Stryker vets disagree on role of multiple deployments in massacre

Stryker vets disagree on role of multiple deployments in massacre
Two former Stryker soldiers who both developed PTSD disagree on the significance of multiple combat deployments in Staff Sgt. Robert Bales' alleged massacre of Afghan civilians. But both reject the idea that Joint Base Lewis-McChord is a rogue base that breeds troubled soldiers.

By Lewis Kamb
News Tribune

Two former Stryker soldiers who've gone on multiple combat deployments and dealt with the trauma that can follow them offer divergent perspectives about whether such experiences could have played a role in Staff Sgt. Robert Bales' alleged massacre of Afghan civilians.

"It's not shocking to me," said Kevin Baker, a former staff sergeant with Joint Base Lewis-McChord's 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. "There are hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers who are screaming for help, but they aren't getting it. And this was what, his fourth deployment? That's pretty ridiculous."

But Joshua Renschler, a retired sergeant with Lewis-McChord's 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, sees it differently: "These were planned, coldblooded, clear-cut killings."

"I don't see it as just being a culmination of military-related events that took place, and he just snapped and did it," said Renschler, who belonged to the same brigade as Bales. "I'm sorry, but this is not to be blamed on multiple deployments or (post-traumatic stress disorder) and (traumatic brain injury)."
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