Repeat Reports Ignored on Repeat Deployments

It is almost as if we have been living in the Twilight Zone! News comes out explaining something, then nothing changes, but people end up wanting an explanation all over again!

CBS Twilight Zone

Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds
Washington Post
By Ann Scott Tyson
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........and read the rest here because the link is still live.

By 2007, a soldier was faced with his 5th deployment, along with many more. 

Soldier who fought fifth deployment to war deemed medically unfit

Lawyer says soldier wants honorable discharge and release from IRRBy Lisa BurgessStars and Stripes Mideast editionAugust 16, 2007
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Florida reservist who asked federal courts to block the Army from sending him to Iraq on a fifth deployment was excused from active service after being found medically unfit. He is still seeking an honorable discharge to prevent another call-up, according to his lawyer.
“Now we’re working to put the icing on the cake and get him out of the IRR,” or Individual Ready Reserve, Fayetteville, N.C.-based attorney Mark Waple said.
Sgt. Erik Botta, 26, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., won’t be finished with his eight-year obligation until October 2008, so he is asking for the discharge to ensure he will not get another call-up to Iraq, Waple said. 

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A Fort Riley soldier was sent back after two months of being home, even though he had been diagnosed with PTSD. An Army Ranger was killed in Afghanistan on his 7th tour.

But while ignoring the risk of redeployments, they extended those deployments.

General Carter Ham, who would later talk about his own battle with PTSD, wanted 2 years in between deployments.

Oh well, I could keep going with this, but at least now you know, that what you are about to read is not new. Since they kept doing it, not matter what evidence came out stating it was a dangerous thing to do, they still did it!

Suicide risk rises with quick repeat deployments, study shows
The new way of war might be over-stressing soldiers
NBC News
by Maggie Fox
Apr.19.2018

Those re-deployed within six months or less were 60 percent more likely to attempt suicide.

Soldiers are more at risk of suicide when they’re repeatedly deployed with six months or less between rotations, and when they’re sent to war too soon after they join the service, new research shows.

Such quick turnarounds have become common as the U.S. sends combat troops to Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Of the 1.3 million or so active duty military personnel, about 160,000 are permanently stationed overseas, according to the federal government’s Defense Manpower Data Center.

At the same time, suicide rates have soared among veterans. On average, 20 veterans a day died by suicide in 2014, and many more attempted suicide, the Veterans Affairs Department says.

“Rates of suicidal behaviors, including suicide deaths, attempts, and ideation, among U.S. Army soldiers increased considerably during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Dr. Robert Ursano of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences wrote in a report published Wednesday.

Ursano and colleagues studied a group of such soldiers: 593 men and women in the U.S. Army who had been deployed twice and who attempted suicide between 2004 and 2009. They were looking for specific factors affecting suicide risk.
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