The Combat Stress course has, so far, been a PowerPoint-fest. On the upside I met some nice people, some smart guys flew in from Washington D.C. to present some hot-off-the-press research, and they finished off the day with a (**free**) Tex-Mex buffet and keg of Shiner Bock by the pool (it was Shiner Bock "lite" but it was free, so that made up for it being a little see-through.)The research presented was from the most recent MHAT (Mental Health Advisory Team). This is an annual Army survey-based study of mental health issues in Iraq and Afghanistan, mostly sampling "trigger pullers" or people who are putting rounds downrange, kicking in doors, getting shot at, and getting blown up on the roads. Essentially they found what you would expect: that combat deployments cause a ton of mental health problems for Soldiers, longer deployments are more difficult, repeated deployments cause more problems, and somewhere between 20% and 30% of Soldiers are coming home from OIF and OEF with problematic psychiatric symptoms.
One of the key findings from Afghanistan was that Soldiers reported difficulty accessing behavioral health assets in theater (psychologists and other MH personnel). A major recommendation that the Army has acted upon in 2007 and 2008 is to forward deploy doctors as much as possible to the FOBS in Afghanistan, so that they are more accessible to troops who are spread across the generally remote and mountainous battlespace.
The presenter was good-- made the data interesting. During the presentation the guy next to me tapped me on the shoulder and whispered to me:
"I guess now we know who to blame if we end up getting deployed to a 100 man FOB at 8000 ft in the Hindu Kush."
I said, "At least you won't get sweaty sleeping in your body armor."
