Material Listing

This article tells the story of Staff Sgt. James Ownbey, a Marine who served in Iraq as an explosive ordinance disposal technician in 2007, and two other deployments who now suffers from a traumatic brain injury (TBI), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and numerous physical ailments.

Since the war began in October 2001, there have been periodic reports about substance abuse, depression, domestic violence, suicide, homelessness and violent crime among traumatized veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq. High unemployment in a bad economy has merely compounded their troubles.

This 21-page report provides a description of the services offered by the Defense Center of Excellence (DCoE) for Psychological Health (PH) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and its accomplishments in the years 2007-2008. DCoE's research mission is to coordinate innovative, evidence-based PH and TBI investments across DoD and other government agencies to meet both immediate and long-term needs associated with prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and outreach for warriors and their families.

This reports highlights the challenges faced by veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the prevalence of TBI, homelessness, PTSD, etc. It also offers lessons learned and suggestions for best practices in addressing the needs of this growing population.

This report highlights the psychological toll of deployments involving prolonged exposure to combat-related stress over multiple rotations and how these types of deployments may be disproportionately high compared with the physical injuries of combat.