My name is Mathius Carter. I am an Outreach Coordinator at the Road Home Program and I recently authored a children’s book called “Instead of Sheep: A Soldier’s Way of Explaining PTSD to his Son”.I am an Army veteran with a family history of military service. One month before 911, I found myself in boot camp at Fort Knox in Kentucky. Two years later, I was in Iraq deployed as part of the 32nd Signal Battalion, attached to 3rd ID. I was injured in a mortar attack on my truck. Miraculously I survived. Not everyone did. After service and college, I joined a non-profit called Veterans Path to Hope as a Case Manager. It was there that I began to realize the long-term cost of war. When three veterans in my caseload and a good friend and brother from Iraq all committed suicide, I realized that I, too, was not OK mentally.