A grim job takes its toll

[unhappycamper]

A grim job takes its toll
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, June 02, 2008

Army Corps of Engineers archaeologist Michael "Sonny" Trimble, who for two years led an interagency team that exhumed the mass graves of Saddam Hussein’s Anfal genocide campaign, speaks candidly about the mental toll of his work and his struggle with post-traumatic stress after he came home.

Many Iraq veterans don’t like to admit to such issues.

But the truth, Trimble said, is that in a combat environment, "everyone’s got their saturation point. And anyone who says otherwise is lying."

Working with the genocide victims in Iraq, "I felt I was being sanded away with fine-grained sandpaper, just a little every day," Trimble said.

"Day by day, (you think) you’re in good shape. Eight months later, you realize, ‘I’m not in good shape.’


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55252