re: Question for Iraq/Afghanistan vets and friends of same: (possible trigger alert)

My experience was far different in the First Gulf War than what the guys who fought in the Second Gulf War and Afghanistan went through. The actual combat phase was a blur and we barely even stopped from the time the shooting started until they called a halt to offensive operations.

As far as traumatic part, there was the weeks of anticipation of what lay ahead before we crossed the berm. We were expecting to be hit with a ton of chemicals and that's what worried me the most. Once the ground war started, my biggest scare came when we first started getting incoming fire and hearing and feeling a round bounce off the turret. Big jolts or bangs still get me sometimes even today.