What are we going to do to help our soldiers with PTSD???

This is everyone's responsibility to identify a fellow Soldier in crisis. Quite often our Soldiers try to "deal with it themselves" until they reach their brewing point. Couple our pride & sense if duty (which drives this identity to not want to be a burden to our unit) with typical movements (PCS), can create the situation that we do not know our guys right away - can't identify changes in personality. The current situation at Fort Hood it a terrible situation.

As CSM Uhlig said " is everyone's responsibility to identify a fellow Soldier in crisis". Engaged leadership and caring/compassionate leaders goes a long way. Reccomending a Soldier for an award or sending a Soldier to a promotion board (prematurely) does not constitute care/compassion. I am talking about digging in the weeds. Knowing your Soldiers. Know where they came from, what they enjoy doing, check on them in their living areas, check on them while they are working, go to the local "hot spots" where they hang out (I used to do this in ACU uniform as a 1SG) make time to talk to them about life in general not just the Army. Don't foster a "Im your buddy" relationship though, us as leaders need to understand that difference and avoid it. Engaged, caring and compassionate leaders are hard to come by these days but I feel that we are headed in the right direction. While it is humanly impossible to avoid every single negative situation any Soldier could ever present, we can lessen the numbers dramtically by being engaged.

It's a very long process to get programs implemented that will truly help our soldiers. With 12+ years of war now, we are better off now with programs than we were when it first started off. But you are correct, it is ultimately up to the person to seek help. It could be forced, but it doesn't mean they will accept the fact they need help. Denial is a major problem for personnel who suffer from PTSD.