Troop's stress at five year high

A new military survey obtained by USA Today shows that U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan are reporting record levels of acute stress and low morale. The problem is most severe in servicemen and women who have been deployed multiple times. A third of them reported depression, anxiety or another serious mental health problem. Meanwhile, those reporting medium to very high morale dropped to 46.5 percent from 65.7 percent in 2005. Seventeen percent reported acute stress, compared to 6 percent in 2005. The survey also painted a bleak picture of the intense combat troops in Afghanistan engage in. More than 75 percent said a friend had been wounded or killed, and half of respondents said they had killed an enemy combatant. Half also experienced explosions at close range while on foot patrols.

I wish this something new, but it isn't.

During Vietnam, 1958-1975 (first death-last death), these issues surfaced in the USAF. My experience was in SAC as a B-52 crew member. I was luckily I only spent 300 days temporarily assigned to SEA in a year - several of my contemporaries spent that much time per year for multiple years.

We felt that we were going to be in SEA until we either died or got out. We knew that our leadership in Omaha didn't care what happened to us. If we were selected for service schools, a major event in your career, we knew we wouldn't be released because we were “critical” for the effort in SEA. It wasn't until August 1973, 8 - 9 years after the initial B-52 deployments, that we saw any indication of something different from Omaha.

The points from above is not the realities but the feelings of those involved. If the aircrews felt this I have to wonder what the maintenance troops felt, those on Guam spent over a year living in tents because there wasn't space in the BAQs.

How to prevent this?

The current military isn't big enough nor oriented properly to solve the problem. The politicians don't want to make the political decisions necessary to change it.

Politically we need to declare a formal war against terrorists. The political-military world has changed over the last 60 years and will probably not change back. So why are we stuck with policies that have been ineffective since then? The declaration of war will never occur because it would prevent too many politicians from doing what they do best - promote themselves.

I agree with that. I really cant see what exactly we are fighting for over there. They dont want us there, they hate us, our guys try to be nice to them, help them rebuild and they just sh*t on them. it isnt right. Politicians have no real idea what they are doing, Goals?? no one can define them. American lives are precious... theirs.. not so much. to me anyway. We have our own border problems, again political in nature, and financial disaster looming...

I know a soldier who has been deployed twice to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan, with the circumstances such that he only has two service stripes, but eight overseas bars. One thing he has noticed is a new "concern" about troop morale which includes surveys and classifications of soldiers that "prove" they are now more violent, more depressed, more alcohol dependent (with standards that are laughable) and somehow generally unsafe around weapons.

(!)

Mr. niteowl77

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