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Ryan Nieto

Ryan Nieto - Grant knew her boyfriend was a veteran of the Iraq war. A Marine, he went in with the first wave of troops in 2003 and served six months there. But Grant got to know him after his deployment as a fellow college student in Ventura, Calif. They both got interested in rock climbing, and as the relationship got more serious, decided to move to Boulder and live together. Last year, Nieto began to have trouble sleeping and realized he was depressed, He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

We might be on our way out of Iraq but things are just starting to pick up in Afghanistan. With record-high number of veteran suicides and rising rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and clinical depression in every branch of the armed forces, is the nation headed for a mental-healthcare crisis?

Last month, the perennially self-important showbiz legend-in-his-own-mind Stephen Colbert went to Iraq at the behest of the USO, setting out to both entertain the troops and the folks back home by taping a week's worth of Colbert Report shows.

Today, IAVA Member Veteran Carolyn Schapper testified at a hearing before the House Veterans Subcommittee on Disability & Memorial Affairs about the disparities in PTSD diagnosis for male and female soldiers in combat. During her deployment to Iraq from October 2005 to September 2006, Carolyn participated in over 200 combat patrols as a member of a Military Intelligence unit with the Georgia National Guard.

A U.S. service member opened fire on fellow members of the military, killing four and wounding several others, at the main U.S. base in Baghdad, officials told NBC News on Monday.

Nathan James Keyes, had nightmares, suffered from depression and withdrew from family when he came back from Iraq the first time, in July 2004, she said, fighting off tears as she read from a letter to the judge. When he came back the second time, it was worse.

We've secured what I think is a stellar venue for Iraq vet and author Tyler Boudreau's "The Other Side: Cross-Country Cycling Tour Summer 2009" stop in the Rockford area. Great thanks to the board members and Executive Director Kip Kirkland of Poplar Grove Airport Vintage Wings & Wheels Museum for agreeing to host this gathering on Monday, August 10, 2009, at 6:00 p.m.

Recently I received a heartbreaking email from the wife of a former Iraq veteran bearing a heavy burden and seeking help. Sue's husband, Joseph "Pat" Lamoureux, was arrested last fall after engaging in a shootout with police officers responding to a domestic disturbance call. One officer was injured before Lamoureux was shot and subdued.

"The true story of any conflict, from Gettysburg to Fallujah, is mostly lost forever, left behind on the battlefield. What remains is the stuff of history books - the letters and recollections of survivors. It is this material that seven Army historians are racing to preserve in Iraq. Judging the value of their work will fall to future academics, when their records are declassified. But until then, we have the accounts of participants in the project, like Lt. Col. John Boyd. Boyd talks with Brooke from Baghdad."

"Historians will likely remember Operation Iraqi Freedom as iWar v1.0. The Web has done more than quicken reporting from the battlefield; it has made war interactive. Al-Qaeda militants, conservative bloggers, peace activists, Iraqi civilians and the U.S. military all use the Internet to distribute their versions of the truth. They often engage in e-mail debates, but more often sink to slurs and threats when challenging an opposing point of view. U.S. soldiers return from battle to their rooms or tents, boot up their laptops and log on to let their friends and family know they've made it through another day. If their base is large enough, the Internet service provider offers broadband, and they can make a video call home, watch news reports on the war or post their own versions of life in Iraq to their blogs. "I blog for the same reasons soldiers wrote letters and diaries during previous wars: to communicate with family and friends, (and) to maintain an honest record of our daily existence," wrote 1st Lt. Matt Gallagher, in response to an e-mail about his blog http://kaboomwarjournal.blogspot.com. "Blogging is simply a 21st century tool for a new generation of soldiers to utilize.""

beginning with the Korean War, disadvantaged communities have suffered a disproportionate share of the nation's wartime casualties, while richer communities have been more insulated from the costs of war. Furthermore, the data suggest that this "casualty gap" between rich and poor communities has reached its widest proportions in the ongoing conflict in Iraq.

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Over the last eight months, Scott Huddleston of the San Antonio News-Express reports, some 14 Fort Hood soldiers have died -- not in Afghanistan or Iraq, but back home. Some apparently were suicides, others were clearly related to PTSD, and some are just mysteries.

Deploying to Afghanistan, Craig Mullaney writes, "was a slow immersion, like Dante's descent into the Inferno."\n\nOne moment, Mullaney and his Army Ranger platoon waited in an airport terminal at Fort Drum, N.Y. Televisions were tuned to Major League Baseball games. The soldiers ate what one jokingly called their "Last Supper" - rubbery T-bone steaks with Mexican rice.\n\nThey received an intelligence briefing warning them of the dangers awaiting them in Afghanistan, including ticks, cobras and camel spiders that can run more than 30 mph. Then they marched onto a cavernous cargo plane. Two flights and 7,000 miles later, Mullaney and his men stepped out into the dusty, baking heat of an airbase in Kandahar. It was 128 degrees, in the shade.\n\nIn that summer of 2003, Afghanistan had fallen off the front page. Attention had shifted to the war in Iraq. Meanwhile, the Taliban regime that had been toppled by the U.S. invasion following 9/11 was resurgent. Operating from across the border in Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden was suspected to be hiding, Taliban and al-Qaida fighters harassed local villages and Western occupiers.\n\nMullaney's Army Ranger training did not cover desert warfare, which had been dropped in 1995. Studying modern military history at West Point, he took just one paragraph of notes on Afghanistan, involving the Russians' failed experience there in the 1980s.

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Stats on Air Force combat-zone casualties.

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"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Statistics for OEF / OEF AFGHANISTAN * A recent study showed that 18 percent of 45,880 veterans were diagnosed with psychological disorders, including 183 with PTSD. IRAQ * According to a 2005 VA study of 168,528 Iraqi veterans, 20 percent were diagnosed with psychological disorders, including 1,641 with PTSD. * In an earlier VA study this year, almost 12,500 of nearly 245,000 veterans visited VA counseling centers for readjustment problems and symptoms of PTSD. * The Marines and Army were nearly four times more likely to report PTSD than Navy or Air Force because of their greater exposure to combat situations. * Enlisted men were twice as likely as officers to report PTSD. "

"Vets Connect program, which the Stanford School of Medicine launched this summer. The program provides free mental health treatment and other services for veterans of the two ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom."