Fort Hood's next battle
Counseling for returning soldiers must be stepped up, no matter the cost.
Posted: 11/10/2009 07:04:40 PM PST


In the album of sadness there is no sadder melody than "Taps." On Tuesday, America mourned the 13 soldiers who were gunned down in an act as cruel as an ambush in Kandahar.

Yet, the murders last week at Fort Hood are not isolated. This year alone, a husband killed his wife, then himself. They had just returned to Fort Hood from service in Iraq. Another soldier, who served two tours in Iraq, killed himself in a friend's apartment. And the same month, a decorated soldier, just back from Iraq, killed a fellow soldier.

In the past six years, 76 soldiers assigned to Fort Hood have committed suicide, according to an article in The New York Times. There have been 10 suicides this year alone at Fort Hood.

In the past eight years, reports of domestic violence have risen 75 percent. While violence in towns the size of Killeen, Texas, where Fort Hood is located, has declined, violence in Killeen has increased by 22 percent. (Nationwide, there are 1.7 million reported cases of domestic violence a year among civilians, a number that is rising due to the country's economic crisis, according to a survey of domestic abuse shelters. Most of those who are abused are women.)

A Catholic priest told The Times that "fatigue and other strains are `rampant"' on the base. Divorces, too, are rampant, he said. "Every night in my apartment complex some soldier and his wife are screaming and shouting at each other," he said.

A soldier talked of being ridiculed by an officer when he complained about stress. Once back at Fort Hood, he suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized. After another soldier committed suicide, the base commander told Congress the base needed more mental health professionals.

In July, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist, arrived at Fort Hood to counsel stressed-out soldiers. He is accused of killing 13 fellow soldiers and wounding 30 others in the worst act of violence on a U.S. military base.