Women, barred from combat but still in danger

More vets may get treatment for PTSD
Women, barred from combat but still in danger, stand to benefit from change.

By Jeremy Schwartz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Like tens of thousands of her fellow soldiers, Serena Hayden, 28, filed a claim for service-related post-traumatic stress disorder when she left the Army in 2008 and moved to Pflugerville. As a military public affairs officer in Iraq, she traveled in convoys susceptible to roadside bombs and viewed the war's horror in hospitals and mortuaries. In one of the attacks that marked her deployment during the bloody 2007 surge, a mortar fell about 30 feet from the trailer she called home.

During her 14-month deployment, she arranged for a public affairs soldier to ride in a convoy. The soldier was killed when the convoy was attacked.

"I sat curled up next to his body bag, crying and crying because of the guilt I felt," she said. "I still to this day feel responsible. I don't know when it's ever going to end or get better."

Because she didn't serve in a direct combat role, Hayden had to prove to Department of Veterans Affairs officials that her PTSD stemmed from incidents during her deployment. A VA official rejected her PTSD claim.

But Hayden and thousands of service members might find some relief with a regulation that went into effect Tuesday that changes how the VA treats claims for PTSD. The new regulation, hailed as a sea change by some veterans organizations, will make it easier for the more than 2 million service members who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan to get benefits for PTSD, which affects an estimated 20 to 30 percent of returning troops.
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More vets may get treatment for PTSD