So my brother in law has been showing signs of ptsd... Depression, anxiety and very alert/bordering paranoid. I've tried talking with him but I've hit a roadblock. See, he's hidden much of his service history from family so we won't worry as much. Im not sure he will ever fully disclose the truth as that would ruin his initial alibi.

He's USAF EOD. His deployments supposedly have been easy. UAE and Saudi Arabia. His marriage is rocky because he's distant. He's not quite right mentally right now. I'm trying to help my sister get answers. Clearly, I'm not mil so I don't have access to your forum. I can supply pics if need be.

I'm wanting to know if he saw combat. Was he actually in the shit? I realize with that job he would get a lot of unofficial short missions. I'm just looking for answers here. I don't know what else to do.

Edited. Not sure how or what good a thread with no information does but apparently I'm an ass

It's really inappropriate for you to give the internet that much information about your brother. It's like arocking.

It's great you care about him and want to get him work, but you don't have any right to air his dirty laundry and ask about his personal details that he hasn't shared with you. You should edit your post and probably have this thread disappeared. Maybe start a more discrete one with no identifying information about 'a friend'.

Ok looking for a white male 5'8 brown hair. Did you even read? 1. Not a brother 2. He's not looking for a job.

Fact of the matter is this mental state is a hair away from wrecking his entire life. You think he's in bad shape now let's see about after a divorce and the kids move away. He won't open up to her and what he's told me just doesn't make sense. I need to find a person who was there. It's a long shot but damn it is a shot. I'll see if I get any more IM or email tonight

It's still nasty of you to try to find out details about him he doesn't want to share with you, but at least it's more discreet now.

I've been to UAE and to the main Airbase their, I wouldn't consider it a "rough" deployment (unless he pushed out to other spots).

Easy to say on one side of the fence, but we're losing veterans to suicide at an alarming rate. How many of those veterans were willing to admit they needed help or open up about what happened "over there"? How many would be here today if they had somebody like the OP that recognized early signs and didn't give a damn if they were "prying" or "airing dirty laundry" to dig into their service history to try to get them the help they needed?

Disclaimer: I didn't see the OP as originally posted, but IMHO, when it comes to getting help for these guys/gals the line in the sand is pretty far out there...

It just doesn't seem to me that prying about such things is what will actually help the guy. Finding out what kind of action some guy saw isn't the vital key to helping him. It just sounds like personal curiosity under the guise of 'helping'. If OP had simply asked 'how do I help', it wouldn't have smelled bad to me.

Edit to fix "would" to "wouldn't".

You may very well be right in that he isn't going about it the right way but at least he is going about it... the fact of the matter is that the risk of doing nothing is just as great as the risk of going about it the wrong way...

I disagree. I don't think he's trying to help. It sounds to me like he's trying to exploit him. It's ringing my "not well-intentioned" alarm.

you are way of base I know wheelchairman personally

I am not even sure why you would get involved

Maybe his wife is a bitch and he's just trying to get the F out of the situation.

And you're willing to potentially bet a life on your alarm bells from hundreds of miles away on the internet?

From my point of view, you help a guy exploit his BIL (for what ill-intentioned purposes I don't know) and the worst that can happen is??? Or, you sit back and don't help, and what he is saying is true, and the guy goes into the downward spiral that is all too common, ending with suicide...

Which is it?

FWIW, I type this from the middle of the sand-box having been through suicide prevention training numerous times... your qualifications on this topic are?