Almost four years ago, Alex Fucheon's humvee blew up while he was completing a military tour in Afghanistan, KWCH 12 Eyewitness News reports. It was around that time that his father, Bob Fucheon, decided to quit his sales job in order to pursue a career providing support to military members who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In honor of his son, Fucheon enrolled in school full-time so that he could earn a master's degree in social work. This month, he will be qualified to begin his PTSD counseling career when he earns his college diploma. He said he will be willing to move anywhere that he is offered a job in this field.
Explaining that when his son was in Afghanistan he was required to pick up the body parts of men who had encountered explosives, Fucheon told the news outlet that members of the military are seldom prepared to experience war.
"They're not trained on how to process events like that," he said.
A 2008 study by the RAND Corporation shows that about 300,000 current or former members of the military suffer from PTSD or major depression.