Even the smallest task seemed insurmountable to 2012 Truman Scholar Brent Reader when he returned home from a tour in Iraq as an Army combat medic. Just a trip to the store where he’d overhear everyday, trivial conversations was insufferable for the veteran as he fended off images from the war, including the trauma of trying to save the life of his close friend who had been shot beside him.
Reader, a junior social work major, spent twelve months in Ar Ramadi, considered the most dangerous city in the world at the time, and saw everything from ambushes to roadside bombs to firefights. On one occasion, he recalls walking over dozens of bodies after two people detonated themselves in a line to sign up to become Iraqi army and police.