War Vets a Healing Outlet

Another Source gives war vets a healing outlet

Laura Morton / Special to The Chronicle: Jeremy Profitt, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, still fights a war of "anger and anxiety," he said on Another Source.

February 1, 2011 - During the time he was in Iraq and Afghanistan, Jeremy Profitt was locked in combat mode, his senses constantly alert for the slightest sound, movement or even smell that might signal the presence of danger and even death.

And then there was the unspeakable horror of things he saw.

When he finally returned home to Vallejo, the once easygoing 19-year-old kid was gone. In his place was an anxious veteran, edgy and short-tempered, who barked at his wife for being late and found it impossible to relax.

"I came home from Iraq in March 2004," he wrote in an essay at a writing workshop for veterans last year, "yet I'm still fighting a war at home. ... A war of anger and anxiety, fought within the recesses of my mind."

Profitt's personal narrative, "Fighting the War at Home," along with stories by other Northern California veterans, can be found on Another Source, a new online journal dedicated to giving a voice to those affected by violent conflict. The stories, which were part of a project sponsored by New America Media, offer rare, first-person accounts of combat, trauma, grief, post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual assault and unemployment.

"A lot of these guys go out on a limb with these stories, even those who write anonymously," says Scott Mattoon, a former Chronicle editor and founder of Another Source. "It's soul-baring."

"I don't have an agenda," he says, "but if we're going to commit American lives and money, we need to put aside all the politics and understand the true costs of war." {continued}