While we still have yet to
learn the twisted motivations of the shooter, the fact that he was a
psychiatrist responsible for counseling other soldiers is a tragic testament to
the dire lack of adequate mental health care for troops.
IVAW Ft. Hood has been speaking out about the issue, holding a candlelight
vigil honoring the victims, and offering Warrior Writers workshops and free
professional counseling sessions at Under the Hood Cafe, one of the only safe
environments for anti-war soldiers near the base.
As the Army conducts a probe into the shootings, and units go back to preparing
for Afghanistan
deployment, IVAW members have been targeted for being outspoken about the
health care needs of their fellow soldiers. One was threatened with a
physical beating by commanding officers for wearing his IVAW shirt, and then
forcibly held and interrogated.
A new Army mental health survey of soldiers in Afghanistan
shows that morale is down and mental stress increases with an increased number
of deployments. Currently there is one mental health specialist for
approximately 1,100 troops in Afghanistan.
The Army says it hopes to improve that ratio to one for every 700 soldiers in Afghanistan.
This is obviously still totally inadequate.
Next Steps
The professional therapist we brought down to Ft.Hood
counseled soldiers and also researched a referral list of area therapists
friendly toward anti-war soldiers. IVAW Ft. Hood will continue to
aggressively outreach to other soldiers about the need to for mental health
services on the base and provide them with referrals to quality counseling outside
the gates of Ft.Hood.
Victor Agosto, former Ft. Hood soldier
and Afghanistan war resistor, and Emiko Hakada, a survivor of the Atomic bomb
the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima, gave a joint
talk at Pom Gallery in NYC as an IVAW fundraiser.
A new film depicts the hidden pain of U.S. casualties. The Messenger, starring Woody Harrelson, Samantha
Morton, and Ben Foster is the story two soldiers assigned to the Army's
Casualty notification service.
