nervous system staying locked in survival mode long after the danger is gone. It’s being bone-deep tired while your body still acts like it needs to stay awake...

PTSD is exhausting in ways that are hard to explain to people who haven’t lived with it.

Most people think of PTSD as just “bad memories” or nightmares, but it’s so much bigger than that. It’s your nervous system getting stuck in survival mode long after the danger is gone. It’s your brain treating ordinary moments like threats because somewhere along the line it learned that relaxing wasn’t safe. It’s not something you simply “get over” because time passed.

For me, PTSD doesn’t always look...

When I joined the military, I didn’t see it as a temporary chapter. I wasn’t counting the days until I got out. I wasn’t dreaming about civilian life or making backup plans for another career. In my mind, this was it. This was the path. I wanted the full twenty years. I wanted the deployments, the brotherhood, the exhaustion, the dark humor, the structure, the sense of purpose—all of it. I wanted to retire wearing the uniform.

So when I was separated against my will, it didn’t just feel like...