Air Force Combat Medic Shining Light on PTSD
“You really appreciate life a whole lot more — in a different perspective than what people could ever understand if they had seen and done what I had seen and done.”
Those are the words of Sgt. Jen Burch, a veteran of the US Air Force and former combat medic in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Burch, 28, served her country from 2008 to 2014, earning an Air Force Commendation medal for her bravery. But her time in the military came with consequences, and upon returning home after she medically retired, she found herself struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“You get stuck in a mindset, and you have a lot of anger in you,” she says. “You also have a lot of survivor’s guilt.”
And yet it all started off so well.
Wanting to do something different with her life, the Air Force gave Burch the sense of direction and purpose she was looking for.
“I wanted to do something with my life. I wasn’t doing anything at the time, and knew that I needed to be.”
Joining the military would allow her to travel, as well as save up funds for school, which was exactly what she wanted. The only question then was: What branch should she join? Asking around, the answer became obvious — the Air Force.
“Especially being a woman in the military, the word is that the Air Force treats women the best,” says Burch. “I’m not sure how accurate that is, but everyone said the Air Force was one of the best branches to join, so I took their advice.”
She would find that, for the most part, the advice was spot on.
“You’re always going to have those guys that just give women a hard time, or don’t think we can do the job,” she says. “But most of the time, all the guys were very … they were great. They were like brothers, and took care of us and made sure that we were okay, and helped us if we needed it.”
From a physical standpoint, there were definitely differences that made it easier or more likely for her male colleagues to take on certain tasks. That doesn’t, however, mean she feels she missed out.
“I already saw a lot of action from what I was doing. I wouldn’t have changed that at all.”
Burch built a lot of memories during her time with the Air Force, but oddly her most positive overlaps with her worst — working in the trauma center in Kandahar. An intriguing experience itself, she says it’s also made her live life to the fullest. But what she saw there and throughout the rest of her deployment left its scars, scars that she says the Air Force did not attend to.
“I would say probably the biggest negative thing with the Air Force that I went through was how they handled me when I came back from my deployment and suffered pretty bad symptoms of PTSD,” she says. “There really wasn’t much of a support system when it came to that.”
Fortunately there’s a happy ending here. Over the past year, she’s gained her happiness and motivation back, and, as a result, she’s dedicated much of her time to helping others in similar circumstances. “Since I’ve gotten the help I needed and have seen the light at the end of the tunnel, I try to advocate for PTSD.”
That includes working on and being featured in the new documentary ACRONYM: The Cross Generational Battle With PTSD.
“It shows that it doesn’t matter what war you served in, PTSD is PTSD,” she says of the film. “It’s probably one of my biggest passions in life right now.”
Outside of the documentary, Burch is busy finishing up her Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Health at the University of Colorado Denver, running a photography business, and volunteering her photography skills at military veterans events. After graduating, she hopes to eventually work for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Indeed, it’s shaping up to be a story meant for the big screen.
