Military PTSD Books

Written by the daughter of a two-time Vietnam veteran in the year of her father's death and the escalation of the war in Iraq. In a time of war, what happens once a soldier comes home?

Due to her father's experiences in war he struggled with Post Traumatic Stress, heart sadness and alcoholism all his adult life even though he didn't get diagnosed with PTSD until 1992. In Accepting the Ashes Quynn shares her personal story so that other loved ones and soon-to-be veterans, who are fighting right now, might not have to wait 30 years to heal their painful feelings often caused by experiencing war-related stress. Available by book or audio CD.

After the War Zone

A practical guide for returning troops and their families

Authors: Matthew J. Friedman, Laurie B. Slone, Copyright @ 2008

Coping with common reactions

The aftereffects of "battle" mind

PTSD - what it is and is not

Home, work, and community concerns

A highly practical, user-friendly guide to homecoming--including common after-effects of war zone exposure and how to cope--for returning troops and their families.

Two experts from the VA National Center for PTSD provide an essential resource for service members, their spouses, families, and communities, sharing what troops really experience during deployment and back home. Pinpointing the most common after-effects of war and offering strategies for troop reintegration to daily life, Drs. Friedman and Slone cover the myths and realities of homecoming; reconnecting with spouse and family; anger and adrenaline; guilt and moral dilemmas; and PTSD and other mental-health concerns.

With a wealth of community and government resources, tips, and suggestions, After the War Zone is a practical guide to helping troops and their families prevent war zone stresses from having a lasting negative impact.

An Operators Manual for Combat PTSD

Essays for coping

Author: Ashley Hart II, Copyright @ 2000

An Operators Manual for Combat PTSD has been written to give the combat veteran a sense of hope and to develop an inner voice to assist in coping with everyday life. We live in two worlds: The physical world around us; the world we can see, hear, touch, and feel, and the world within ourselves. These essays assist the veteran in learning how to monitor triggers, our cues, and balance the world within with the world we live in. With harmonic balance, there is essential well being, validation, even joy.

Courage After Fire

Coping strategies for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and their families

Authors: Keith Armstrong, Dr. Suzanne Best, Dr. Paula Domenici, Copyright @ 2013

Parents of returning service members may sometimes feel that their voices are not heard. The media is saturated with stories about troops returning from deployment with mental health problems like post-traumatic stress, depression, and substance abuse. Some also return home with physical problems including traumatic brain injury, physical pain or more severe injuries like amputations. Almost all returning service members experience reintegration challenges such as readjusting to family and community, finding employment or attending school.

But rarely do we hear how parents are taking on the role of supporting their sons and daughters who have served our country. In countless ways these parents provide help—and when their military child suffers significant physical or psychological injuries, they may once again become their primary caretaker. For mothers and fathers and others in a parenting role, it can be overwhelming at times, and resources are limited.

Courage after Fire for Parents of Service Members provides a compassionate and accessible guide for the parents or guardians of returning troops. This groundbreaking book acknowledges the significant contribution and sacrifice parents have made for their military children, provides strategies and resources that will assist them in understanding and supporting their son or daughter, and will validate their own personal experiences.

Recommendations for helping them care for their returning service member are woven throughout the book, as well as education about the importance of taking care of themselves to help prevent caregiver burnout. Vignettes and reflections from parents who have had a child deploy offer a sense of hope and community.

Even in the best of circumstances, parents play an instrumental role in helping their sons and daughters successfully reintegrate after deployment. This book is a valuable resource for any parent who is seeking to better understand and support a returning military child while caring for themselves.

Hope in the Shadows of War (Novel)

Author: Thomas Paul Reiley, Copyright @ 2018

Vietnam War veteran Timothy Patrick O'Rourke discovers the great paradox of war upon his return to the US. It is 1973 and he has left the war, but the war has not left him. He carries with him a profound sense of unfinished business, and struggles to find meaning amid days packed with the responsibilities of a life he no longer understands. Even with the patient, loving support of his girlfriend, Cheryl, Timothy cannot escape the shadow of war. Then he meets the mysterious Hoffen. A voice of tragedy, wisdom and hope, Hoffen has traveled through the darkness and emerged on the other side. Maybe, just maybe, Timothy can do the same. Timothy's odyssey is every veteran's story to some degree, with alienation, hyper-vigilance, substance abuse, relationship problems, guilt, flashbacks, nightmares, and depression as his constant companions. Hope in the Shadows of War confronts the stark realization that a wound that never closes can't heal, and it proves that while trauma casts a long shadow for survivors, hope is a powerful antidote.

Down Range: To Iraq and Back

Authors: Bridget C. Cantrell, Chuck Dean, Copyright @ 2005

There are some things people don’t get over easily — pain from the past is one of them. Trauma changes people: It changes values, priorities, worldviews, and most of all‚…it changes how we relate to others. Painful, life-threatening experiences take people beyond the normal day-to-day life, leaving them stuck behind defensive walls that keep them from re-entering the world they have always known as “home”. So how does it happen? How do we lose the loving closeness with those around us? And better yet, how do we re-gain what pain has robbed us of?

Down Range is not only a book explaining war trauma — it is required reading for anyone seriously interested about how to make healthy transitions from war to peace. Bridget C. Cantrell, Ph.D. and Vietnam veteran, Chuck Dean have joined forces to present this vital information and resource manual for both returning troops and their loved ones. Here you will find answers, explanations, and insights as to why so many combat veterans suffer from flashbacks, depression, fits of rage, nightmares, anxiety, emotional numbing, and other troubling aspects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Hope on Four Hooves

A true story of a military family's journey through the struggles of PTSD

Author: Ana Elise, Copyright @ 2023

In this children's book illustrated with her own beautiful watercolor paintings, 15-year-old Ana pulls back the curtain to give a glimpse into the world behind the mask of pleasant appearances in her own military family. She vividly reveals the difficulties that accompany military life, compounded by her father's deep struggle with PTSD. Out of this darkness, she paints a picture of redemption and how an organization, Little Blessings Veteran Outreach, and their equine therapy program reached into her family to make it stronger and to salvage damaged family relationships. Ana created this book to offer hope to other military kids in similar family situations.

Leave No One Behind

Daily meditations for military service members and veterans in recovery

Author: Hazelton Meditations, Copyright @ 2022

Of the Americans who serve—and have served—in the United States Armed Forces, many struggle with alcoholism and addiction. What happens when the people who keep our country safe need saving? How do we fulfill our promise to leave no one behind?

We show them there are service members who have been through similar circumstances, who can help them, and who might also need help. This book does just that.

In this new meditation book, service members and veterans who are in recovery share their words of healing and hope in daily meditations. These people are in a class of their own—they know what they experienced, they know how their recovery has been affected by their service, they know how to help themselves . . . and they know how to help each other.

The voices in this book are unique and will resonate with readers, providing insights, thoughts, and feelings only others who have served can understand and relate to. The same can be said of recovery: we look to the person on our left and the person on our right—and we leave no one behind.

Love Our Vets

Restoring hope for families of veterans with PTSD

Author: Welby O'Brien, Copyright @ 2012

Chances are that if your loved one has seen war, he or she has PTSD at some level, and you who love your veteran will also be deeply and profoundly affected.

Now here is a comprehensive, practical book solely dedicated to addressing the cries and needs of the loved ones. Finally! A book that is geared toward your needs and issues—your cries.

Love Our Vets answers more than 60 heartfelt questions, providing down-to-earth wisdom and much-needed tips for taking care of yourself. Sharing as a counselor and from her personal experience of living with a 100% disabled veteran with PTSD, Welby O’Brien gives hope, encouragement, and practical help for families and loved ones who are caught in the wake of the trauma. This book addresses a broad spectrum of issues and concerns and offers realistic wisdom from a wide variety of individuals who share from real hearts and lives.

Welcomed by VA and other counselors, this is not just another book about PTSD; rather, it is a tremendous resource for families and loved ones who struggle heroically along with their vets to face the day-to-day challenges.

Once a Warrior always a Warrior

Navigating the transition from combat to home including combat stress, PTSD, and mTBI

Author: Charles Hoge, Copyright @ 2010

The essential handbook for anyone who has ever returned from a war zone, and their spouse, partner, or family members.

Being back home can be as difficult, if not more so, than the time spent serving in a combat zone. It's with this truth that Colonel Charles W. Hoge, MD, a leading advocate for eliminating the stigma of mental health care, presents Once a Warrior―Always a Warrior, a groundbreaking resource with essential new insights for anyone who has ever returned home from a war zone.

In clear practical language, Dr. Hoge explores the latest knowledge in combat stress, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), mTBI (mild traumatic brain injury), other physiological reactions to war, and their treatment options. Recognizing that warriors and family members both change during deployment, he helps them better understand each other's experience, especially living with enduring survival skills from the combat environment that are often viewed as “symptoms” back home. The heart of this book focuses on what's necessary to successfully navigate the transition―“LANDNAV” for the home front.

Once a Warrior―Always a Warrior shows how a warrior's knowledge and skills are vital for living at peace in an insane world.

On Combat

The psychology and physiology of deadly conflict in war and peace

Author: Dave Grossman, Copyright @ 2004

"This new book is what our young warriors need. At one of David’s last briefings a Senior NCO approached me and said, "Sir, the army spent 18 years and thousands of dollars teaching me to kill. This is the first time I have been taught how to deal with it." This book will allow those not fortunate enough to hear David do their own preparation for the ultimate test." Lt. Col. Hal McNair Professor at the Joint Spec Ops University

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for Dummies

Author: Mark Goulston, Copyright @ 2007

Cope with flashbacks, nightmares, and disruptive thoughts. Help your heart accept what your mind already knows — and overcome PTSD.

A traumatic event can turn your world upside down — but just because you're still afraid doesn't mean you're still in danger. There is a path out of PTSD, and this reassuring guide presents the latest on effective treatments that help to combat fear, stop stress in its tracks, and bring joy back to life.

Identify PTSD symptoms and get a diagnosis

Choose the ideal therapist for you

Weigh the pros and cons of medications

Maximize your healing

Help a partner, child, or other loved one triumph over PTSD

PTSD: A Fifteen Minute Guide to Combat Related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Authors: Brannan Vines and Heather Hummert, Copyright @ 2011

Link to FREE e-book

More than 550,000 veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan (along with hundreds of thousands who bravely served in other wars and conflicts) are now dealing each day with the impact of Combat PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

PTSD: A Fifteen Minute Guide to Combat Related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is an easy-to-read book which quickly covers key topics about this disorder including what combat PTSD is, what it "looks" like, how PTSD changes the brain, treatment options, where to get help, and where to find additional info and support.

It is a perfect way for veterans, loved ones, and those interested in supporting our nation's heroes and their families to begin getting an understanding of PTSD.

This book is a project of Family Of a Vet, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping veterans and their families learn how to cope with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), TBI (traumatic brain injury) and life after combat through real-world, plain language education and resources for heroes, families, and communities.

It's authors, Brannan P. Vines and Heather A. Hummert, are both leaders within the organization, recognized subject-matter experts, and most importantly, have experienced life with PTSD first-hand as wives of two of our country's 550,000+ combat heroes who are currently struggling each day with the disorder.

Running with the Hounds

Authors: David Wingfield, Charles Gillies, Copyright @ 2009

Running with the Hounds offers the reader a window into the lingering effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder on a combat veteran of the Vietnam War. David Wingfield's story is both unique and universal. For 30 years he hunted cougar and bear with hounds in the mountains of Oregon, but once he had his prey cornered, he would rarely kill. He is unaware that his refuge, the wilderness, is also the stage upon which he will relive the past. His story is tragic, rich, and redemptive. It speaks to the burdens of memory that veterans of every war keep to themselves.

Soul Survivors

Stories of wounded women warriors and the battles they fight long after they've left the war

Author: Kirsten Holmstedt, Copyright @ 2016

Life is tough for veterans, especially female veterans. They have much to deal with and much to heal from: combat, physical and psychological wounds, sexual harassment and assault, trauma, stress, chains of command, the VA. Now more than ever these veterans are facing their problems head on. In this inspiring new book, Kirsten Holmstedt, trusted chronicler of women soldiers and veterans, tells the ups-and-downs stories of veterans struggling with the aftereffects of military service.

Introduces us to more than a dozen female veterans from all branches of the military, from Vietnam through Iraq and Afghanistan

Highlights where the military has succeeded and failed to help veterans.

Tears of a Warrior

A family's story of combat and living with PTSD

Authors: Janet J. Seahorn, E. Anthony Seahorn, Copyright @ 2010

Available for FREE - Link

Tears of a Warrior: A Family's Story of Combat and Living with PTSD: Are you able to describe five characteristics of a combat veteran who is suffering from trauma (PTSD)? Tears of a Warrior is a patriotic book written about soldiers who are called to duty to serve their country. This is a story of courage, valor, and life-long sacrifice. After the cries of battle have ended, warriors return home to face their physical and mental challenges. Some who made the supreme sacrifice return home in a box draped in the American flag. Those more fortunate, often scarred for life, try to establish a new beginning for themselves and their families. Unfortunately, for many veterans and their families, life will never be the same. Society, overall, is simply too far removed from the realities of combat and a world filed with atrocities to truly comprehend or appreciate the experiences of returning veterans. If we send them, then we must mend them.

The Invisible Front

Love and loss in an era of endless war

Author, Yochi Dreazen, Copyright @ 2015

The unforgettable story of a military family that lost two sons—one to suicide and one in combat—and channeled their grief into fighting the armed forces’ suicide epidemic.

Major General Mark Graham was a decorated two-star officer whose integrity and patriotism inspired his sons, Jeff and Kevin, to pursue military careers of their own. His wife Carol was a teacher who held the family together while Mark's career took them to bases around the world. When Kevin and Jeff die within nine months of each other—Kevin commits suicide and Jeff is killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq—Mark and Carol are astonished by the drastically different responses their sons’ deaths receive from the Army. While Jeff is lauded as a hero, Kevin’s death is met with silence, evidence of the terrible stigma that surrounds suicide and mental illness in the military. Convinced that their sons died fighting different battles, Mark and Carol commit themselves to transforming the institution that is the cornerstone of their lives.

The Invisible Front is the story of how one family tries to set aside their grief and find purpose in almost unimaginable loss. The Grahams work to change how the Army treats those with PTSD and to erase the stigma that prevents suicidal troops from getting the help they need before making the darkest of choices. Their fight offers a window into the military’s institutional shortcomings and its resistance to change – failures that have allowed more than 3,000 troops to take their own lives since 2001. Yochi Dreazen, an award-winning journalist who has covered the military since 2003, has been granted remarkable access to the Graham family and tells their story in the full context of two of America’s longest wars. Dreazen places Mark and Carol’s personal journey, which begins when they fall in love in college and continues through the end of Mark's thirty-four year career in the Army, against the backdrop of the military’s ongoing suicide spike, which shows no signs of slowing. With great sympathy and profound insight, The Invisible Front details America's problematic treatment of the troops who return from war far different than when they'd left and uses the Graham family’s work as a new way of understanding the human cost of war and its lingering effects off the battlefield.

The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Relationship

How to Support Your Partner and Keep Your Relationship Healthy

Author: Diane England, Copyright @ 2009

War, physical and sexual abuse, and natural disasters. All crises have one thing in common: Victims often suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and their loved ones suffer right along with them. In this book, couples will learn how to have a healthy relationship, in spite of a stressful and debilitating disorder. They'll learn how to:

Deal with emotions regarding their partner?s PTSD

Talk about the traumatic event(s)

Communicate about the effects of PTSD to their children

Handle sexual relations when a PTSD partner has suffered a traumatic sexual event

Help their partner cope with everyday life issues

When someone has gone through a traumatic event in his or her life, he or she needs a partner more than ever. This is the complete guide to keeping the relationship strong and helping both partners recover in happy, healthy ways.

The Veteran's PTSD Handbook

How to file and collect on claims for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Author: John D. Roche, Copyright @ 2007

From the author of The Veteran’s Survival Guide, The Veteran’s PTSD Handbook addresses the obstacles that veterans face when filing for benefits related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One of the greatest obstacles, John Roche writes, is establishing a connection between a veteran’s service and PTSD. Because both combat stressors and noncombat stressors can cause PTSD and because of the difficulties in diagnosing the condition, filing a successful claim for benefits based on PTSD is difficult.

In the same accessible, self-help style used in The Veteran’s Survival Guide, Roche offers detailed instructions on how to prepare a well-grounded claim for veterans’ benefits relating to PTSD. He also discusses the four years he spent helping one veteran establish a "service connection" for his PTSD claim with Veterans Affairs. This book will be required reading for any veteran or veteran’s dependent who wishes to obtain his or her well-earned benefits and for those officials of veterans’ service organizations who assist veterans with their claims.

Through the Woods and Over the Hill

The aging of America's warriors

Author: Bridget Cantrell, Copyright @ 2013

Throughout the years, my doors have always been open to the veteran community. As most of you know, my dad was a WWII and a Korean conflict veteran. His struggles with trauma compelled me to pursue this area as my life s work. The more I counsel our aging warriors, the more I understand the long term effects of trying to sort out the repercussions of past military experiences.

Imagine ... you're in the middle of combat, overwhelmed, perhaps overrun and out of ammo, pinned down in an ambush kill zone or caught out in the open by enemy fire ... death is so close. Then, as quick as it began, the fighting abruptly ends. The warriors were prepared to step into an afterlife that never came.

Now decades later, these same warriors have survived to become senior citizens still with lingering questions about their experiences and are at the same time being handed new challenges. This book provides a guide to help those warriors find meaning and solutions for a better life in their golden years after living through it all.

From the author of Down Range to Iraq and Back, Once a Warrior: Wired For Life, and Souls under Siege now brings you Through the Woods and Over the Hill: The Aging of America's Warriors. It is a book that will help us all understand how to plan for and deal with the unique combination of surviving combat and the personal changes that come with growing old.

Undertow

A US Navy veteran's journey through military sexual trauma

Author: Diane Madden Ferguson, Copyright @ 2016

A young woman's genuine desire and determination to serve her country in the US Navy becomes a heart-wrenching first-person accounting of her efforts to overcome the trauma of multiple rapes spanning five years and four duty stations while she continued to serve her country with honor and dignity. Her struggle to uncover the 40-year secret she has kept and address the horrors of military sexual trauma (MST) brings the reader to the very core of her agony in a journey of full disclosure and healing.

Upon the Altar of Freedom

From Blue Star Family to Silver Star and Beyond

Authors: Jill Smith, Terry Smith, and Richard Salcido

Heart-gripping accounts from family, friends, and military brethren show that the battle seldom ends when veterans come home. The physical and psychological scars mar them for life, a permanent bane that they endure for our peace and safety. Such scenarios have occurred countless times throughout our country’s history to defend the red, white, and blue. Remarkably, most would do it all over again if needed. Despite PTSD, one such veteran, Jeremy Smith, continues to deeply touch the lives of those around him. Upon the Altar of Freedom shares the soul-touching quest of Jeremy and his family as they endeavor to ensure that he lives the American dream for which he fought valiantly, despite his torments. Marvel as you read how they silently embrace suffering so that we can enjoy freedom and liberty.

Wheels Down

Adjusting to life after deployment

Authors: Bret Moore and Carrie Kennedy, Copyright @ 2010

As a military service member, you're looking forward to life after deployment and being back home among family and friends. But adjusting to "normal" life again can bring its own challenges. You're not the same person you were when you left on deployment.

This book, written by military psychologists Moore and Kennedy, is a down-to-earth guide that's full of practical advice. The authors talk straight about both the joys and challenges of returning home, advising that one size does NOT fit all when it comes to making the transition. They share thoughtful, constructive tips for dealing with unwanted surprises like relationship break-ups, financial problems, and kids who are suddenly strangers. Experiences shared by many returning service members, like sleep disturbances, anger management, and learning to live with "hyperstartle," are also discussed.

For those whose transition has been more difficult, chapters on identifying the signs of PTSD, living with disturbing memories, and seeking relief from suicidal thoughts are particularly valuable.

Christian books about military PTSD

About Face: Finding Peace Within the Battle

The extraordinatory story of three Irish military veterans

Author: Bethany Barnett, Copyright @ 2017

Every life has its defining moment, an experience that changes everything. For three Irish military veterans - John, Ger and Kevin - that moment continues to echo through their lives. An explosion. A vow. A chance decision. Now each must live with the fallout from his actions. There is no going back and no rewriting the past. But there is another decision to make, and there is a prayer to pray. A man can set a different course and continue his life with a fresh purpose. Anyone who has served will recognize these stories of heartache and happiness, troubles and blessings. In About Face, three extraordinary veterans share their experiences and offer us something more: an invitation to take the next step, encouragement to look for the next defining moment.

A Journey to Hope

Healing the traumatized spirit

Authors: Michael Langston and Kathy Langston, Copyright @ 2016

The tragedies and traumas of war are enormous and the consequences of it change forever the lives of those who return as well as the lives of loved ones and friends of those who do and do not return. For many veterans the psychological battles continue long after combat deployments end. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder significantly affects many people and is not limited solely to war trauma. In this volume of hope and healing the authors recount their ongoing journey to hope. In an intensely personal yet broadly applicable discussion of PTSD, Mike and Kathy Langston provide encouragement and hope for all who struggle with the ravages of PTSD or who love someone who struggles with it. This is a powerful story proclaiming that recovery is possible and that the past need not control the present or the future.

A Long Healing Come Slowly

A novel about PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and its affects on suffering individuals and their families

Author: Dr. Jim Carmichael, Copyright @ 2016

Michael Lloyd's life came to a screeching halt when his best friend, Cpl. Damien Wilson, was killed in Vietnam. Little did Michael know the black whirlpool of emotion Damien's death would set into motion.

Michael's father, Stephen, President of Lloyd Hotels International, had been a B-24 pilot during the second World War. Stephen had put his combat experiences behind him- he thought.

By 1968, Vietnam monopolized nightly newscasts viewed by millions of Americans at their dinner tables. Stephen attempted to dissuade his son from making any rash decisions about avenging Damien's death, but he overlooked the possibility of that death raking up terrifying memories of deadly flak, German ME-109s, and his riddled bomber lumbering to its German targets. Stephen began spiraling out of control, taking his family with him.

This story is historical fiction based on true events. It discusses what was once termed 'Battle Fatigue' or 'Shell Shock', but known today as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). You will follow the Lloyds as they suffer the repercussions of PTSD, and the severe mental trauma that ambushes, as it victimizes the whole family.

This account is about infinitely more than human reactions to shock and grief. It is about the King of redemption, the Lord Jesus Christ, as He preserves and governs His creatures with wisdom and power. This novel details the lives of one family, who are all woefully ignorant of the effects of war. It also describes the assuring hope of heaven in the midst of tragedy.

Angel of Death

True story of a Vietnam Vet's war experience and his battle to overcomePTSD, the "Cancer of the Soul"

Author: John Blehm, Copyright @ 2008

For many soldiers, there is a war after the war. After experiencing the horrifying aspects of war, many soldiers are afflicted with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, termed by some as "cancer of the soul". In Angel of Death, John Blehm tells of his wartime experiences and the thirty-eight years he has been suffering from PTSD. The book is a combination of an original work, Death Angel, and an additional nine chapters written ten years after the first edition. These chapters chronicle Blehm's journey with PTSD and the way he found peace through his faith in God. Angel of Death is written with the help of his wife, Karen, and is for soldiers and their families who wonder if they will ever reconnect with society. It is written for those who are asked to lay down their weapons and return to civilian life but seem to have lost the necessary pieces for this transition. It is a message of hope for those who have lost it and cannot seem to come back, and it is the testimony of a tortured soul who has found peace within.

Faith in the Fog of War

Stories of triumph and tragedy in the midst of war

Author: Chris Plekenpol, Copyright @ 2006

You want the flare of your faith to burn as intensely as a fire on the battlefield. That means digging into God’s truth regardless of the chaos raging around you. These devotions are written by a man who had considered war something that someone else always did, and was then himself deployed to Iraq as a company commander. From the frontlines of the blackest days and in the face of inexplicable suffering, you’ll discover the heart of the question, “Why, God?” and its often unsettling answer. Because in war, as in contemporary America , reality involves struggle, trial, and triumph. Let God meet you in the midst of life’s nonsense to find the peace that is a crucial part of His impeccable plan.

Why, God? War screams the same questions whispered in everyday life. The battlefield explodes with the same tenacity of emotions that wretch our souls. Smoke fills the air just as doubt clouds our minds. Are you on the frontlines of war overseas? Or perhaps your battle is personal, deep within. These devotions, penned by Captain Chris Plekenpol while on the battlefield in Iraq, expose the depths of inexplicable suffering as well as the heights of incredible victory in God.

Faith Under Fire

An army chaplain's memoir

Authors: Roger Benimoff, Eve Conant, Copyright @ 2009

“Running away from God doesn’t work. I had tried.”

—Roger Benimoff

As he left for his second tour of duty as an Army chaplain in Iraq, Roger Benimoff noted in his journal: I am excited and I am scared. I am on fire for God...He is my hope, strength, and focus.

But not long after returning to Iraq, the burdens of his job–the memorial services for soldiers killed in action, the therapy sessions after contact with the enemy, the perilous excursions “outside the wire” while under enemy ﬁre–began to overwhelm him. Amid the dust, heat, and blood of Iraq, Benimoff felt the pillar of strength he’d always relied on to hold him up–his faith in God–begin to crumble.

Unable to make sense of the senseless, Benimoff turned to his journal. What did it mean to believe in a God who would allow the utter horror and injustice of war? Did He want these brave young men and women to die? In his darkest moment, Benimoff wrote: Why am I so angry? I do not want anything to do with God. I am sick of religion. It is a crutch for the weak.

Benimoff’s spiritual crisis heightened upon his return home to Fort Carson, Colorado. He withdrew emotionally from wife and sons, creating tensions that threatened to shatter the family. He was assigned to work at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he counseled returning soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder–until he was diagnosed himself with PTSD.

Finding himself in the role of patient rather than caregiver, connecting as an equal with his fellow sufferers, and revisiting scriptural readings that once again rang with meaning and truth, he began his most decisive battle: for the love of his family and for the chance to once again open his heart to the healing grace of God.

Intimate and powerful, drawing on Benimoff’s and his wife’s journals, Faith Under Fire chronicles a spiritual struggle through war, loss, and the hard process of learning to believe again.

Field of Influence

Author: Jenny Reese Clark, Copyright @ 2015

http://www.jennyreeseclark.com/

To change one's field of influence is to change the course of one's life.

"I have come to a point. If I move one more step in any direction, I have to acknowledge that I passed serious long ago. I pursue an ever-eluding precursor of death, and I'm never satisfied when I find it. The time I spend in pleasure does not outweigh the chase, and the reasons why I continue in this parody of life baffle me." - U.S. Marine Thurman Casey Shaw

With an honorable discharge and wounds more than surface deep, United States Marine Thurman Casey Shaw leaves one war zone to battle for a half-life existence in another. With a former brother as his only friend in New York, Casey loses himself inside of a world that he can't escape.

Addiction and desperate times lead him to an unusual proposal; Once you ingest the contents of this box, you must loosen its hold on your life forever. Accepting the challenge out of pure hopelessness, Casey has no clue that when he wakes up, his life will change whether he wants it to or not.

"This novel is a step by step walk through of one of the most dangerous places one can be. While filled with strong emotional content, the array of feelings are broad and explained in a way only one who has been there knows and can. As a former prisoner, I was spared by the same grace offered to Casey. Redemption, sacrifice, faith, and love are all core elements found in this work. It begins serious and ends even more intense.

This Marine's story is written for all who seek answers and my goal is that once read, those answers forge next steps." - Jenny Reese Clark

First Aid for Your Emotional Hurts: Veterans

Authors: Edward E. Moody, Jr., Ph.D. with Chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel) David Trogdon, USA, Ret., Copyright @ 2016

This booklet provides hope and healing for veterans and their families who are suffering the invisible wounds and scars of war. Moody and Trogdon provide helpful information to understand the struggles and offer effective ways to find a brighter future of purpose and peace. Topics include: PTSD, traumatic brain injury, stress of war, transitioning to home, and many more. The authors' writing flows out of experience and a genuine appreciation for those who have served to protect our country's freedom.

God Understands (American Bible Society)

http://godunderstands.americanbible.org/

Armed Services Ministry in collaboration with Veteran Affairs (VA) chaplain consultants developed the God Understands series: A resource created to provide healing, hope and comfort to veterans dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and the spiritual, physical and emotional brokenness brought on by active duty service.

Based on the Spiritual Injury Scale used by VA chaplains, real life situations about Veterans are shared to help identify spiritual injuries that often lead to feelings of uncertainty.

There is a common human thread that flows through our frailties, our weaknesses, our heartaches and our sufferings—and a common thread of hope that so many have found through prayer and Scripture.

Engaging this content can help you process your injuries and begin to heal. Start your own journey today.

Helping Your Family Through PTSD

Author: Greg Gifford, Copyright @ 2017

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is everywhere. It is increasing in regards to those who are being diagnosed with PTSD and those whom are ministering to ones with PTSD. The good news is that God speaks into the complexities of PTSD through Scripture and helps us orient ourselves and our families towards his purposes in PTSD. As you will see, God offers us a perspective on how we should view PTSD and the trauma that started it all.

Nam Vet

Making peace with your past

Author: Chuck Dean, Copyright @ 2000

Although the Vietnam War officially ended in 1975, it still rages in the lives of thousands of veterans and their families. This book not only tells why so many Vietnam veterans suffer from flashbacks, depression, fits of rage, nightmares, emotional numbing, and broken relationships, but it offers solid answers and gives hope. It reveals the way to peace on the subject of post-traumatic stress.

Once a Warrior

Wired for life

Authors: Bridget C. Cantrell, Chuck Dean, Copyright @ 2007

Once a Warrior: And Wired For Life illustrates how to turn negatives into positives and assists our highly trained military personnel in utilizing their tremendous potential in achieving success and happiness after their release from military service. This book highlights the path along the way to transitioning from warrior to civilian. It is not a book to read just once, but one to study over and over again.

Tending the Warrior Soul

Author: Louis Harrison, Copyright @ 2014

In war there are traumas to the soul that are not assuaged for the warrior by even the most excellent psychological care, medical interventions, and official support programs. Tending the Warrior Soul helps to advance understanding of this soul damage, and offers support, encouragement, lessons from personal experience, counsel, challenge, and resources to those God has called to care for warriors' souls, as well as to the warriors themselves and their loved ones. "Ministry to war experienced troops begins and ends with a servant's heart ... We must "remake" our worldview, expand our theological reference points, and accommodate our civilized views about violence, cruelty, right and wrong to the uncivilized applications of war. ... Neither God nor His commandments change, for these are the anchor points, trustworthy and sure. ... Teaching people to sort through the reality of God while sifting through the ashes of soul, spirit, and mind burned in the consequences of war is not "routine" business. Ministry to warriors is transformative." From Foreword, by Colonel Mike Hoyt, Chaplain, U.S. Army, Retired.

Lou Harrison never dreamed of "writing a book," and was embarrassed when it was suggested. The thoughts he had been writing down during his years of ministry were for his own understanding and growth in ministry to combatants. His words, advice and insight have been tested for accuracy and usefulness through feedback from war-experienced friends, extending from young grunts to ranking line officers and chaplains.

The Combat Trauma Healing Manual

Christ-centered solutions for combat trauma

Author: Rev. Chris Adsit, Copyright @ 2007

Available through www.crumilitary.org

The Combat Trauma Healing Manual offers spiritual solutions for struggles with PTSD by helping construct an environment that will give God optimal access to the wounded soul. Designed for individual or group study, the Combat Trauma Healing Manual combines the latest insights of the medical and counseling communities with the timeless principles of God’s Word.

The book outlines a step-by-step program that will help PTSD sufferers…

Understand your trauma – spiritually, psychologically and physiologically

Adopt therapeutic spiritual disciplines to bring you closer to God

Process your loss and grief

Experience the freeing influence of giving and receiving forgiveness

Rebuild your identity based on what God says about you

Strengthen yourself spiritually against future attacks

Connect with those who will support you in many ways

Define plans to fully reintegrate into society as a strengthened man or woman of God

Two Wars

One hero's fight on two fronts--abroad and within

Author: Nate Self, Copyright @ 2008

For the first time, Army Ranger hero Nate Self tells his story. Self recounts the Roberts Ridge Rescue mission, the ferocious battles in Afghanistan, and the lone war of attrition that Nate Self has waged against post-traumatic stress disorder. This book will become a go-to book for understanding the long-term effects of the war on terror. Thousands of families are fighting this battle, and Nate Self opens up his whole life—tragedies, successes, failures, and a struggle with suicidal thoughts—to share the facts and to show how his family and his faith pulled him through.

When War Comes Home

Christ-centered healing for wives of combat veterans

Authors: Chris Adsit, Rahnella Adsit, Marshele Carter Waddell

Available through www.crumilitary.org

When War Comes Home: Christ-centered Healing for Wives of Combat Veterans offers comfort and practical help to the wives of combat veterans struggling with the hidden wounds of war, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Insights from the medical and counseling community are wrapped in biblical principles and the shared experiences of other military wives. The reader will:

understand what happened to her husband – spiritually, psychologically and physiologically

understand how her husband’s trauma symptoms are affecting her

learn how to deal positively with grief, loss and forgiveness issues associated with PTSD

learn how to build her own “healing place,” develop her support network, and know when and how to find physical safety

understand and focus on her true identity in Christ

recognize the real enemy and how to fight spiritual warfare

learn how she can contribute to her husband’s healing environment

learn how to construct a safe, healthy environment for her children

understand the process of moving on to a “new normal”

Wounded Soldier, Healing Warrior

A personal story of a Vietnam veteran who lost his legs but found hissoul

Author: Allen B. Clark Jr., Copyright @ 2007

It was early morning, June 17, 1967, and Dak To Special Forces camp in Vietnam was under attack. A mortar exploded, and West Point graduate Allen B. Clark Jr.’s life was changed forever. This is the story of how one soldier, so gravely injured that both of his legs were amputated, turned his grievous loss into a personal triumph. Clark describes his struggle through a year-long recovery and a severe bout of post traumatic stress disorder, so little understood at the time.

He tells of earning his MBA from Southern Methodist University and finding employment as a personal financial assistant to Ross Perot, of moving on to public service and founding the Combat Faith Ministry, a lay ministry to veterans. Clark's story of growth and spiritual fulfillment wrested from his wartime tragedy is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and is of special relevance in our day of so many soldiers returning wounded in body and spirit from Iraq.

Wounded Warrior, Wounded Home

Hope and healing for families living with PTSD and TBI

Authors: Marshele Carter Waddell and Kelly K. Orr, Copyright @ 2013

For every wounded warrior, there is a wounded home--an immediate and extended family and community impacted by their loved one's war experiences. Every day service members are returning from combat deployments to their families. And every day war comes home with them.

When a combat veteran struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or traumatic brain injury (TBI), every member of the family experiences the effects. Spouses, parents, and children must undergo changes on the home front, a process that resembles the phases of grief. Confusion, hurt, anger, guilt, fatigue, and fear lie behind their brave smiles and squared shoulders.

Wounded Warrior, Wounded Home gives hurting families a look inside the minds and hearts of wounded warriors and guides them in developing their own personal plan for physical, emotional, and spiritual wholeness in the wake of war. The authors, one the wife of a career US Navy SEAL and the other a clinical psychologist and Vietnam veteran, speak from their own experiences of living with PTSD and TBI. They also share insights from dozens of families and careful research, offering readers a hope-filled way forward.

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