Mom shines light on vets Post-war problems

When Nathan Keyes returned home after his second tour of duty in Iraq, his mother started the fight to get her son back.

Jamie Keyes of Statham watched as her 27-year-old son's depression, drinking and erratic behavior eventually led him to prison.

Now, she's helping other soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder find the help that eluded her son and working to change the way the legal system views war veterans who commit crimes.

"We're seeing a tsunami right now; we really are," Keyes said. "There's no way to know how many young veterans are stuck in our jails and prisons. Nobody's keeping a record of it."

Watching her son's experience with Veterans Affairs and the legal system led Keyes to help start Georgia's first jail diversion program for veterans in DeKalb County. Today she's working to expand that program and establish veterans courts in other judicial circuits.

Jamie and Nathan Keyes recently told their story told as part of a series of documentaries called "In Their Boots." The series, which is available online and should be coming to public broadcasting stations soon, shares the diverse stories of soldiers who fought in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and explores some of the issues facing veterans as they restart their lives at home.

The episode "From War to Prison" deals with the struggle to find treatment for Nathan Keyes' PTSD and Jamie Keyes' efforts to convince a judge in St. Augustine, Fla., to consider her son's condition when sentencing him.

Nathan Keyes joined the U.S. Army shortly after graduating from high school in 2000. He was deployed to Iraq twice between 2003 and 2007, spending more than a year on assignment each time.

When he left the Army and returned to Statham, Keyes separated from his wife and children and moved in with his mother.

He slept with his gun, wore his Army fatigues, set up a firing range and attempted to dig a trench around the house.

His mother tried to understand what her son was going through and encouraged him to get help, but eventually couldn't handle her son's angry and sometimes violent behavior.

He moved to St. Augustine where, in early 2008, Keyes fired his gun into the air during a dispute with another driver. He was facing more than 20 years in prison, but Jamie Keyes organized a letter-writing campaign to educate t

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