1 in 4 Iraq vets
ailing on return
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
Oct. 18, 2005
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-10-18-troops-side_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA
More than one in four U.S. troops have come home from the Iraq war with health
problems that require medical or mental health treatment, according to the
Pentagon's first detailed screening of service members leaving a war zone.
(Related: Troops screened as never before)
Almost 1,700 service members returning from the war this year said they harbored
thoughts of hurting themselves or that they would be better off dead. More than
250 said they had such thoughts "a lot." Nearly 20,000 reported nightmares or
unwanted war recollections; more than 3,700 said they had concerns that they
might "hurt or lose control" with someone else.
These survey results, which have not been publicly released, were provided to
USA TODAY by the Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine. They
offer a window on the war and how the ongoing insurgency has added to the strain
on troops.
Overall, since the war began, about 28% of Iraq veterans - about 50,000 service
members this year alone - returned with problems ranging from lingering battle
wounds to toothaches, from suicidal thoughts to strained marriages. The figure
dwarfs the Pentagon's official Iraq casualty count: 1,971 U.S. troops dead and
15,220 wounded as of Tuesday.
A greater percentage of soldiers and Marines surveyed in 2004-05 said they felt
in "great danger" of being killed than said so in 2003, after a more
conventional phase of fighting. Twice as many surveyed in 2004-05 had fired a
weapon in combat.
IMPACT OF WAR:
Of service members returning from the Iraq war this year:
47% saw someone wounded or killed, or saw a dead body.
14% had an experience that left them easily startled.
6% wanted help for stress, emotional, alcohol or family problems.
2% had thoughts of hurting someone or losing control.
1% had thoughts that they might be better off dead or could hurt themselves.
Source: 193,131 Defense Department Post-Deployment Health Assessments from
January through August
"The (wartime) deployments do take a toll," says Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a
Pentagon spokeswoman. "We send them to austere locations, places that are
extremely hot, extremely cold, very wet, very dry ... where they may also
encounter an armed enemy."
The Pentagon's goal is to identify all troops in need of care in part by
screening every service member on a wide range of issues before and after
overseas duty.
Begun in 1997 and expanded in 2003, it is the most detailed health assessment of
deployed troops ever. It came in response to ailments that surfaced after the
1991 Persian Gulf War. Jim Benson, a spokesman at the Department of Veterans
Affairs, says comparable data from previous wars don't exist.
In October 2004, a federal panel of medical experts that studied illnesses of
Gulf War veterans estimated that one in seven suffer war-related health
problems.
Benson said the percentage of troops back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
with health issues is close to the portion of former service members coming to
the VA for mental health or medical care. He says 101,000 of the 431,000 war
vets who have separated from the military, or about 23%, have sought help.
Contributing: Paul Overberg