Combat

Veteran Carl Ashmore listens to harpist Linda Dunn, right, in a waiting room where musicians often play for patients at the Fresno VA hospital, January 4, 2012, in Fresno, California. The building, built in the sixties has dreary waiting rooms with lots of triggers for PTSD symptoms. But they found a solution: live music. A classical guitarist or harpist plays and doctors say their patients arrive for treatment in much better shape. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

Live music at VA hospital helps those suffering from PTSD

FRESNO, Calif. -- The hospital was built in the years after World War II. Its ceilings are low, corridors long and corners sharp -- all possible stress triggers for those who have been in combat.

Not to mention that a hospital waiting room can make anyone edgy.

But the Veterans Affairs hospital in Fresno has found a way to make the experience easier: live music.

Squad leader Eric Morante, background right, and the "Bridge Marines" take Ivonne Thompson, center, out of the hospital to help give her a break from the day-to-day care of her husband Anthony Thompson while at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, New Jersey in December 2009. (Lara Solt/Dallas Morning News/MCT)

Military families are thrust into caregiving roles for severely injured troops

DALLAS -- For nearly four days, the squad of Marines stood guard on Bridge 286, an overpass that crossed a highway thick with traffic between Baghdad and Fallujah. Just a few hours before the end of their shift, a dump truck approached the bridge and rolled to a stop under the overpass. It was loaded with 3,000 pounds of explosives.

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