I did two tours in Vietnam. The idea that veterans are somehow "victims" has never set right with me. "Soldiers heart" was the name for it after the Civil War, "shell shock" after WW 1, "battle fatigue" for WW 2 (Korea), then PTSD for Vietnam. Our scars both visible and invisible are the entrance fee to the 'band of brothers'. I don't accept the PTSD label because it is implies a 'disability'. We know life and death in a way no civilian can. It affects our thinking in a way civilians usually don't get. It is they who lack something.
Teddy Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" is a good starting point for the veteran mind set.