Section 8

Stars and Stripes:

Military health officials are trying to figure out how to reduce the stigma for troops seeking mental health care, but concede they’re fighting an uphill battle.

“Stigma is a real problem. It’s a societal issue, but it is much more pronounced in the military,” said Col. Thomas Burke, one of the Pentagon’s top psychiatrists and the director of mental health policy for the Defense Department.

“There is a perception among the troops that seeking mental health care means you’re weak or a coward and frankly, we in the military kind of foster that attitude,” said Burke. “We give medals to the soldiers who charge the hill, but don’t really recognize the day-to-day heroism of soldiers who take care of themselves — doing simple things like changing their socks and cleaning their weapons — doing whatever it takes to keep themselves in condition to do the mission.”

A recent Defense Department study looking at combat troops returning from Iraq found that soldiers and Marines who need counseling the most are least likely to seek it. As many as 16 percent of the troops questioned admitted to symptoms of severe depression, Post Combat Stress Disorder and other problems.

Of those, six out of 10 questioned felt their leaders would treat them differently and that fellow troops would lose confidence in them. As many as 65 percent said they’d “be seen as weak.”

As someone who has found it difficult to change his socks at times, I understand.  How many of this generation have we thrown into the grinder, only to have them return broken physically and emotionally?

Wingers might say "well, only 1446 US troops have died, so quit whining."  Much as in the Vietnam era, we've wounded some soldiers much more deeply than is apparent on the surface.  A great, hidden cost that you don't see tallied on the Iraq Coalition Casualty site.

If you ever want to understand the psychological toll of war without experiencing it firsthand, read Paul Fussell's Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War.  Then weep for our new batch of scarred vets.

ntodd