have been written on fear, phobias, paranoias etc, and I am certainly not qualified to address any of it from the psychologists' point of view. and, though I agree with the sentiment, it is far too inadequate to say "if you don't fly the terrorists win" Now, in the case of the helicopter crash, the answer was easy. I had to get the Task Unit in the air immediately or ask to be sent home (which was offered). No way I was going home--I had just lost two friends and a Teammate and I was NOT going to quit on them...so in "Get back on the horse fashion", I had to get the guys back in the air before it got built up in their minds as anything other than what it was--stupidity. I could not order them on the helo, I had to lead them on the helo. So I did. Now, as far as your situation goes, there are several ways to think of it--and none will work right away--statistically--your chances of dying in a terrorist attack are tiny--obscure-- 6000/270,000,000/funct(229*365)--total Americans killed by terrorists divided by the population divided by a function of time---really small number--you can think of it factually--there are 100,000s of thousands of people working to prevent it from happening, or you can think of it obstinantly--I refuse to live in fear---pretty thin, I know--but everyday you expose yourself to risk without a second thought--driving a car, eating seafood or rare meat, riding an elevator and it never even occurs to you to be afraid--you have to find a way, your own way, to de-emphasize the risk and re-emphasize the goal--
Per the Bronze Star, I was awarded it for meritorious service not valor, so there is no story per se. The successful raid in Dae Rawood play a large part, but it was nothing like Neil's experience :)