Sounds like my Great Uncle Howie - he was on a ship that got Kamikaze’d in WWII. Took an upstairs room in my Grandparents house and would wake up screaming in the middle of the night as the dreams slunk in...took him a long time (mid 80s) to drink himself to death at the local VFW and was on a hair trigger if anyone seemed the least bit aggressive. I spent some time with him and heard some stories a pre-teen, early teen shouldn’t have to hear but I loved him dearly and he enjoyed my company too.
It’s interesting you describe it that way. My wife grew up in a tight ethnic community. There were a group of “uncles”, probably eight or nine of them. Never married, or divorced after a short time.
This group met almost every night at the local vets club. They all held good jobs and never caused any troubles. They were active in the church, doing the grunt work for festivals and doing whatever was needed for the poor and sick. They all died under 70 from a variety of self inflicted causes.
It wasn’t until I asked an inlaw what was the deal with these guys. He told me they all went off to the Pacific or Korea. They never really came home is what he said.
It was heartbreaking.