America's war returnees: many troubles but more help

The number with relationship problems quadrupled in a new study.

from the November 14, 2007 edition

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"That leads to immediate conflict with the family, who has done just fine without the soldier and doesn't like the fact that he is injecting himself in their business," writes Maj. Craig Whiteside, an Army battalion executive officer nearing the end of a 15-month deployment to an area south of Baghdad, in an e-mail. "I definitely learned this a long time ago and know better, but our chaplain did a great job laying it out."

The kinds of problems soldiers are experiencing don't typically emerge until after the elation of returning home subsides and the soldier settles into his or her normal routine, Army officials say.

New Defense Department initiatives will allow even more health screenings of all soldiers every year. But the Army has have to walk a fine line when it comes to screening soldiers because there is such a thing as "overscreening," Army officials say.

"If we ask them too many times 'Are you having symptoms?' we might reinforce them," says Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Jones, the assistant surgeon general for force projection, US Army Medical Command, during the same briefing with reporters, held last week in anticipation of the release of the study.

As prospects for a quick end to the war in Iraq evaporated, officials inside and outside the Defense Department began to voice doubts about the military's post-combat approach to mental health. In 2005, the military started a pilot program of its second-screening program and implemented it across the board in 2006. Last year, Congress mandated the creation of a group later called the Defense Department Task Force on Mental Health, which made nearly 100 recommendations to fix or improve the Pentagon's system.

But changing the culture represents one of the biggest hurdles for military officials. Soldiers, Marines, and other troops have long been imbued with tough training in a culture that encouraged troops to suck it up rather than to seek counseling.

Now, the Defense Department is trying to put mental health on equal footing with physical fitness and diminish the cultural stigma of seeking help.

The Army's "Battlemind" program, for example, occurs months after a soldier returns from combat. The training attempts to recognize common behavior among returning troops that can lead to bigger problems down the road, even when those soldiers don't express their concerns about battle-related stress.

The fact that soldiers were willing to report their problems as much as they did in the second assessment suggests the Army has made progress, General Jones says. "I think the study shows that we've done a pretty good job of reducing the stigma."

The study did not attempt to assess the effect of longer deployments, especially on soldiers on their third or fourth trip to Iraq.

"Undoubtedly, none of these guys will go home the same guy who came over," Major Whiteside writes in his e-mail. "Some of that is for the good, some of it is not so good."

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