part ii in the courant story about the mental health of our service people

COURANT INVESTIGATION: MENTALLY UNFIT, FORCED TO FIGHT Slipping Through The System

A Courant investigation has found that less than 1 percent of deploying troops receive an evaluation from a mental health professional, even though the military admits that more than 9 percent have a serious psychological illness.
By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN And LISA CHEDEKEL
The Hartford CourantMay 15 2006
In the 17 months after their son, Eddie, announced he was heading off to fight the war on terror, Margaret and Edward Brabazon of Bensalem, Pa., had held their breath.They were accustomed to holding their breath with the boy they had taken in as a foster child at age 3 and adopted at 12 - the boy who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and attention-deficit disorder by the time he was 10, and who had spent his early teenage years in a psychiatric hospital and group homes for the emotionally disturbed.They watched with bewildered pride as the young man they had affectionately nicknamed "Crazy Eddie" was handed a uniform and an M-4 rifle and accepted into an elite fraternity - the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Although Margaret protested, the 18-year-old soldier also had informed his parents that he had stopped taking his psychotropic medications because he "wanted to be like everyone else," Margaret recalled."We were surprised they took him, with the kind of mental problems he had, but we figured the Army must know what they're doing," Margaret said. "We didn't think they'd send him into combat."Today, the Brabazons regret those assumptions..........