A number of weeks back, I was contacted by Penny Coleman. She's the author of the thoroughly provocative and deeply researched work, Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide, and the Lessons of War. (Read her Memorial Day thoughts here.)

I'd personally like to dedicate this Memorial Day to those who've worn the uniform, served in combat, yet go unrecognized on our KIA lists or memorial walls at their death. Penny Coleman's late husband, Daniel O'Donnell, became one such casualty of the Vietnam War when he took his life after battling something later referred to as posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD].

As she says in her book, "The overwhelming evidence proves beyond a doubt that war is a disease that kills and maims, not just by tearing apart soldiers' bodies, but also by ravaging their minds. In every war American soldiers have fought in the past century, the chances of becoming a psychiatric casualty were greater than the chances of being killed by enemy fire." (emphasis mine)

Today, I remember these fallen casualties of war...

[Front-paged at ePluribus Media]

By late 2004, PBS had begun reporting on the affects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on soldiers serving in Iraq. Clear figures on Afghanistan/Iraq War PTSD cases are currently unavailable; however, sensible estimates may be arrived at by examining some of the data which presently does exist.

• In July 2004, researchers at Walter Reed Hospital published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggesting 11-18% of current WoT vets had PTSD.
• In July 2005, the Army surgeon general asserted that a full 30% of US troops surveyed have developed stress-related mental health problems.
• Since 2001, at least 1 million troops have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Extrapolating from the above information, 110,000 to 180,000 individuals may be at risk for developing PTSD. Additionally, it's been reported that nearly 90 veterans have committed suicide while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan or after returning home.

How does this affect the families, communities, and society these soldiers come back to?

Although incidents of violence at the hands of returning soldiers towards family members and strangers alike are increasing stateside, statistics on these homicides or suicides are not tracked (surprise) by the Pentagon nor the massively under-funded Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). To rectify this, 3 months ago I began collecting news reports of PTSD-related incidents.

What follows is the third update to the Returning Vet PTSD Incidents List...