A Stressful Return for Gulf War Veterans ; Heroes Turn to Fellow Soldiers to Ease Postwar Pain

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DAYTON -- A glaze comes over the eyes of the dozen or so Gulf War veterans in this nondescript conference room at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

No longer are they hunched over plain office chairs; they're clutching M-16s, straddling tanks, manning 50-caliber machine guns.

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A Stressful Return for Gulf War Veterans ; Heroes Turn to Fellow Soldiers to Ease Postwar Pain

Saddam Hussein is in power. Baghdad is in view.

"We were so close, so close, we could see the city; just hang a hard left, and you were there," said Desert Storm veteran James Weis, 33, of Riverside. "And they called us off. I feel so bad. If I had done a better job the first time, they wouldn't be back there fighting now."

If only we had finished the job last time, Weis keeps telling himself. If only. Then his younger brothers Tristan, 22, and Justin, 24, wouldn't have been sent over to fight. Then Justin wouldn't have come home as traumatized as his big brother. He wouldn't be sitting here in the Gulf War support group, baring his soul.

"You guys have saved my life more than a few times," Justin tells the group. "You have shown me a lot of things to expect and to watch out for."

These veterans look at Justin and see themselves as they were nearly 14 years ago -- newly returned from battle and perplexed by the changes in themselv...

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