PITTSBURGH — Eddie Zorak sips his coffee and recalls the day his buddy was killed in an explosion just west of Baghdad.

Eyes darting side to side, Zorak says his friend and fellow soldier Chad Edmundson died during his deployment in a blast from an improvised explosive device (IED).

After that day, Zorak was never the same.

"I had a hard time after I lost my friend," he says, recalling his difficulties coping with Edmundson's death while conducting a dangerous yearlong mission as specialist in the National Guard. His unit went on arduous foot patrols — sometimes two or three a day — through streets riddled with IEDs. The patrols consisted of regular raids of suspected insurgent safe houses, he says, where armed men might lie in wait.

"After a patrol, everyone would take their gear off,” including a heavy bulletproof vest and Kevlar helmet, says Zorak. “But I would keep mine on,” he says, referring to the paranoia that plagued him both in Iraq and after his return to the U.S.

Here in his native western Pennsylvania, life proved difficult. Zorak drank heavily and made rash decisions, he says, like getting behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated. Before long, he was arrested on DUI charges.

But instead of being tried in a conventional court, where he could face several months in prison, Zorak was tried in a court specializing in treating troubled veterans. In veterans’ court he had access to counseling and was given a strict schedule of meetings aimed at teaching him how to cope with haunting memories of war brought home.

Zorak’s experiences mirror those of tens of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who come home suffering from post-traumatic stress and physical maladies. Often their ailments lead to chronic depression and, in some cases, troubles with the law.

Rising crime rates among veterans — particularly young ones — have helped these special courts for veterans to spread. Had he not been given the opportunities provided by this special court, Zorak believes his story would be much different.

"If it wasn't for the court,” he says bluntly, “I'd be dead."