The Impact of War

As an Army chaplain in Iraq, David Peters administered last rites and grieved with survivors. When he came home, he says, he "fell apart emotionally and spiritually."

Religion

An Army Chaplain, First Tested By War, Finds His Faith Renewed

8:25am January 07, 2015

by John Burnett

When David Peters went to Iraq as an Army chaplain, his relationship with God faltered. But after years of feeling adrift, he eventually found that the trauma of war had actually deepened his faith.

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Lawyers Try To Fight Death Penalty With New PTSD Understanding

6:36pm January 06, 2015

by Quil Lawrence

A 66-year-old Vietnam vet is due to be executed next week for the 1998 murder of a deputy sheriff in Georgia. There's no question that he shot the officer thanks to a grisly dashcam video. But the man's lawyers say PTSD and mental illness were not taken into consideration at sentencing.

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Retired 1st Sgt. Keith Melick (right) and retired Army Special Forces Command Sgt. Maj. Roy Wilkins met when Melick, a medic, treated Wilkins after an IED explosion. They were reunited nearly 10 years later.

A Decade After Battle, Medic And Wounded Soldier Reunite

12:05pm November 29, 2014

by NPR Staff

In 2004, Command Sgt. Maj. Roy Wilkins was wounded in an IED explosion in Afghanistan. Medic Keith Melick pulled him from the rubble. This summer, a chance meeting brought the two together again.

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Gary Walters demonstrates his self-cooling prosthetic.

Vet's Self-Cooling Prosthetic Could Help Amputees Beat The Heat

3:58pm November 12, 2014

by Eileen Pace

An Iraq war veteran has developed a better artificial leg with a cooling fan. Gary Walters says most prosthesis don't release heat, causing many amputees to stop wearing them.

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U.S. soldiers stand at a checkpoint around Lakokhel camp in Afghanistan in 2010. Many soldiers return from war suffering from "moral injuries," or dealing with the fact that their sense of right and wrong was violated.

National

Moral Injury Is The 'Signature Wound' Of Today's Veterans

9:23am November 12, 2014

Journalist David Wood says "almost everyone" in war has suffered a violation of their sense of right and wrong. As a result, Wood tells Fresh Air, veterans deal with grief, numbness or guilt.

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Books
Arts

A 3-Star General Explains 'Why We Lost' In Iraq, Afghanistan

7:57am November 11, 2014

by NPR Staff

In his new book, a former Army lieutenant general compares the war on terrorism to Alcoholics Anonymous: "Step one is admitting you have a problem."

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Former Army Sgt. Ryan Sharp sat down with his father, Kirk Sharp, to talk about what happened when Ryan returned home after two tours in Iraq.

Behind A Soldier's Suicidal Thoughts, An Unknown Brain Injury

12:33pm November 08, 2014

by NPR Staff

After Sgt. Ryan Sharp returned from serving two tours in Iraq with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, he would talk about ending his life. Today, he can't even recall those conversations.

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Paul Pillar (right), a former national intelligence officer, with teammate Aaron David Miller, argues that the U.S. should have a smaller military footprint in the Middle East.

Debate: Does U.S. Military Intervention In The Middle East Help Or Hurt?

8:25pm October 07, 2014

by NPR Staff

As the U.S. presses on with airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, two teams tackled the motion "Flexing American Muscles In The Middle East Will Make Things Worse," in the latest Intelligence Squared debate.

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Plaster casts taken from soldiers' mutilated faces (top row), new sculpted faces (bottom row), and final masks (on the table) sit in the studio of Anna Coleman Ladd in 1918.

One Sculptor's Answer To WWI Wounds: Plaster, Copper And Paint

2:02pm October 06, 2014

by NPR Staff

World War I left many soldiers with disfiguring scars. For those whose faces were no longer recognizable, an American artist, Anna Coleman Ladd, sculpted masks to cover their injuries.

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National

Monument Honors Vets Left With Scars, Physical Or Mental

1:51pm October 05, 2014

The American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial opens Sunday not far from the U.S. Capitol building. The granite and glass monument honors all those permanently wounded in war.

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