American veteran Nathan Schmidt was able to break through his grief through mountaineering. He created a charity to help others heal through climbing. #60minutes #veteran #moutaineering

You know, I spent the Naval Academy preparing myself for war, and nothing can prepare yourself for war. In 2004, Schmidt was a 24-year-old First Lieutenant who dreamed of leading Marines. He landed in Fallujah on the eve of the bloodiest battle of the entire Iraq War. Two weeks after arriving at Camp Fallujah, I lost my teacher, who was a mentor of mine at the Naval Academy. Killed? Yeah. The rocket struck the office. I was the second one in the room, and it was the first time I'd ever seen anyone die in such a way, and it was my teacher. And that established a crack in me that had to be healed in another way that took years and years to heal. The problem was that that was the first of many cracks. I lost one of our Marines that was in my unit a month later. I then had my friend lose his leg. I took over his team. A few days after that, I lost my analyst in the gun turret of our vehicle. By the end of November, the unit that I was with, which was a great unit, 3-1, was combat ineffective. We had lost over 20 percent of our unit, either injured or killed. And that was his first tour. He fought in Iraq for three years. Who were you after that third tour? I thought in my mind that I was the strongest, but in reality, I was the weakest. I was strong physically. I could do as many pull-ups as you asked me to do. I could run, but I was broken. You know, those cracks, they take a lifetime to heal. You spend this week doing what you can to heal these families. And I wonder how much of that is healing you. It's huge. This program has healed me in ways I can't even describe. And I feel sometimes I get selfish, but you're right, you're right. It works, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it works because the children and mothers who arrived on the bus will not be the same people who return to Ukraine. No one's quite the same. After scaling a wall like this.