Surviving the Shadows

Bob Delaney speaking with Kurdistan Army General Shierko

Former NBA referee Bob Delaney and his co-author Dave Scheiber have done it again. They combined to tell a new story from Delaney's early life fighting crime as a New Jersey State trooper and his later life when he realized he had suffered mightily of a condition that's only recently diagnosed and accepted in society.  The syndrome of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is front and center in "Surviving the Shadows," recently released by Sourcebooks.

"Filled with examples of courage, wisdom, and innovation, Surviving the Shadows is a must-read for anyone in the military, anyone associated with the military, or anyone protected by the military," said Nate Self, Army Ranger, Captain (ret.), decorated Iraq and Afghanistan War hero, and author of Two Wars: One Hero's Fight on Two Fronts-Abroad and Within.
Here is a sneak-peak as the new book hits bookshelves nationwide this week. DigitalSportsDesk.com has the book's first chapter online at (Click HERE).  Stay tuned for more on "Surviving the Shadows."

"Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got to where they are had to begin where they were."
-Richard Evans

It is impossible to walk the long halls of the Al-Faw Palace in Baghdad without reflecting on the extreme pain and suffering that the man who lived within the marble walls perpetrated. The sprawling structure rises from placid blue waters that give no hint of the unfathomable terror that festered here under the reign of Saddam Hussein. The surrounding waters not only once served as a protective moat for the compound but also, in accordance with Saddam's beliefs, hid the sin inside from the eyes of Allah. When I arrived at the palace in the summer of 2010, memories of that evil lingered-along with faded stains of blood in rooms
where Hussein's henchmen tortured, beyond imagination, those whom they deemed enemies of the regime. But this is where the top U.S. Army command was operating, under the name Camp Victory, orchestrating the battlefield and urban combat strategy for our brave men and women in the armed forces.

I had come on a goodwill tour to the heart of the desert war zone to meet with U.S. troops and officers, just as I had done one year earlier when I'd been embedded with ground forces in Mosul. My personal mission-work that has become the guiding force in my life-was to reach out to people grappling with an unseen enemy from within, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

I knew the ravages of this condition firsthand from my undercover duty in the 1970s for the New Jersey State Police, before my second career as a referee in the National Basketball Association. And for nearly twenty-five years, I've never stopped speaking with and counseling members of law enforcement, the military, and others who have endured psychological trauma in their lives.