All Secure

By Greg Chabot

  Excerpt and photos used with permission of Tom Satterly.

                          “The Greatest Failure is the Failure to Try.” Tom Satterly CSM(Ret)

September 2004 Yusufiyah, Iraq

The Blackhawk helicopter hovered in the dark above the house on the outskirts of Baghdad while eighteen Unit operators slid down ropes forty feet to the roof. The small arms fire my troop and helos had been taking since our arrival a few minutes earlier intensified as the last man landed and joined the others.

Directing the assault from a field thirty meters north of the target house, I watched through my night vision goggles as the aircraft began to pull up and away. At that moment, above the fierce barking of assault rifles and machine guns, I heard the all-too-familiar whoosh and saw the red trail of an RPG as it was launched skyward.

The grenade struck the Blackhawk on its rotor blades and exploded. The elite Night Stalker pilots had been through it before and knew they wouldn’t make it to back to base. They aimed for a field five hundred meters from the house to put the injured bird down.

The Blackhawk hit hard but remained upright, intact, and didn’t burst into flames. But the pilot and crew immediately came under heavy fire from the enemy who were running in all directions from the house.

“Ah fuck,” I thought, “here we go again.” Just thinking of the words, I was about to radio over the command station sent a chill through me. “We have a Blackhawk down!”

Tom Satterly CSM(R) served twenty- five years in the Army. Serving the majority of his time with the Unit (Delta Force). He is also the co-founder of the All secure foundation a non-profit founded in 2017 to help Special operation veterans with PTS (Post Traumatic Stress). His recently published book All Secure is his personal story of his time in the military and his struggles with PTS. And what it cost him in his personal and professional life.

The author gives a very gritty and honest accounts of his time in combat in both Somalia and Iraq. As a combat veteran myself, I found myself relating to some of the feelings he describes after returning home. I especially related to isolating of oneself from others and being distant from loved ones. He also gets into what life and culture are like in a Tier-1 unit and why Operators are hesitant to seek help. Fearing they will show weakness in front of peers or be let go from the Unit they have sacrificed so much for. After his retirement from the military, Tom describes how his life started to spiral down into a dark hole which almost cost him his life. He credits his wife with getting him back from the edge and making it his mission to help others. Overall this is an outstanding book about War and the struggle afterwards. 

The stigma is very real, and it is not just in the military. PTS can affect anyone after a traumatic event. It is not worth putting oneself through a living hell from fear of being “Labeled”.  If a Tier-1 operator can admit they need help so can others. Please, if you are struggling with PTS seek help and know, you are not alone.