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On this day, they are laboring at one of many small wetlands created by developers to compensate for marshland filled in for housing. Most of these spots are overgrown with blackberries and other invasive species, and the restoration work is tough labor that often leaves scratched-up arms. "It's been like a breath of fresh air," said Jeremy Grisham, the leader of the crew. "When I first got back, I couldn't find work and gained so much weight. When I started getting outside, it was the first time I felt good about things." Grisham was a Navy medic who took part in the initial U.S. invasion of Iraq. One of his most harrowing tasks was helping civilians suffering from burns and wounds. As Grisham was medically retired in 2005, he was diagnosed with a disabling case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Grisham is now in his second year in the conservation corps, taking classes and field work at Green River Community College, which offers a two-year degree in natural-resources management. He is one of about 70 Washington veterans who have been able to attend Green River and four other community colleges around the state with the help of the conservation corps, which pays $1,000 per month in living expenses.

To date, neither a trailer nor even a still photo from the film, which tells the story of a disabled soldier who uses technology to inhabit an alien body on a distant planet, has been made public by Mr. Cameron or Fox. Dr. Mario Mendez, a behavioral neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine, said it is entirely possible that Mr. Cameron's work could tap brain systems that are undisturbed by conventional 2-D movies. One, he said, is a kind of inner global-positioning system that orients a person to the surrounding world. "Three-D demonstrably creates a space that triggers this GPS; it's really very stimulating," Dr. Mendez said. He added that he had used virtual-reality therapy in working with soldiers at the Veterans Administration hospital in Los Angeles - and found himself jarred by his experience with a "virtual Iraq" simulation. "It was with me for days and days," Dr. Mendez said.

Matthew Hagen - A county corrections officer was arrested on suspicion of running down deer and fleeing from law enforcement officers, but Matthew Hagen's family and friends said his behavior was a result of what happened to him in Iraq.

The military does not want Iraq veterans to be diagnosed with PTSD, a condition that obligates the military to provide expensive, intensive long-term care, including the possibility of lifetime disability payments.

The scans of 42 U.S. soldiers who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan in the recent past showed that, compared with healthy veterans, those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) had marked differences in some areas of brain activity. The study, presented at the World Psychiatric Association Congress in Italy, suggested identifying certain brain patterns could one day help diagnose PTSD before symptoms appeared and better track treatment, the researchers said.

A real thrill tonight to have a turn as a guest poster for the Netroots For The Troops [on facebook] series over at Daily Kos. NFTT is a collaborative of online bloggers who came together at last years' Netroots Nation Convention, having collected donations and purchased needed care package items in advance, to pack boxes and ship them to soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. By all accounts, it was a smashing success. So why mess with success?

Ryan Kohlheim began looking for answers. He and his family sifted through every stitch of his brother's clothing, Kohlheim said, looking for a letter, a note, anything that could tell them why a decorated Indiana National Guardsman barely home from a recent tour in Iraq would take his own life.

Graner is one of 100 former service members hired nationally by the Department of Veterans Affairs as outreach specialists to help get Iraq and Afghanistan veterans into programs aimed at easing their transition back to civilian life. They frequent job fairs, welcome-home events and other places where troops back from the wars might congregate and look for those struggling to adjust. The goal is to persuade them to visit one of 230-plus vet centers nationwide, which are operated by the VA to offer free services from job hunting assistance to marriage and mental health counseling.\n\nExperts applaud the effort to actively search for veterans who may need help, even if some advocates say the program should be much bigger.

As of 2007, the Military Health System had recorded 43,779 patients with traumatic brain injuries from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It had recorded 39,365 patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to a Department of Defense report to Congress. By the end of September 2008, the number of patients with a preliminary diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from Veterans Affairs doctors had risen to 101,882 - more than 10 percent of veterans who have left the military and more than 20 percent of those who have gone to Veterans Affairs for medical treatment, according to a spokeswoman for Veterans Affairs.

Iraq war veteran Kevin Rodrick of Racine took his own life Aug. 15, the day he was scheduled to meet with his Marine commanders and former comrades in Madison to discuss entering the reserves. A few days later, something arrived in the mail.

"more veterans have committed suicide since 2001 than the number of servicemembers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan over that period. "

US Dept. of Veterans Affairs "Veterans Law Review" Vol 1 - 2009. BOOK REVIEW ESSAY - CONSEQUENCES OF COMBAT: A REVIEW OF HAUNTED BY COMBAT: UNDERSTANDING PTSD IN WAR VETERANS INCLUDING WOMEN, RESERVISTS AND THOSE COMING BACK FROM IRAQ BY DARYL S. PAULSON & STANLEY KRIPPNER; AND MOVING A NATION TO CARE: PTSD AND AMERICA'S RETURNING TROOPS BY ILONA MEAGHER Holly Seesel, Mary Sorisio, & Paul Sorisio

"* In July 2009, Army Sgt. Ryan Schlack of Oshkosh, Wis., died after being shot while trying to break up a fight at Fort Hood. Spc. Armando Ray Baca has been charged with first-degree murder. * In September 2008, Spc. Jody Michael Wirawan of Eagle River, Ala., who was scheduled to soon be discharged, fatally shot 1st Lt. Robert Bartlett Fletcher of Jensen Beach, Fla. When Killeen police arrived, Wirawan killed himself, Fort Hood officials said at the time. * In July 2007, the wife of a Fort Hood soldier was killed as part of a murder-for-hire plot. Hidi Gower was shot to death outside a Veterans of Foreign Wars pool hall in Kempner, 18 miles from Killeen. Army Sgt. 1st Class Donald Dean Gower was sentenced to life in prison without parole in August 2008. * In March 2005, Fort Hood Army Sgt. Jason Cline flew from Texas to California and plotted with Sharonmarie Ball to kill her husband, Navy Petty Officer John Ball, who was stabbed in the chin and right hand but survived, according to news reports on KWTX-TV in Waco. Cline was sentenced to 12 years in prison in February 2006, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. * In April 2005, former Army medic John D. Mayer Jr. of Fort Hood pleaded guilty in federal court in Waco to charges in the death of his 2-year-old stepdaughter. Mayer had been watching the child while the girl's mother was deployed to Iraq, according to news reports on KWTX. * In July 2004, Fort Hood officials identified the bodies of Fort Hood soldiers Sgt. Erin Elizabeth Edwards and her estranged husband, Sgt. William McKinley Edwards. Police investigated the shooting deaths as a murder-suicide, the Texas A&M University student newspaper, The Battalion, reported in 2004. "

"Joy Priest's daughter, Pfc. Tina Priest, was found dead in her room in Taji, Iraq,"

"Andrew Engstrom"

"Marines treated at Camp Lejeune for post-traumatic stress had to undergo therapy for months in temporary trailers where they could hear bomb blasts, machine-gun fire and war cries through the thin walls, according to servicemen and their former psychiatrist. The eight trailers were used for nearly two years, until a permanent clinic was completed in September in another location on the base, said a Camp Lejeune medical spokesman, Navy Lt. j.g. Mark Jean-Pierre. The allegations became public after the dismissal of Dr. Kernan Manion, a civilian psychiatrist who says he was fired for writing memos to his military superiors complaining of shoddy care of Marines returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD, a condition that can make patients jumpy, fearful of loud noises and prone to flashbacks. "