He said the Pentagon and Veterans Administration "are still unprepared to treat the unseen wounds of battle ... too many [soldiers] are falling through the cracks because they need help but feel they can't get it."
According to data released by the Army surgeon general earlier this week, the number of deployed soldiers diagnosed last year with the most severe combat stress, or post-traumatic stress disorder, jumped 46 percent over the number of new cases in 2006, an increase from 6,876 in 2006 to 10,049 in 2007.
Army researchers tied that finding directly to what they said was intensifying combat in Afghanistan and continued high levels of combat in Iraq.
In 2003, when the Iraq war was launched, just over 1,000 soldiers were diagnosed with PTSD. Since then, a total of 28,364 deployed soldiers had been diagnosed with PTSD through December 2007, according to the Army data.
Mental health assessments conducted in Afghanistan and Iraq annually for the past few years have found that between 12 percent and 15 percent of soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are taking some form of medication for stress, including drugs to control anxiety or depression and for sleeplessness.
Some of these soldiers have been treated for combat stress and deployed again into combat if they have been treated successfully and are judged capable of performing their missions, according to senior Army medical officers. Tens of thousands more soldiers are thought to be experiencing lesser forms of stress.
An extensive military mental health study released this spring by the U.S. command in Baghdad found that 17.9 percent of the troops report acute stress, depression or anxiety, and 11 percent met the criteria for mild traumatic brain injury.
In dozens of interviews this spring in Afghanistan, Marines of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment said they rely heavily on each other for comfort and support in the stress of combat.
"That, and you just suck it up," said Lt. Shaun Miller, a 24-year-old platoon leader from Austin, Texas.
One senior enlisted Marine, who asked not to be identified, said he suffers from PTSD but feels better within the tense cauldron of combat, but with his buddies. "At home, I'm a mess," he said.
The data on military suicides and stress released this week are incomplete, Army officers acknowledged. For instance, the suicide data do not include soldiers who leave the Army and later develop mental health problems and often do not include National Guard soldiers who are demobilized after deployment.
