CrossFire National Veterans Assistance

Army Takes New Approach to Returning Combat Vets

By Kate Wiltrout
The Virginian-Pilot

March 29, 2005

Virginia Beach — When the 368th Cargo Transfer Company returned last month, thousands of well-wishers lined the road outside Fort Story, cheering, clapping and waving flags. The gymnasium, packed with families, exploded with noise and emotion as about 200 soldiers in desert camouflage filed in and stood in formation.

Once, such tearful reunions would have unofficially marked the end of a deployment. After a day or two turning in equipment and filling out paperwork, troops usually went on leave. And when they resumed their duties, the focus shifted to what lay ahead, not what experiences they left behind.

No longer.               

Studies and tragedies have convinced the Army that it must do more to prevent the possibly deadly consequences of combat stress. To help soldiers cope, the service has revamped its routine for homecoming warriors, easing them back into domestic life after the prolonged pressures of a war zone.

The new approach turns the image of the emotionally self-sufficient soldier on its head.

“Soldiers are reluctant to admit a weakness,” said Col. Kenneth Musser , the Army’s individual readiness policy division chief at the Pentagon. Now, he said, returning troops are drilled with a different message: “You are encouraged to ask for help.”

Outreach starts before soldiers reach home soil and continues with two weeks of mandatory classes and a month of voluntary counseling for issues ranging from stress and anger management to marriage enrichment. Three to four months after their deployment, the Army formally surveys how troops are doing.

The first version of the program began in May 2003; it has been evolving since, Musser said.

Soldiers aren’t the only ones being targeted. While family support groups have long kept spouses and children informed and in touch during deployments, now the Army teams those groups with chaplains and social workers to prepare for the stresses of reconnecting with a soldier who’s been in harm’s way.

Experts hope the changes prevent the kind of bloodshed that haunted Fort Bragg, N.C., in the summer of 2002 . Over five weeks, four soldiers – three of whom had served in Afghanistan as special operations troops – killed their wives. Two killed themselves alongside their spouses; another committed suicide while awaiting trial; the fourth is serving life in prison.

Less spectacular, but potentially more troubling, is the psychological cost of serving in combat. A report by military doctors and psychologists in July found more than 15 percent of infantry troops surveyed showed signs of major depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from Iraq. Published by the New England Journal of Medicine, the study also concluded that less than 40 percent of those soldiers sought mental health care.

The 368th works in transportation, not front-line combat. But with random bombings and attacks almost daily, soldiers are in danger almost everywhere they go.

“Anything can happen at any minute of the day,” said Capt. Erik Hilberg , the company commander.

During their year long stint, the unit’s truck drivers, forklift operators and mechanics were split into groups serving in Baghdad, Fallujah, Taji and Tikrit. They came under mortar attacks, dodged sniper fire and encountered roadside bombs. Eight soldiers received Purple Hearts for combat injuries; one – Sgt. Carlos Camacho-Rivera – was killed in a rocket attack outside Fallujah in October .

To ease the transition to life stateside, Hilberg and the men and women who work for him spent their first two weeks back in half-day classes and briefings, broken up by four-day weekends.

As they do after any overseas deployment, soldiers had blood drawn and eye exams. They filled out health forms and updated life insurance policies. Classes went further, though, to include suicide prevention, combat stress and anger management.

“Most people like to focus on post-traumatic stress disorder, but there’s a wide range of stress – we’re trying to mitigate all of that,” Musser said. He compared the outreach to a patient getting a physical – the doctor doesn’t look for one symptom, but screens for a range of potential problems.

Under the expanded effort, a chaplain who had met with their families beforehand talked to the soldiers about their spouses’ expectations and needs.

“We had classes last time, but not as intensive,” said Spc. Ryan Nett , who spent six months in Kuwait in 2003.

Nett, a 23-year-old from Wisconsin, was one of 10 soldiers from the 368th selected by unit officials to talk about the adjustment process soon after coming home.

To them, some of the simplest lessons made the biggest difference.

Spc. David Smith , a 22-year-old from Arizona , became a father for the second time while he was gone. The mechanic returned to a 3-year-old son who was wary of him and a 6-month-old daughter he barely knew. He appreciated suggestions to take his time getting reacquainted – and a tip to get down on the floor with his son, instead of towering over him.

That’s the kind of advice that works, said 11th Transportation Battalion Chaplain C. Wayne Brittian, a Baptist minister and Army major who helped families endure the deployment and led some of the soldiers’ readjustment classes.

“It’s amazing what rolling around on the floor will do for building relationships ” with children, Brittian said.

Further wisdom: don’t try to “recreate” moments missed during deployments.

“Go out and make new memories,” Brittian said.

Some of the 368th’s soldiers said they appreciated the expanded program, but consider the best tool for coping to be a buddy in uniform.

Spc. Ashley Harris, 24, who also served in Afghanistan, said that when her two-week R&R trip home ended, she was eager to reconnect with her fellow soldiers in Iraq.

“You miss your friends,” she said. “They become family.”

Hilberg counts on that camaraderie to help him recognize who might need more help readjusting. He and the chaplain said the company is small enough, and close enough, they can ask around about how soldiers are doing.

There’s a more formal structure in place for that, too.

Unlike before, the Army now requires soldiers to fill out written surveys 90 to 120 days after returning.

“We just found that it makes sense to extend it out, to keep checking in with people,” Hilberg said. “The majority, after the first three months, it won’t be like they never left, but they’ve re-adapted.”

Soon, that practice will spread to other service branches as the Department of Defense begins requiring all troops returning from Iraq to be screened mentally and physically three months and six months after deployment.

“We learned from the Gulf War that health concerns emerge over time following return from deployment,” Air Force Col. Joyce Adkins wrote in response to questions about the pending change. Adkins works at the Department of Defense’s Deployment Health Support Directorate , managing a mental health and deployment stress program.

Research from the Persian Gulf War in 1991 – and more recently, the first rounds of deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq – confirmed that one of the most critical periods for service members is about four months after they return, Adkins said.

The 368th won’t hit that milestone until June.

So far, members said, they’ve been glad for the extra emphasis on readjusting , even if the classes kept them on base for two weeks before a long-awaited month of leave.

Few think they’ve seen their last deployment. Even on the day they returned, many said they expect to be deployed again within a year.

“We just enjoy the time that we have now,” said Spc. Lorenzo Pulliam, a 21-year-old from Kansas.

Harris said the transitions have gotten easier with each deployment. Like Pulliam, she doesn’t bother worrying about if or when she’ll go through it again.

“If you thought about it,” she said, “you’d go crazy.”