Mar 18, 2008 — Late Friday night, a 23 year-old Fort Drum soldier injured seven pedestrians when he plowed into a crowd leaving a music club in Watertown. Kristopher Hendricks hit a parked car, then drove the wrong way down a one-way street. He was charged with drunk driving. Watertown police say all the people Hendricks hit are fellow soldiers. All but one has been released from the hospital. The incident came a week after Fort Drum's weekly newspaper began publishing the names and photos of soldiers arrested for DWI. The policy has touched off a debate over the best way to handle the misdeeds of combat veterans who have recently returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. David Sommerstein reports.  Go to full article

Mar 10, 2008 — A 10th Mountain Division soldier planned to turn himself in Friday after he went AWOL to avoid deployment to Iraq. But according to the Watertown Daily Times, 21 year-old Specialist Brian Currie became agitated as he approached Fort Drum and decided he couldn't go through with it. Currie says a military doctor ruled him unfit for deployment from injuries sustained in Afghanistan. He and 4 other soldiers are requesting a military court of inquiry investigate allegations of harassment and mistreatment. David Sommerstein reports.  Go to full article

Mar 05, 2008 — Fort Drum's main headquarters is getting ready to take control of the south-central area of Iraq. Major General Michael Oates, the base's commander, will lead more than a thousand troops to Iraq in May. While they're there, three other 10th Mountain Division brigades will be preparing to deploy this fall. Yesterday, General Oates gave some members of the media a tour of a training war room that's a replica of the real thing in Iraq. David Sommerstein was there and has this report.  Go to full article

Feb 19, 2008 — Last week brought more tragic school shooting attacks, culminating at Northern Illinois University. A gunman entered a class there Thursday, killing six students and wounding 18 others before taking his own life. The man was a former student. Commentator Paul Hetzler remembers scraping very close to that edge of violence himself, and offers one answer to the question: why? -- and its flipside: why not?  Go to full article

Feb 14, 2008 — A veterans group says the Army is still failing to provide 10th Mountain Division soldiers with adequate mental health services at Fort Drum more than six years after the start of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The report, titled "Fort Drum: A Great Burden, Inadequate Assistance." is from the Washington, D.C.-based Veterans for America. It cites under-staffing, reliance on questionnaires to identify soldiers who need treatment, and leadership's indifference to soldiers' claims of post traumatic stress disorder. The report also said repeated, lengthy and unpredictable deployments have taken a toll on all the Army's divisions, but most especially Ft. Drum's 1st and 2nd Brigade Combat Teams. The report says some soldiers wait up to two months before a first appointment. It concludes that care for returning soldiers at Fort Drum is woefully inadequate.

Veterans for America, formerly known as Vietnam Veterans of America, was founded by former Marine Bobby Muller. According to Sen. Hillary Clinton, the group based the report on interviews with a dozen Fort Drum soldiers and mental health providers. Clinton said the problem must be addressed urgently. In a statement, she said she's looking forward to "the cooperation and support of the Army in this process." Army officials at Ft. Drum had no immediate comment on the report.  Go to full article

Feb 01, 2008 — A day after National Public Radio reported that Fort Drum soldiers were being denied help filling out their disability paperwork, the Army is sending mixed messages. The Department of Veterans Affairs isn't talking. And Congressman John McHugh is still trying to figure out what happened. David Sommerstein reports.  Go to full article

Jan 31, 2008 — North Country Congressman John McHugh wants to know who tried to prevent Fort Drum soldiers from getting help with their disability benefits. National Public Radio broke the story Tuesday. The story said instructors from the Department of Veterans Affairs - the VA - used to help soldiers at Fort Drum summarize their disabilities so they could get better benefits. But reporter Ari Shapiro found that help was now being denied. In a press release, the Army disputed NPR's story. It said it didn't tell the VA to stop helping soldiers. Congressman McHugh says he trying to find out who did. David Sommerstein reports.  Go to full article

Dec 14, 2007 — This week we've been reporting on the struggles of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in getting help with combat trauma. Today we get a window inside their world from one of the North Country's most respected experts. Nellie Coakley is a Vietnam veteran. She relies on her own experience in her work as a war trauma counselor. She's worked out the region's Vet Center since the 1980s. Vet Centers were created to give an alternative to Vietnam vets who didn't trust the standard VA channels. Coakley counsels an increasing number of Iraq and Afghanistan vets, and she sees a similar mistrust. She says the American public needs to do more to understand post-traumatic stress disorder and help veterans re-enter society. The trouble is, soldiers coming home with PTSD find they can't leave their warrior training behind. For them, Coakley told David Sommerstein, combat is life-changing.  Go to full article

Dec 13, 2007 — Since the war in Iraq began, the U.S. military has come under increasing fire for a mental health system that even top officials acknowledge needs a complete overhaul. Soldiers fighting combat trauma go untreated. Trained psychologists are in short supply. Funding for research into post-traumatic stress disorder is inadequate. Across the country, a growing number of soldiers are taking matters into their own hands. They're compiling lists of resources for people who need help. And they're organizing their own group therapy sessions. In part three of our series on PTSD, a café in Watertown has become a refuge for soldiers who are breaking rank and seeking help on their own. David Sommerstein reports.  Go to full article

Dec 12, 2007 — If you hear one complaint from soldiers about how the Army handles post-traumatic stress disorder, it's about a bureaucracy that doesn't seem to care. The military officially recognized PTSD as a medical illness almost 30 years ago. Yet soldiers still complain of not getting the help they need. Mountains of paperwork, a backlog of claims, a shortage of licensed psychologists, and a dearth of scientific research all get in the way. In part two of our series on treating PTSD at Fort Drum, David Sommerstein has the story of one soldier who says Fort Drum's mental health system failed him again and again.

CORRECTION TO ORIGINAL STORY: This story first reported that the military requires three letters from commanders documenting that a soldier was in a traumatic combat situation. A Fort Drum spokesman e-mailed to say that one letter is required. The audio has been changed accordingly.  Go to full article