Revolving Door of Multiple Tours Linked to PTSD

We knew this would happen back in 2006 but since no one did anything about it, it has gotten worse for the men and women we send over and over again. What good does it do to know something if no one does anything with it?

Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds

By Ann Scott Tyson

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, December 20, 2006; Page A19

U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health........
Ignoring risk of PTSD at our peril

We also knew here

Monday, August 11, 2008

Five deployments, a bad omen

The percentage of soldiers who have served multiple deployments has jumped, as well. Today, 31 percent of soldiers have been to war zones more than once. That compares with 20 percent in 2006. The number of soldiers with more than five tours has increased to 2,358 in 2008, compared with 961 in 2006.
Martin said commanders should carefully monitor soldiers and Marines who face the most stressful combat assignments, calling them “canaries in the coal mine.”
“Those who are most exposed and in the most challenging spots are at greater risk for post-traumatic stress,” he said.

They didn't learn much since then. They keep redeploying them over and over again. If they have to do this then it is not only their responsibility but their duty, to make sure they are able to care for the wounded because of this and stop allowing them to suffer when they come home wounded by PTSD.

Revolving Door of Multiple Tours Linked to PTSD
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 11, 2010

Filed at 12:47 a.m. ET

It wasn't his first tour in Iraq, but his second and third when Joe Callan began wondering how long his luck would last -- how many more months he could swerve around bombs buried in the dirt and duck mortars raining from the skies.

It was only natural, considering the horrors he'd seen: One buddy killed when a mortar engulfed his tent in flames. A fresh-faced Marine sniper dead (also a mortar) on his first day in Iraq. A 9-year-old Iraqi boy, blood trickling from his head, after he was mistakenly shot by U.S. troops.

Three tours in four years and Callan wanted out. Out of Iraq, out of the Marines.

''I became numb,'' he says. ''I just wanted to be home. And that became more intense each time.''

When Callan did return to New Mexico, he couldn't sleep. He drank heavily. He had a short fuse. ''I knew,'' he now says, ''I was different. But I didn't think it was going to be that bad.''

Maj. Jeff Hall's world imploded after his second tour in Iraq.

Overwhelmed with guilt and rage, the 18-year Army veteran became so depressed that one day he lay on the ground and pointed a pistol at his head. The only reason he didn't kill himself, he says, is he didn't want his two daughters to discover him. ''I couldn't do that to my kids,'' he says. ''I had seen people with their heads blown off.''
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Revolving Door of Multiple Tours Linked to PTSD