Iraq vets' troubles appear long after return

"Sometimes the person with the mental issue is the last to know," said Dr. Milliken. "They might not come looking for help, but if we can catch the symptoms before they become a problem, they'll be better off."

Iraq vets' troubles appear long after return
Sunday, November 25, 2007
By Wade Malcolm, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It started about a month after he came home, innocently enough. Staff Sgt. Frederick Johnson missed his fellow soldiers.

During a year stationed at Anaconda base in Iraq -- nicknamed "Mortaritaville" -- he says he looked after them like a father, eyes always focused on the horizon, scanning for danger.

And at night, he clutched a half-gallon bottle of any liquor he could find, emptying two or three a week.

After he returned home in December 2005, his dangerous coping methods progressed to crack cocaine. Already depressed by separating from the Ohio-based 373rd Medical Company -- the only people, he said, who could understand his war experience -- he grappled with his emerging fear of crowds, his aversion to loud noises and the horror of his nightmares. They often ended with him leaping out of bed into a low crawl position.

After a year battling addiction and the lingering effects of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which the Army initially failed to diagnose, Sgt. Johnson, 38, is starting his life over at the VA Pittsburgh's Highland Drive Division.

He is among thousands of soldiers overlooked by previous mental health screening methods that, according to a new Army study released earlier this month, "substantially underestimate the mental health burden" of Iraq War veterans.

With increased congressional funding, the Army is trying to stop soldiers in Sgt. Johnson's situation from slipping through the cracks. The study compared results from soldiers who received only an initial mental health screening and those who received initial screening and then were reassessed after several months.
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