Three years ago this past October, I deployed to Iraq’s “Triangle of Death” and stepped on a roadside bomb while leading an Iraqi Army patrol. In that explosion I lost an arm and a leg. It took eighteen months of recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, and lot of medicine to get me back on my feet.

The best medicine didn’t come through an IV, though. He walked into my hospital room with a hitch in his step. He had been there, too.

I can’t remember his name; I can’t remember a lot of things in those first few weeks. He said he was from Maine, and spent a few minutes chatting about nothing in particular: the food, visiting family, and the fall weather. He had deployed to the warzone the year before, but I didn’t notice his prosthetic leg until his second visit. He had not only seen the same things as I had in battle, but had come back shattered and had somehow overcome the worst of it.

Since leaving Walter Reed, I’ve tried to understand this peer connection and how I used it to overcome my life-altering moment.

There are plenty of examples of groups putting peer support into action. CommunityofVeterans.org, a project of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, reconnects veterans who served together overseas.

Offline, several organizations are bringing vets together. Vets 4 Vets is one of them. This great organization hosts weekend retreats, where veterans can listen and learn from others' homecoming experience.

My own organization, Survivor Corps, has pioneered post-trauma peer outreach internationally. We bring civilian and military survivors of war together, because everyone has an interest in putting the scars of war behind them.

My question to you: how have your peers helped? Have you helped someone that’s come after you? Are you on CommunityofVeteranss.org, or been to a Vets 4 Vets retreat?

There are many stories like mine and I want to hear them. Of all the ingredients needed to make a healthy homecoming after war—steady employment, access to education, quality healthcare, affordable housing, supportive families, and engaged communities—the most important to me, and to many others, is the support we get from each other.