That's when Cataldi says he started to become"loopy.".
For days, Cataldi couldn't escape the odor of burning flesh.
Cataldi now works as a mechanic in Riverside, in Southern California.
What makes Cataldi's story extraordinary is that he was a U. S.
Doctors at the V. A. still aren't sure how to help Cataldi.
Cataldi says he managed on the medications- until his Klonopin ran out.
Those prescriptions didn't stop the Marine Corps from sending Cataldi back to Iraq.
Yet the experience of soldiers and Marines like Cataldi show the dangers of drugging our warriors.
One night, Cataldi took his pills after his commander told him he was done for the day.
Cataldi had no idea how he would gotten
to where he now lay, some 200 meters from the dilapidated building where his buddies slept.
Cataldi, who's now out of active duty,
says that when he returned from his first tour of Iraq, both he and a friend were taking painkillers for injuries.
When Cataldi talks about what happened to him in Iraq, he
begins with an in incident that took place on a cold January night in 2005, when he and five other Marines received a radio call informing them that a helicopter had disappeared.