Iraq vets' troubles appear long after return (Undiagnosed by Military)

[RamboLiberal]

It started about a month after he came home, innocently enough. Staff Sgt. Frederick Johnson missed his fellow soldiers.

During a year stationed at Anaconda base in Iraq -- nicknamed "Mortaritaville" -- he says he looked after them like a father, eyes always focused on the horizon, scanning for danger.

And at night, he clutched a half-gallon bottle of any liquor he could find, emptying two or three a week.

After he returned home in December 2005, his dangerous coping methods progressed to crack cocaine. Already depressed by separating from the Ohio-based 373rd Medical Company -- the only people, he said, who could understand his war experience -- he grappled with his emerging fear of crowds, his aversion to loud noises and the horror of his nightmares. They often ended with him leaping out of bed into a low crawl position.

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He is among thousands of soldiers overlooked by previous mental health screening methods that, according to a new Army study released earlier this month, "substantially underestimate the mental health burden" of Iraq War veterans.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07329/836618-85.stm