This week, Scott Pelley covered families fighting with their spouses, fathers and mothers in the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

About 600,000 U.S. veterans have been diagnosed with post-mortem stress disorder or PTSD. Symptoms may include anxiety, fear, irritability, and depression.

Through this week’s story coverage, Scott Pelley and the 60-minute team found that some symptoms of PTSD were infectious in some sense: some family members of a diagnosed veteran, such as children and spouse, often experience similar symptoms such as anxiety and depression.

The Rotenberry family is one of the brave families who share the story with 60 minutes.

Chuck Rotenberry is a Marine who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. In his second deployment, Rotenberry recalls a Marine companion stomping on a soldier, seriously injured, sending Rotenberry 20 feet and knocking him down when he knocked him down. Rotenberry remembers him going to the injured Marines and providing life-saving assistance.

Rotenberry returns to his children and his wife Liz, who are pregnant with a fourth child. He suffers from brain damage and PTSD.

Leeds said: "He was hiding in the back room...I would find him crying, he didn't understand why he was crying."

Their son, Kristopher, was 7 years old at the time. For years, he tried to protect his father from inducement and sisters. By the age of 12, he had gained weight and recalled suicide.

Chris told 60 minutes: "I decided that my family would be better."

Since airing last year, Kristopher Rotenberry has joined the U.S. Air Force. Earlier this year, the Rotenberry family is about to celebrate Kris' graduation from basic training.

In an interview with 60-minute overtime, Pelley revisited reports of soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past two decades, as well as their deployment and the impact of PTSD on their families.

Starting in 2005, Pelley and 60 minutes later were the Iowa National Guard Division, who were called to the moment they finally toured in Iraq for nearly two years.

One of the guards was Denver Foote, who had been in the National Guard for seven years.

His wife, Shannon Foote, joined their first child, to start a war on a Denver phone. She told Pelley that she would be a "super mom" when her husband served overseas.

But she struggled, trying to support herself and Langdon, live with her in-laws, and fight against depression. She was vandalized when the tour in Denver was extended.

"I don't think the time he's gone by is fair. I haven't seen any progress yet," she told Pelley in an interview.

Paley wonders if depression is common among other military wives. “Everyone I talk to is very common,” she said.

In 2009, Pelley embeds a company in the 2nd Battalion of the Eighth Marine Corps with a company, telling a story called "Golf Company." The company is headquartered in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. At the time, the United States was in the region with the highest number of casualties.

The second Lieutenant Dan O'Hara from Chicago was the platoon leader. Two of his Marines were killed. Pelley asked O'Hara how the soldiers distinguished the enemy from the civilians in the local population.

"In most cases, you don't know until they start shooting you," O'Hara said.

In 2012, there were 60 minutes of reports that veterans living in rural Harris, Texas returned home with the PTSD war and broke the law for a story called "Going Home."

Marine Kevin Thomas, who served in Iraq, told Pelley that when they received a call from the radio station, he was patrolling with other soldiers saying a helicopter crashed. What he saw was burned.

"What did you see?" Pelley asked Thomas.

He said: "Wreckage, massacre, body...25-30 Marines. Brothers. Family."

Six months later, Thomas returned to his family in Houston. He said he began drinking heavily, becoming a avoidant, and was isolated at home. He was completely unaware of what was going on with him.

He lost the trust of his job and family. His aggression was on the trigger hair. Eventually, he hit his wife at the time and was charged with a felony assault.

He told 60 minutes: "I'm angry at Iraq's unfinished business."

The Veterans Court for First-Time Felony Offenders helped Thomas find treatment at VA Hospital as part of the probation sentence. This also helped him to go to college.

The 60-minute camera is the camera when going to ice cream with Thomas and his two sons. One of them asked him about his situation in the Marine Corps. Pelley asked Thomas: "When he was older, what would you tell him about your experience?"

He said in tears: "I want to tell him that my experience in the Marines and my career are great. It's the best thing I've ever done in my life."

Sadly, Kevin Thomas died in a car accident seven months after the 60-minute "Go Home" aired. He is 36 years old.

"The most important thing for the country is that these veterans of these wars, their children and their spouses are still in their lives," Paley said to the 60-minute overtime.

“That’s something that no one of us should forget.”

The video above was originally released on April 28, 2024. It was produced by Will Croxton and Brit McCandless Farmer and edited by Sarah Shafer Prediger.