Wartime PTSD cases jump 50 pct. in 2007

Wartime PTSD cases jump 50 pct. in 2007

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WASHINGTON — The number of troops with new cases of post-traumatic stress disorder jumped by roughly 50 percent in 2007 amid the military buildup in Iraq and increased violence there and in Afghanistan.

Records show roughly 40,000 troops have been diagnosed with the illness, also known as PTSD, since 2003. Officials believe that many more are likely keeping their illness a secret.

"I don't think right now we ... have good numbers," Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker said Tuesday.

Defense officials had not previously disclosed the number of PTSD cases from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Army statistics showed there were nearly 14,000 newly diagnosed cases across the services in 2007 compared with more than 9,500 new cases the previous year and 1,632 in 2003.

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PTSD has been with us for a long time... during WW1 it was called being shell shocked and other names have been applied to it as well.

People like my father never talked about what they did in WW2 until very late in life and when he finally did start talking to me in the years leading up to his death, it was obvious that 50 years after the fact, it still troubled him deeply.

Vietnam era vets who have PTSD have had a harder time intergrating themselves back into society than those without, and many of the veteran homeless among us are so messed up because of it.

And now this new generation of sufferers are among us and with a VA administration relucant to even discuss it, even more will fall through the cracks... becoming once again the human waste of war.

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