This was published in Tom Barton's GI Special 6C5, March 8, 2008
11% Of Those Polled In Iraq Said Their Unit’s Morale Was High Or Very High, Compared With 7% The Previous Year ... Individual Morale Was Reported High Or Very High Among 20%, Compared With 18% The Previous Year. ...
“Depression” Up Among U.S. Forces In Afghanistan
U.S. troop morale improved in Iraq last year, but soldiers fighting in Afghanistan suffered more depression as violence there worsened, an Army mental health report says.
And in a recurring theme for a force strained by its seventh year at war, the annual battlefield study found once again that soldiers on their third and fourth tours of duty had sharply greater rates of mental health problems than those on their first or second deployments, according to several officials familiar with the report.
Soldiers in Afghanistan had rates of mental health problems similar to those in Iraq in 2007 with the exception of depression, officials said the new study showed.
The percentage reporting depression in Afghanistan was higher than that in Iraq, and mental health problems in general were higher than they had previously been in Afghanistan.
They gave no statistics, but a 2004 study conducted in the states with troops before and after they deployed to Afghanistan found that roughly one in 10 developed a mental health problem requiring treatment.
Troops’ mental health problems are linked directly to the amount of exposure they have to combat, and officials said that last year the level of violence was more pronounced in some places of Afghanistan than it was in Iraq. Some 83% of soldiers in Afghanistan reported being exposed to mortar fire and similar action as fighting heated up against Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, compared with 72% in Iraq, according to the study.
Having troops spread out and more isolated over the rugged terrain in a less developed Afghanistan made it necessary at times to bring soldiers in by helicopter when they needed mental health care, one official said.
Eleven percent of those polled in Iraq said their unit’s morale was high or very high, compared with 7% the previous year.
Individual morale was reported high or very high among 20%, compared with 18% the previous year.
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