Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Yourself, injured, a year from now

I got a disturbing note the other day from an acquaintance who got messed up in Iraq. Like all of us, he never expected he would be the guy who actually needed all that help, all that therapy, to get back to normal. After all, he had made it through his first three tours unscathed. ...

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U.S. Army
U.S. Army
U.S. Army

I got a disturbing note the other day from an acquaintance who got messed up in Iraq. Like all of us, he never expected he would be the guy who actually needed all that help, all that therapy, to get back to normal. After all, he had made it through his first three tours unscathed.

I got a disturbing note the other day from an acquaintance who got messed up in Iraq. Like all of us, he never expected he would be the guy who actually needed all that help, all that therapy, to get back to normal. After all, he had made it through his first three tours unscathed.

Now he is going through the hell of recovery and, like many soldiers, is surprised to find himself in the hands of a large, uncaring, unresponsive bureaucracy that looks on him as a problem, not as a client. And he is amazed to find every tenet of leadership he has been taught for 20 years routinely violated.

My point: Keep an eye on these Warrior Transition Units. The mind you save may be your own.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1
Tags: Health, Military

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