More veterans with PTSD live near military bases

Large numbers of vets with PTSD live near military bases
McClatchy Washington Bureau
BY CHRIS ADAMS
April 10, 2014

Spc. Kristen Haley, right, the fiancee of Sgt. First Class Daniel Ferguson, who was killed in the Fort Hood shooting, is consoled at the memorial ceremony for the victims of the Fort Hood shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, on Wednesday, April 9, 2014.
JAY JANNER — Austin American-Statesman/MCT

WASHINGTON — The Army specialist who killed three soldiers at Fort Hood last week isn’t the only person from the neighborhoods that surround the massive military base near Killeen, Texas, who’s been evaluated or diagnosed with mental illness.

Data compiled by the Department of Veterans Affairs and analyzed by McClatchy show that hundreds of veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and live near Fort Hood, while thousands more reside near the nation’s other military installations.

In fact, the communities adjacent to military bases have the highest number of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, a concentration that reflects the tendency of former soldiers to settle near bases once they leave the service but also raises concerns about base security.

Experts are quick to say that most veterans with PTSD or other service-connected mental ailments don’t engage in violence or other unlawful behavior, but there is an association between PTSD and elevated levels of violence.

To check for the prevalence of PTSD and associated mental disorders in and around the nation’s military bases, McClatchy analyzed a database of every disability claim in the VA system. The VA’s disability compensation database, released under a Freedom of Information Act request, includes 3.2 million records of every veteran receiving disability compensation on the rolls as of 2011, when McClatchy obtained it for stories tied to the first 10 years of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Of the more than 40,000 ZIP codes in the United States, ZIP code 76549, right next to Fort Hood in Killeen, has more recent veterans receiving disability compensation for PTSD than any other in the country: 288.

The second ZIP code on the list, with 273 cases, is next to Clarksville, Tenn., and Fort Campbell.

No. 3, No. 5 and No. 8 are also next to Fort Hood. Combined, those four ZIP codes next to Fort Hood represent more than 900 recent veterans already on the VA’s disability rolls for PTSD.

Other top ZIP codes are in or next to Fort Sill and Lawton, Okla.; Fort Carson and Fountain, Colo.; Fort Bragg and Fayetteville, N.C.; and Camp Lejeune and Jacksonville, N.C.
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