Army Sgt. Anthony Danser, 23, Tells Of Re-entry Challenges

(Photo by Dennis Schroeder © News)

By Joe Garner, Rocky Mountain News

COLORADO SPRINGS – Staff Sgt. Anthony Danser has renounced violence, having seen the hell of war.
“On June 21, 2005, I had a good buddy of mine die instantly,” he said. “I was the first man to treat him. I had his brains falling into my hands.”

That night, two more members of his unit were killed and another three injured, Danser said.

“That was just one day,” he said, replaying in his mind the calamities of metal ripping flesh. The horrors he witnessed in Iraq crushed his boyhood dream of a proud, patriotic military life.

“I wanted to be a soldier my entire life,” said Danser, 23.

Now, he is awaiting discharge from the Army at Fort Carson because of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Of the more than 650,000 soldiers who have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, an estimated 20 to 30 percent of them will report symptoms such as sleep disturbance and anxiety after combat, said Army spokesman Paul Boyce.

Read the rest at Rocky Mountain News.

~ by Anthony on January 15, 2007.