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On his first weekend home from Iraq, Sgt. 1st Class Michael Gilmartin was driving down a sunny highway in Kissimee, Fla., when something suddenly felt very wrong. In a panic, Sergeant Gilmartin stepped on the brakes of his black Dodge Dakota pickup, jumped out in the middle of the six-lane road and started searching around the truck. Then it registered: He was looking for his M-16 rifle. "I had basically an anxiety attack," Gilmartin recalled. "I was missing something and needed to do something." A policeman who had served in Vietnam approached Gilmartin and took him to the side of...

Hoping to avoid the delays and denials sick soldiers faced after the first Gulf War, the Pentagon has ordered health screenings for every soldier, sailor, Marine and airman sent into the Iraq war. Within 30 days of their homecoming, every one will fill out a health questionnaire, review it with a health provider and give a blood sample a sweeping effort to defend against potential health problems among the estimated 250,000 troops sent to the Persian Gulf region during the war. "We're prepared this time, whereas in the first Gulf War we really weren't," said Col. Paula K. Underwood, an...

U.S. to Screen Troops Returning From Iraq Russ Bynum - AP FORT STEWART, Ga. - Col. Paula K. Underwood, an Army doctor, had just returned to her post in Germany from the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites) when she saw a patient whose condition baffled other doctors. The patient was a soldier, also just back from the war, who complained of memory loss. He could no longer find his way from home to work. He had trouble remembering how to make his morning coffee. He was the first of 72 patients with unexplained illnesses Underwood would see before...