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FRESH FROM IRAQ, SOLDIERS COPE WITH LIFE BACK HOME --

Newly returned Fort Hood soldiers get counseling

to make transition from battlefield.

This month, Staff Sgt. Steven Johnson returned to his wife, Sarah, after 14 months in Iraq. But many terrible memories came with him to Central Texas, and he has had difficulty adjusting. (photo: Deborah Cannon - AMERICAN-STATESMAN)

For more about combat stress use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here... http://www.yourvabe
nefits.org/sessearch.php?q=combat+stress&op=ph

Story here... http://www.statesman.com/
news/content/news/stories/world/12/13/1213troops.html

Story below:

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Fresh from Iraq, Fort Hood soldiers cope with life back home

Newly returned soldiers get counseling to make transition from battlefield.

By Robert W. Gee
INTERNATIONAL STAFF

NOLANVILLE — The nightmare is usually the same. First, an explosion. He is thrown across the room. The walls and ceiling collapse on top of him. His mouth fills with dust. Then, silence.

Staff Sgt. Steven Johnson escaped that day in February with a Purple Heart and returned to combat. Three of his comrades died.

"Ever since that happened, I've just wanted to be home with my family," Johnson, 29, of Spring said late last month, near the end of his 14-month tour of duty in Iraq.

Now that he's home, he has found that the war followed him.

As in Iraq, he sleeps in fits and starts. His nightmare revisits him as he sleeps beside his wife. Once since his return Dec. 1, he was strangling her as they slept until she pushed him away.

"It's scary to be in bed with him," said Sarah Johnson, 26.

Like many of his fellow returning soldiers from the Fort Hood-based 1st Battalion, 12th Regiment, Johnson has symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, a severe and ongoing emotional reaction to psychological trauma, which affects as many as one in five soldiers returning from Iraq, according to the Veterans Affairs Department.

It's one piece of an often difficult transition from combat to everyday life in America.

"It's not the same when you come home. It's never the same," said Maj. Leslie Ann Parrish, who oversees a clinical review at Fort Hood of soldiers returning from war zones.

About 60 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq to Fort Hood, the largest military base in the United States, are required to seek mental health treatment, and an additional 20 percent are recommended for treatment, according to Army officials. In extreme cases, soldiers are escorted to an Army hospital because they are considered to be suicidal or homicidal.

Most of those who complain of symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder — depression, flashbacks, nightmares, anger, irritability, indifference, insomnia or survivor's guilt — are treated within a few months through a combination of counseling and medication.

As the war in Iraq approaches its sixth year, the military has become more aggressive in its screening for signs of combat stress both in Iraq and after soldiers return home.

As part of mandatory Reintegration Training, soldiers attend classes on alcohol and drug abuse, as well as on adjusting from the so-called battle mind to home life with spouse and children.

"If you walk into your home and say, 'This is the way it's going to be,' your family members are going to say, 'Wow, when is the next deployment?' They're not going to be excited you're back," Mary Prater, a family advocacy trainer, told several hundred soldiers from the 12th Regiment at Fort Hood last week.

They often return to families that have grown self-sufficient without them.

"It's hard, because I expected everything to be the way it was when I left," said Sgt. Juan DeJesus, 23, of Puerto Rico, who is married with an 18-month-old daughter. "I'm just trying to do my part to squeeze in the family."

Soldiers are also encouraged to confront painful memories, which were often repressed in Iraq to focus on ongoing dangerous missions.

"Showing your emotions is not unmilitary and doesn't show you're weak," Maj. Paul Dirksmeyer, a chaplain, told the returning soldiers. "Don't be afraid to be human."

In the first week home, soldiers said, they found themselves scanning the side of Central Texas roads for suspicious objects that could contain improvised explosive devices. They jumped at loud noises.

Spc. David Thompson, 25, of Whitewright mistook the sound of his order at Hooters being whisked across the restaurant on a zip-line for a rocket-propelled grenade.

"I almost fell out of my chair backwards," he said.

Soldiers became irritated at what they considered rude behavior by civilians.

"No one has manners anymore," said Sgt. Randy Flores, 26, of San Antonio. "They remind me of Iraqis."

Some also said they missed their guns.

Twenty-eight soldiers from the battalion, part of the 1st Cavalry Division, were killed, and scores were wounded, some paralyzed.

"You may feel you failed your buddies if they were killed or seriously injured," Dirksmeyer said. "You don't have any control over life or death. You don't have any control over the ambiguities of battle. Don't allow your survival guilt to destroy you. Your buddy would want you to drive on."

Army mental health experts said that time is often the best salve to post-traumatic stress.

Johnson said he re-established an immediate bond with his wife and daughter because he called them on the phone as often as every other day from Iraq, something he didn't do during his first deployment in Iraq.

When he returned in 2005 from his first tour, he said, he was short-tempered and impatient with his daughter, Brianna, then 3.

When he yelled at her for spilling a drink in the car, his wife, Sarah, gave him an ultimatum.

"I pulled over on the side of the road and told him, "If you don't straighten out, you're walking,' " she said.

He sought help from his church pastor.

This time, he's turning to military counseling.

In the incident that brings him nightmares, his roommate and best Army friend was killed.

"There for a while, I was in shock," he said. He's seeking professional help, he said, "just so I don't have problems later on. Just so I can talk about it. So I don't hold it in."

Like many of his fellow soldiers, he is hoping his next assignment will keep him in the United States and with his family for at least a couple of years. Injuries sustained in the February house explosion, including a bruised knee that still makes it painful to run, might prevent him from going back to Iraq.

For her part, Sarah is learning to fish and play golf, hobbies Steven once pursued alone.

"When he got injured, you realized a lot what you take for granted," she said. "Now, I realize I need to spend more time with him as a family."

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Larry Scott  --

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