The timeline of Life for a Combat Veteran. A Vietnam Veteran drew this diagram for me way back in 1969. I have never forgotten it. So here, as best I remember is what he told me as he drew the diagram on a napkin for me:

"Kevin, you are born into this world. It takes you three years to know that you are you. It takes until you are about eight to ten years old before you care much about people other than you. And right around that time, you experience your first "Death." Maybe a pet, or a Classmate. You know that things die.
13-14, you get your first Girlfriend. (Remember, he drew this when most Soldiers were Men.) You experience your first kiss, your first make out session, you go to a few dances. Maybe a Classmate dies in a Car Crash or from Cancer. You are young, and you don't think it will happen to you. You move on quickly.
Then HS is over. You are eighteen. You get your first job. You lose virginity. You have a Best Friend. And then, just before your 19th Birthday, you are yanked off of this Timeline and sent to War. Everyone you know back home is continuing on the Timeline. They are getting laid, falling in love, finding careers, going to college. Nobody they know is dying.

But you aren't on the Timeline anymore. You are in a far away land, just trying to survive. Death is everywhere. You loose friends, Platoon Mates, and fear for your own survival. And you stay in that hell for months, even years.

Back on the Timeline for Civilians: You are now in your 20's...life is good Folks are getting married, having kids, winning awards, traveling for fun. For the next two decades "Death" is rare. Everyone you know is doing fine. The Forty rolls around. A close friend has a heart attack, or gets Cancer. It hurts to lose them. Your own mortality gets some hints that you too, could pass on. But another decade goes by. Now you are at circle number 4. Fifty years old.
Your parent are dying now. Your grandparents are long gone. Another friend has a heart attack. Now, for the first time, it really dawns on you...you could die.
But you still aren't surrounded by Deaths. You get another decade of looking forward to retirement, change in career. Or maybe a second chance at love. You dance, you walk, you hang out and get pizza with your kids. Most of your parts still work. Sex is still on the table...and Death seems far away still.

And now, you hit circle 6. You are losing friends with alarming regularity. Your spouse dies, or your sisters and brothers. Aunts, Uncles, Older friends, everyone seems to be dying off. You are Seventy now. You read the obituaries. Your favorite Actors, Singers, and Famous folks from your Youth are all dying. And you know your time is coming soon. You are surrounded by Death Imagery. It is all around you. But you are Seventy when you get to this point. Vietnam Vets (and I believe all Combat Veterans too) are NINETEEN when they are surrounded by Death Imagery. Friends, loved ones (and yes, Soldiers love their Brothers and Sisters in Combat situations) . For a year or more, Teenage Warriors are now subjected to the same reality as a Seventy year old. Think about for second. Because then Life does something cruel to those teenagers.

It slides them back in time to circle 2. Twenty years old or so. They are put back in the Timeline knowing full well how it ends. They are out of sync. They have to join other young people basking in the joy of youth, but they have the experiences of a seventy year old. They don't have the gift of thinking nothing will happen to them. That they will be young and healthy for all time. The know better. They have been to Circle 6. The end of a long life...but they are only in their 20's!

And that, Kevin, is why PTSD exists. You take kids in their prime, send them to the end of life - then try to put them back like nothing happened. "

So there is how he described it to me. What do you guys think of his drawing and explanation?