FORT CARSON, Colo.—Soldiers who returned to Fort Carson last spring after a year of combat in Afghanistan underwent more psychological screening and had fewer behavioral problems than troops on previous combat tours, the Army said Thursday.
They were also more likely to seek psychological help and far less likely to need inpatient hospital treatment, said Maj. Gen. David G. Perkins, commander of the 4th Infantry Division at the post outside Colorado Springs.
Perkins said the members of the 4th Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat team had four psychological screenings, two while still in Afghanistan and two after returning home.
Soldiers who were flagged for potential problems while still in Afghanistan were “discreetly” taken to see a behavioral health specialist just after they got off their flight home, he said.
“The plan was to be ready to deal with this soldier as soon as he gets off the plane,” Perkins said.
The Army has been struggling to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder, high-risk behavior and suicides among a force that has seen multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002.
After previous two deployments to Iraq, some soldiers from Fort Carson’s 4th Brigade were implicated in 11 slayings in Colorado and other states between 2005 and 2008. That prompted an Army study which said the trauma of combat may have triggered the violence.
The brigade, which has about 3,700 soldiers, has undergone a significant turnover in personnel since then, Perkins said.
The 4th Brigade’s most recent tour was costly, with 39 soldiers killed—eight in a single battle.
“These guys had a very difficult deployment,” Perkins said.
But since returning to the U.S., the brigade’s rate of high-risk behavior—measured by drunken driving arrests, failed drug tests and other means—has been less than half that of previous units returning to Fort Carson that underwent less extensive screenings, Perkins said.
The number of soldiers from the brigade who asked for help from a behavioral specialist was more than double that of previous units, and the number deemed in need of inpatient treatment was “maybe a 10th of what it has been,” Perkins said.
Perkins said soldiers’ spouses and other family members have been briefed on what types of behavior are normal for a soldier returning from combat and what types signal a problem that should be treated.
