"When they get home and the threat's not there, the adrenaline starts to seep out and the walls come down."
The Maryland Guard, spokeswoman Maj. Kristine Henry said, began testing the program in October with an infantry unit that returned from Kosovo and an aviation maintenance unit, well before Congress demanded it.
Maryland, said National Guard Bureau spokesman Rick Breitenfeldt, was one of the first states to adopt the program. Ten other states have similar programs.
"They pushed real hard to get this up and running in their state," Breitenfeldt said. "Now they're going to put their money where their mouth is and really take care of the soldiers."
The National Guard Bureau contributed $1.5 million to secure the Maryland program, said Bureau spokesman Manny Pacheco, and has helped fund programs in the other states.
The curriculum, modeled after a program in Minnesota, begins before soldiers return, preparing them and their families for the experiences ahead. The soldiers then meet as a unit with their families at intervals of 30, 60 and 90 days, said Maryland National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Charles Kohler.
The first meeting focuses on reconnecting with families; the second on addressing negative behavior, with videos on road rage and other examples of anger issues, Kohler said. In the third meeting, soldiers undergo a screening for long-term risks like PTSD or other mental problems.
Soldiers, Lee said, are made to feel stress is a normal part of coming home and are given a chance to express what they feel.
"We normalize what they're going through because we draw from the experiences from those who have been there before them," he said. "It's a simple enough model to adapt itself to the different-sized states out there."
With Maryland's program on track, Mikulski is pushing for $45 million to be put into an emergency supplemental spending bill that will be debated in April to fund the national program this year, the senator's spokeswoman said. Another $73 million, said Melissa Schwartz, will be needed for 2009.
"The Guard is treated like a stepchild when they fight abroad, and when they return," Mikulski said in a statement. "It is unacceptable that returning members of the Guard and Reserve don't receive the same care as returning active duty soldiers, even though we are asking them to make the same sacrifices."
