I was an Air Force active duty nurse deployed to Balad, Iraq, in 2008. I went there thinking I was tough, but within one week I realized the world was more different than I had ever imagined. I think it’s a hard thing to understand that people want to kill you, and given the chance they would.

I was diagnosed with PTSD in 2013. Since that time, I’ve been improving and seeing a psych MD at my local VA. I’d appreciate literature recommendations from readers — books, journals — related to PTSD and the war caregiver/trauma nurse. The more I read about this, the more I’ll understand my own feelings and thoughts about what I saw.

— Capt. Christian Taylor, APRN, FNP-BC
Wichita, Kan.