In January of 2007, Army Pvt. Taylor Jennings faced possible court martial for a variety of offenses including drug use. Jennings had been suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) since his brigade had returned from Iraq to Fort Carson Colorado in 2005, and had been ostracized and harassed by his commanding officers for seeking help. Once, when he almost killed himself, he called his supervisor to say he would miss formation and go to a psychiatric ward. Officers sent a team of soldiers to his house to put him in jail for being AWOL.

Jennings was one of 20 soldiers profiled on NPR's All Things Considered in an investigative report aired in late 2006 by Daniel Zwerdling about soldiers at Ft. Carson being punished for seeking treatment for PTSD. After interviewing the soldiers, Zwerdling interviewed some of the commanding officers accused of harassing them. The non-commissioned officers he interviewed confirmed the soldiers charges. The officers believed the PTSD claims were fraudulent and an attempt to avoid redeployment. One said he couldn't tolerate weakness and these soldiers were a hindrance to effective operations. Zwerdling found that some of these men ended up being discharged for "patterns of misconduct" rather than discharged with disability status. Denying them disability status saved the military from having to pay for PTSD treatment.

The NPR report prompted congress to direct the Department of Defense Mental Health Task Force to investigate the allegations at Fort Carson. The task force, formed in 2006, is charged with assessing efficacy of mental health services throughout the military and is to report to the Secretary of Defense in May of 2007. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Kit Bond (R-MO) and Barack Obama (D-IL) sent a letter to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs William Winkenwerder requesting among other things a count of discharges from Ft. Carson sorted by type of discharge and diagnosis of PTSD.

In February the Mental Health Task Force visited Fort Carson. Speaking to the press during that visit about visits to other military sites as well, Army Surgeon General George Kiley said that seeking mental health treatment did create "career stigmatizations." He said the army does not want PTSD treated as a discipline problem. "It's our intent to be quick on the turnaround."

Speaking to the The Colorado Springs Independent, Taylor Jennings expressed skepticism about the Army changing, considering it's emphasis on toughness. The Independent reported that Taylor Jennings finally left the base the day of the task force visit and was given an honorable discharge rather than face court martial. He left with a "commission of a serious offense" tag on his record and lost his college benefits.

The situation at Ft. Carson epitomizes not only inconsistencies in the military's handling of PTSD but an ongoing debate over the legitimacy of PTSD as a diagnosis and the increasing numbers of servicemen being diagnosed with PTSD and the consequent cost. In 2005 the Department of Veterans Affairs reported a 150 percent increase in PTSD benefit payments in the previous five years.

The Washington Post, reporting in 2005 on a Department of Veterans Affairs private meeting to assess the validity and utility of the current PTSD diagnosis, cited mental health professionals and one Director of a Veterans Affairs hospital who believed the diagnosis was a means to get on full disability for many and that the V.A. benefits discouraged healing from PTSD. Veterans groups and other mental health experts suggested that fears of fraud and the redefinition of PTSD was an attempt by conservatives to equate veterans benefits with welfare.

Both NPR's report on Fort Carson and The Washington Post's story on poor conditions and service delays at Walter Reed, suggest the real worry is not getting adequate medical services and benefits to veterans. Aside from the military's cultural resistance to openness about mental health issues, the simple lack of resources and preparedness have left many waiting for treatment. In the wake of the Walter Reed scandal media reports and the V.A.'s own review of V.A. hospitals around the country found that quality and speed of service varies from facility to facility.

A tragic consequence of service backlogs occurred on January 16th of this year, when ex-marine and Iraq war veteran Jonathan Shulze committed suicide after being turned away by a V.A. hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota. His family claims that he more than once told intake workers he was suicidal but was told there was no space and he was number 26 in line for a bed.

In addition to the issue of getting mental health treatment to soldiers and veterans who are requesting it, is the issue of inadequate mental health screening and programs to get soldiers plugged into the VA system after discharge and transfer from the DOD medical system.

Local army reservist and mental health worker, Sgt. Christina Taber, spoke to Street Pulse about debriefings of large units of national guard and reserve soldiers just returned from Iraq. Deployed to Camp Atterbury in Indiana from 2004 to 2006 with the 7212th Medical Support Unit, Sgt Taber described the 8 hour information sessions the returning soldiers received. She presented information on PTSD and adjustment disorder and available resources. "It is hard to hold their attention when they are jet lagged and anxious to go home after long deployments." She feared they didn't retain much of the information and hoped they kept their paperwork. "Otherwise, soldiers don't know how to use their benefits or what they are entitled to. If they aren't proactive themselves upon returning, they won't be eligible after certain time periods for some benefits."

Testifying before a U.S. Senate committee on March 27th, 2007 Major Tammy Duckworth, Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, said "one of the greatest difficulties for state VA agencies is the tracking of returning service members who come home from active duty status. We at the states only find out about these individuals if they self-report to our agency." Her testimony regarded a Seamless Transition initiative to improve the transfer from DOD medical system to the VA medical system that soldiers go through when they leave active duty.

Duckworth stressed that the Seamless Transition program must provide comprehensive screening for Traumatic Brain Injury, PTSD, and vision loss by both V.A. and D.O.D. health systems. "There is no standard procedure in place to insure that all war wounded are screened nation-wide."

Street Pulse" is a once a month publication which is marketed by the homeless, or those disadvantaged or disenfranchised in some way, in the Madison area, predominantly in the downtown State Street corridor.

This article was written by Nathaniel Godfrey, flamingvessel (at) yahoo (dot) com.