“Frag out!”  Pure carnage has occurred in the jungles of Vietnam, 18 year olds wreathing in pain - screaming for their mothers - as they suffer from life-ending wounds.  This can be a common occurrence in the life of a United States marine.  Some of the atrocities that are seen are too shocking to ever forget and those witnessing the brutal events can often times be unable lose the images.   Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental disease that affected 31% of all soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War. PTSD was first discovered during the First World War, but was initially called “shell shocked” (NIH).   The soldiers would return home and have noticeable changes in their everyday body movements, such as when they were walking they looked as if they were walking into a 100 mile an hour wind, or they would sway from left to right.  These symptoms raised concerns and prompted neurologists to start researching the problems the soldiers were bringing home with them.   In the excerpt “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was still struggling with PTSD twenty years after coming home from Vietnam.  Lieutenant Cross blamed himself for the death of one his fellow soldiers, Ted Lavender.  Cross believed that Ted’s death occurred due to his own misconduct, he had been distracting himself from the harshness of battle, thinking about Martha, a girl he briefly dated in college.  This caused Cross to enter into a deep depression and become mentally isolated from the platoon.  Cross coped with the loss of his platoon member by focusing on an unreciprocated love and a future that would never happen.  He began to disassociate from reality, showing how PTSD has destroyed Cross both emotionally and physically. 

 The screaming of the wounded soldiers in battle pushes some of the soldiers into shock, with them not being able to perceive what is happening around them and causing them to psychologically break with reality.  While others are able to process what they have seen and move on.   However, the majority of soldiers cannot recuperate and do not know how to deal with what they have seen and what is often accompanied with a powerful loss.  Some smoke weed, others get drunk, but one, Lieutenant Cross, isolates himself from everyone and contemplates suicide.  This type of behavior is also seen with NFL athletes that have suffered concussions and traumatic brain injuries.  From a neurologist’s perspective, the traumatic evens a soldier goes through cause similar symptoms to the impact a former football player with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) shows and how destructive it is to the brain (Fainaru-Wara).   CTE is a disease that is caused from continuous blunt trauma to the head for a prolonged period of time, or from suffering numerous concussions.  Retired NFL players, have brought this into the forefront of the media today from the death of, most notably, former Pittsburgh Steeler Center Mike Webster and San Diego Charger and New England Patriot Junior Seau, who both took their lives due to this awful disease.  The reason that the symptoms of veterans and retired NFL players are so similar is because of the effects that PTSD and CTE play on the brain.  This is best illustrated in the novel League of Denial by Mark Fainaru-Wara which, gives an in depth analysis how the concussions have a negative impact on the brain and provides the struggles Mike Webster faced during his fight with CTE.  From reading the short story and researching PTSD’s effect on the brain it became quite obvious that Cross and Webster had very similar symptoms, but from two very different injuries.  The symptoms include depression, loss of memory, disgruntle personality and fear.  The main difference between the two diseases, became evident by Crosses ability to somewhat function day to day and Webster’s inability to handle to pressure of day to day living, eventually killing himself.  

Cross has to reevaluate his life and the amount of time he spent focusing on his fictional life with Martha, while an entire platoon full of soldiers rely on him.   O’Brien writes, “He felt shame. He hated himself.  He loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead” (O’Brien 336).  Cross enters the deep depression of his actions here.  He knows that he made grave mistakes and has to figure out a way to put this love interest in perspective.  Cross’s depression continued, but it was more for Martha than Ted, as the text states.  “All he could was dig. He was entrenching tools like an ax, slashing, feeling both love and hate… he was grieving for Ted Lavender, but mostly it was for Martha”(O’Brien 336).  Cross’s obsession with Martha consumed him and he needed to work through his obsession and into a new life.  He realizes that he cannot be with her he may not make it home, but refuses to admit it.  Cross has been through so much with his men but still feels as if Martha is more important to him than his “brothers.”  This shows how much of his mind is consumed by Martha and how irrational that seems.  If Cross wants to grow and be a better person he is going to have to overcome this obsession and get his life back in order. 

Isolated from life, the soldier stares blankly into the sky, not knowing what to do. He looks around aimlessly asking God to give him some help.  He has reevaluated his life and knows he has to change his life, but cannot come to terms with his decision.  He has reevaluated his life and knows he has to change, but cannot come to terms with his decision.  He finally steps up and does something that he should have done a long time.  He opens up about what he truly thinking.  Granted, talking will not solve all of his problems, but it surely will help him in his greatest time of need.  Everyone, during their time at war, has something that they need to overcome. Lt. Cross was able to overcome this huge moment, when he decided and was able to destroy all of the things that relate to Martha.  One of the hardest things in life to accomplish, is to get over a significant other that does not love the person back.  The audience is able to see this with Cross and Martha, as the more in depth O’Brien gets into Cross’s obsession with Martha, the greater rift there is between them.  Luckily for Cross’s sake, he finally realizes that this fantasy was just that, and it would not be coming to fruition, he was able to finally put his men in front of his feelings.   As stated in the text  “First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched to the bottom of the foxhole and burned Martha’s letters.  Then he burned the two photographs” (O’Brien 340).  Cross has finally overcome his biggest obstacle in his life and something that has troubled him for such a long time.  An unrequited love from a far is not something that should be weighing constantly on the mind of a man overseas, fighting for the United States and for his own life.   Everything is meant to happen for a reason and maybe Ted Lavender dying, as selfish as it sounds, was Gods way of allowing Cross to finally have the chance to reevaluate the choices he has made and get his life in order for once and for all. 

 Every soldier must undergo hardships during their time at war; some soldiers are able to process the event and move on with their lives, while others cannot seem to even make an attempt at attacking the problem.  People do not know what life is truly like when one suffers with PTSD, which is one of the biggest reason that suicide is so high for those who suffer this dreadful disease.   By analyzing Crosses inability to cope with the loss of a member of his platoon, falling into deep thought of not Ted, but rather the fantasy of what he wants his life with Martha to be, shows his disconnect with reality and how PTSD had the ability to destroy Cross both emotionally and physically. 
