ABSTRACT
As the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have continued for the past 5 years, the American society has endured enormous challenges entailing considerable demands for resources and personnel to carry out a mission that continues to be under intense political debate. The spearhead for these campaigns has been American military service personnel, who have received considerable attention with regard to the costs of waging war. Perhaps in response to societal shortcomings with regard to support of American troops in the Korean and Vietnam campaigns, it appears that in contrast to previous wars much more attention has been directed toward the health and wellbeing of our service members as they fight in this global conflict. Indeed, this attention is much needed and deserved as the risks of death and injury have been very real for the approximately 1.5 million American troops thus far deployed in support of the war effort. One third of them have served at least two tours in a combat zone, 70,000 having been deployed three times, and 20,000 having been deployed at least 5 times (Presidential Task Force, 2007). As of December 2006, the Iraq war alone accounted for over 3000 fatalities and over 18,000 American casualties (Hoshmand & Hoshmand, 2007). The psychological impact of combat exposure has long been a hidden morbidity of war, but awareness and concern about this form of debilitation are growing.
