FALL RIVER — The city’s new director of Veterans’ Services, Talos “Doc” Farris, knows firsthand how the horrors of battle can affect servicemembers mentally and physically. 

 

Farris knows, because after serving 15 years as a Navy hospital corpsman — on the battlefield for a good portion of his service with the Marine Corps in Iraq — the 44-year-old Atlanta native found himself fighting his own personal demons.

 

He got out of the military in 2013 after seeing the toll of war and tending to the dead and dying on the desert battlefield. Farris, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, said he isolated himself from his family and “pulled away from society,” at one point finding himself homeless down south.

 

Faris is taking over for former veterans’ agent Michelle Hamilton, who left for a similar job in another community. 

His appointment is on Tuesday’s City Council agenda.

 

Read more at heraldnews.com.