Veterans For America

After months of prodding from Texas and national officials, the Army is opening a probe into the suicides of four recruiters in the Houston in the last three years — all of whom had served in combat beforehand. “They’re under incredible stress,” said Paul Rieckhoff, a combat veteran and founder of the group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “You can see it on their faces.” Since 2003, when the US invaded Iraq, 15 of the Army’s 8,400 recruiters have taken their own lives while about 540 in the Army’s half-million-member active ranks have. The pace of combat and the toll of warfare is staggering, piling stress onto our troops and their families at rates not measured before. Consider that the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade just received its orders for Afghanistan, despite having redeployed from Afghanistan about a year ago. The pace is particularly brutal for our National Guard, which was not designed for repeated, continuous deployments to overseas combat. The scars of war do not heal easily.

Do our citizen-Soldiers also have to fight discrimination back home?

A review board has concluded that some Indiana National Guard members were not overexposed to a toxin while in Iraq — which could make it more difficult for the citizen-Soldiers to pursue their lawsuit against a defense contractor they claim exposed them to dangerous poisons while deployed. Is this the final word? No. For his part, Sen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat who serves on the Armed Services Committee, said he still has unanswered questions. 

Pentagon brass and national security officials are prepping President-elect Barack Obama for a “tourniquet” on Afghanistan. Will there be a shift in military-civilian resources under President Obama — something both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama’s choice to be secretary of state, agree on? Army Secretary Pete Geren will remain in his job until a successor named by the Obama administration takes over.

Much press attention was paid to President Bush’s visit this week with the wounded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — but less attention was paid to the primary reason he was there: to receive treatment for his sore shoulder. He feels “occasional pain” in his left shoulder. And will the nation soon feel a “$10 trillion hangover?“