BBC reports on our female veterans and trauma

Female veterans tormented by combat and sexual trauma
By Laura Trevelyan
BBC News, New York


June Moss struggled with suicidal tendencies and depression after returning home from her tour in Iraq
Nearly one in six members of the US military on active duty is a woman. Coming to terms with what they experience, especially when they come home, can take a terrible toll.

Women in the US military have come a long way since a WWII recruiting poster urged them to 'Free a Marine to Fight' by joining up in support roles.

Today 14.5% of active duty members of the US military are women.

And even though they're not strictly in combat roles, women are experiencing warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan just like the men do.

Women, too, are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder as a result of the horrors they've seen. Coping with that, and with being a mother, poses problems of its own.

Take June Moss, a mother of two who was a staff sergeant in the US army shortly after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
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