Younger soldiers under stress more likely to get help

Younger soldiers under stress more likely to get help
By Teri Weaver, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, June 9, 2009
MADAIN, Iraq — Spc. Richard Wahl is married with two kids and a baby due in August.

When his wife developed a serious condition a few weeks ago, the young couple weren’t sure what to do. The crisis came down to geography.

"I was here," he said. "And she was there."

Wahl, 20, of the 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment is on his first tour in Iraq.

About half of the battalion has deployed previously, some, multiple times. For the most part, those soldiers are dealing with this tour fairly well, said the battalion chaplain, Capt. Mike Smith.

But the soldiers who more often seek help are younger, privates or corporals, who are experiencing Iraq for the first time, said Lt. Col. Avery Davis, the chief of physical medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital. He is attached to the battalion for a year as its primary doctor.

These younger soldiers, some still teenagers, are experiencing their first serious relationships, their first serious jobs and their first time away from home — all in a war zone. That mix can turn into anger, lethargy or something more dangerous if left alone, Smith and Davis said.

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