May 04, 2007

More Invisible Costs Of War

The burden on soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan got a little less bearable last month when Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that active-duty Army units would have tours extended to 15 months, with just 12 months at home. That is a far cry from the normal deployment ratio -- two years at home or on base for one year in combat.

More time in the line of fire and less time with family and loved ones spells harm beyond the physical for troops: a DOD task force is issuing an "urgent" warning that more than a third of returning veterans have mental health problems like post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, and that neither the military nor federal government is currently equipped to provide adequate care for them.

The incidence of mental health problems is even worse for National Guard troops: nearly half reported psychological trauma. The task force's report, which is to be given to Gates next month, was a year in the making. Meaning: those figures are expected to grow with the new, more stressful deployment cycle.

Both the Department of Veterans Affairs and DOD have had ample warning that the percentage of soldiers returning with psychological trauma would be high. Last year, the Washington Post reported that "more than half of all soldiers and Marines returning from Iraq" answered in questionnaires that they "had 'felt in great danger of being killed' there, and 2,411 reported having thoughts of killing themselves." Former VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi readily acknowledged that the Iraq war was taking a particularly high toll on troops' mental health as long ago as 2004.

But the recent scandal over VA hospital care, plus this new report on the government's inability to effectively minister to troops' mental health needs, may point to a longstanding sluggishness when it comes to caring for U.S. troops once they've done their duty and returned home. The Chicago Tribune reported in March that Iraq veterans' mental health problems may exceed in size and intensity those of their predecessors in the Vietnam War.

Earlier this week, USA Today reported that American diplomats were also returning from Iraq with PTSD.

Army Times has obtained a copy [PDF] of the Pentagon's Mental Health Advisory Team's preliminary report.

Posted at 2:13 PM
Posted to: Iraq, Military, Robert Gates
Share via