Army
Veteran #11-03021-133
The Army veteran of combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq wasn’t named in a recent Department of Veterans Affairs’ inspector general’s investigation. So we’ll just refer to him by the IG report’s number. Plainly, he had a family who cared about him, and VA personnel who sometimes did their best – and sometimes …
Afghan Civilian Massacre: Base Allegations
Charges of improper diagnosis related to PTSD at Madigan Army Medical Center, at Joint Base Lewis-McCord have been in the headlines. The alleged shooter in the Afghan massacre was from the Washington state post, as was the …
Triple AAA: (Alleged) Afghanistan Apache Accident
This video is ricocheting around the Internet. Early indications are that it is an AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship from Forward Operating Base Sharana in eastern Afghanistan. No one was reported hurt. Just one more thing the Army is going to have to explain.
Afghan Massacre: Potentially Toxic Exposures?
In the national quest to understand what motivated Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales to leave his compound in the middle of the night, and allegedly gun down 16 men, women and children, there have been many motives already put forth. These include a “witches brew” of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury …
The Army’s Continuing Dearth of Mental-Health Workers
The Afghan massacre, allegedly carried out by Staff Sergeant Robert Bales a week ago Sunday, is only going to highlight the chronic shortage of Army mental-health experts that we reported on in 2010. An Army social worker in …
Afghan Massacre Suspect: News From Home
Time’s Bonnie Rochman files from Seattle on Afghan massacre suspect Robert Bales:
In 2007, Staff Sergeant Robert Bales participated in a bloody, two-day battle in Iraq in which 250 enemy troops died. After the bullets stopped flying, he and his comrades pitched in to assist the wounded and their families. “We ended up helping the
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Yesterday’s Top Army Psychiatrist Ponders Today’s Mental-Health Army Ills
I drove home past the now-shuttered Walter Reed Hospital last night. The cherry trees are blooming pink within the compound, and the hospital where I spent so much of my life is visible through the bars and closed gates. I graduated four times on the wide lawn: from psychiatric internship, residency, and forensic and disaster …
Alcohol In The Ranks
There are reports that alcohol illicitly consumed by Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales in Afghanistan a week ago may have been the final link in a chain of stressors that caused him to “snap” and slaughter 16 …
Alleged Afghan Killer: Staff Sgt. Robert Bales
The Army has identified the staff sergeant suspected in the killing of 16 Afghan civilians last Sunday as Robert Bales, who is now at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He could be charged in the case as early as this weekend.
The father of two, 38, appears to have a good military record. He returns home after three months in Afghanistan. …
Combat Deployments: Unbalanced Burden
Here’s an interesting chart from a 2010 Defense Business Board study that looked at how evenly U.S. troops were sharing the burdens of war. It’s relevant given the fact that the alleged Afghan shooter was on his fourth combat deployment.
Afghanistan: How’d We Get Here?
The gray-matter grit of the war in Afghanistan comes through loud and clear in this essay by Neil Shea, who has written for National Geographic and the Atlantic Monthly, among other publications:
Since 2006 I have written off
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Military Commanders Fighting for Resources as Mission Demands Grow
Military commanders are lining up to tell Congress they don’t have enough resources to accomplish their many missions as ongoing defense budget cuts catch up to those in uniform and hinder mission success.
President Obama …