I'm Maggie Smith, and this is The Slowdown.

My grandfather, my dad's dad, Raymond Edward Smith, was the first person reported killed in action from Columbus, Ohio, as a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

He was a fire controlman first class on the USS West Virginia.

He was reported killed in action, but his parents received word on Christmas Eve over two weeks after the attack that a mistake had been made and he was alive.

My grandfather died when I was in college, from complications

of ALS. To my knowledge, he never spoke about his experiences on the day of the Pearl Harbor

raid, even many years later, not with his children or his grandchildren.

I can only imagine what his firsthand experience was of that event, what he saw and heard and felt.

I can only imagine how those sights and sounds and sensations may have haunted him,

even though he never talked about it.

I don't think you can experience something so traumatic without carrying it with you in some

shape or form.

Certainly many people have veterans and their families who didn't talk about what they experienced.

Some have veterans and their families who have suffered with PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder,

a mental health condition that develops when a person has

experienced or witnessed a scary, shocking, terrifying, or dangerous event. It's also worth

noting that while PTSD was first diagnosed in combat veterans, it can be a result of

other kinds of trauma. People can experience PTSD after living through or seeing a traumatic

event, such as war, a natural disaster, a sexual assault, physical abuse, or a bad accident.

Symptoms of PTSD can include intrusive memories or flashbacks of the traumatic event,

nightmares or difficulty sleeping, or physiological reactions like sweating or erasing heart when reminded of the event.

Some people with PTSD may have angry outbursts or they may startle easily. They may be hypervigilant,

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