Soldiers Pushed Beyond The Limits

Thoughts

I am troubled, concerned and sad all at the same time.

I knew that this day would come where a good soldier would mentally crack and be a danger to himself and others around him. What is more serious is the fact that this is just the beginning.

A good soldier cracked and killed 5 of his fellow soldiers in Iraq. The military authorities were quick to “circle the wagons” and say that they have the situation under control.

Here is some of the story as published on the Huffington Post:

BAGHDAD – The U.S. military command launched an investigation Tuesday into whether it offers adequate mental health care to its soldiers, a day after a sergeant finishing up his third tour of Iraq allegedly shot and killed five comrades at a clinic on a U.S. base.

Sgt. John M. Russell, 44, of Sherman, Texas, was taken into custody outside a mental health clinic at Camp Liberty following Monday’s shooting and charged with five counts of murder and one of aggravated assault, Maj. Gen. David Perkins said.

The case, the deadliest of the war involving soldier-on-soldier violence, has cast a spotlight on combat stress and emotional problems resulting from frequent deployments to battle zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Up to one-fifth of the more than 1.7 million who have served in the two conflicts are believed to have symptoms of anxiety, depression and other emotional problems. Some studies show that about half of those who need help do not seek it.

Russell’s father said his son, who joined the Army in 1994 after a divorce and minor scrapes with the law, felt poorly treated at the stress center. He said he hopes “we find he snapped because of the pressure. He wasn’t a mean person.”

In Baghdad, Perkins told reporters that Russell, a communications specialist assigned to the 54th Engineer Battalion from Bamberg, Germany, was sent to the mental health clinic by his superiors, presumably because of concern over his emotional state.

He said the commander had ordered Russell’s weapon taken away from him but somehow he got a new weapon, entered the clinic and opened fire.

Wilburn Russell spoke with reporters Tuesday, May 12, 2009. Mr. Russell, the father of the U.S. soldier accused of killing five fellow troops in Iraq says he believes counselors in a military stress center “broke” his son before the shootings.

I am very aware of  acute stress disorder. During the conflict in Vietnam, many of us suffer from this condition but, at the time, military authorities would not recognize this as a real medical condition. Many of the soldiers  in Vietnam suffering from this condition took to readily available drugs to lose themselves from their situation.

Today, we are fighting wars on two fronts with far less manpower than we had during the Vietnam Conflict. This means manpower is stretched to the limits and beyond. The situation will only get worse.

The solution to this problem can not be solved by politicians or even the high ranking military officials in Washington. The soldiers on the ground who are facing the day-to-day reality of war should have direct input and be heard . If you have not experienced it “first hand” then you have no idea what you are really dealing with or talking about…period.

The long-term solution to this problem is: deployment interval spacing. Soldiers should serve a maximum period of 10 months in a combat zone. When that tour of duty is finished, the soldier will be assigned to a non-combat zone for a period of 20 months. The issue of married or single status should not play a role in this troop deployment plan as married and single soldiers suffer alike.

People tend to forget that military personnel may be ultra-professional in what they are trained to do but they are, also, human. They have to make the day-to-day decisions of who lives and who dies in a fire-fight. They live in constant fear of attacks on themselves from forces they can’t see most of the time. They feel the pain and witness the deaths of their comrades. They suffer their own wounds in silent pain.

Our military troops are not robots that you can feed your “thank yous” to  and expect them to carry on with the mission. They are very human and even the “best of the best” will break after a period of time.

That time has arrived to recognize this serious problem and address it with humane solutions.

Technorati Tags: Acute Stress Disorder, Baghdad Iraq, Camp Liberty, Fighting Two Wars at One Time, Maj. Gen. David Perkins, Sgt. John M. Russell, Soldiers in War Zones