Gentlemen,

I recommend three books to you.

Shook over Hell: Post-Traumatic Stress, Vietnam, and the Civil War, by Eric T. Dean.

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, by Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) David Grossman.

On Combat, The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace, by Lieutenant Colonel (Retired), David Grossman.

I also challenge you to really (italicized, bold, underlined) and get to know some of our combat veterans and specifically those who went out on patrols and kicked in doors and looked bastards in the face when they shot them. Not someone who sat at the Forward Operating Base or at the airfield.

Respectfully,

Gerald D. Hodge, Jr.
Lieutenant Colonel (Retired 1 year ago), U.S. Army
M.A. Military History - Civil War Concentration
Research - Preservation
Athens, Tennessee
Historian: 39th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment
http://39thgavolinfrgt.homestead.com/39thHomepage.html
http://outpostdispatch.homestead.com/index.html