his wife back and he wants his daughter back. At the very least, he wants a piece of his old self back. To get it, he will do what he long resisted. He will sit in a therapist’s chair and go back to war.

***

For Andrew, there is no question how he got here. A family man, he always had high spirits. Easily finding a purpose in everything, he never found it hard to smile.

That man was lost in Afghanistan on Nov. 23, 2010. He was shot in the arm and evacuated to the United States. In the beginning he was surrounded by family. It should have made him happy. It didn’t.

Instead, he felt he had abandoned his brothers overseas and started drinking to numb the emotional pain. Havingno decompression time made the transition from combat to daily life difficult.

“I got shot on Tuesday and by Saturday I was holding my daughter,” he said, “Leave wasn’t enjoyable. In fact, it was very confusing.”

After a year of living with his symptoms, his wife of nearly three years, Melissa, asked for a legal separation and that he move out of their home. On Aug. 26, 2012, while emptying his duffel bag at his uncle’s house reality hit him. He reached a new low.

Thoughts of suicide rushed into his head. He felt he had lost everything and debated whether life had a purpose. But he thought of his daughter and then checked himself into a Texas Veterans Affairs hospital where he was immediately evaluated and given follow-up appointments with