Operation Supply Drop Spotlight
Community Spotlight: Nathan Crim, USMC Veteran and OSD Community Member
I joined the United States Marine Corps right after 9/11 and went to boot camp on November 18, 2002. My deployments include Iraq, Afghanistan and a Mediterranean cruise.
My last deployment was Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2010- 2011 where I was in charge of a security detail. I worked with foreign military forces, as well as US Army and US Air Force. When I returned stateside, I did not realize at the time I was suffering from PTSD. Numerous things had me on edge or wanting to hit the deck, thinking a mortar was incoming, maybe I should have known.
I started going to the gym more, to try to release my internalized anxiety. Unfortunately, one day after heavy training, as I was leaving the gym I dropped my ID between 2 elliptical machines. The ID was lying partly under the machine on the left, which was unoccupied. I squatted down to pick it up, my legs gave out and I extended my right arm to catch myself. Someone was on the right machine and at full steam. The machine impacted my forearm closer to my elbow breaking a chunk out of each bone and then splitting them to the wrist.
