Wayne Gilchrest: “In World War II, 25 percent of the soldiers had what was called shell shock. That's 25 percent. In the Vietnam War era…”

“In World War II, 25 percent of the soldiers had what was called shell shock. That's 25 percent. In the Vietnam War era it was the same. In this war, it is the same. Of the hundreds of thousands of young men and women that travel through Iraq, not on one tour or two tours, sometimes three and four tours, the kind of traumatic stress that they experience is horrendous. It's not only the psychological stress; it's the number of young men and women coming back with concussions. And that debate needs to take place. That resolution to that problem cannot happen with the military alone. It has to happen with a dialogue here about how we send our forces into harm's way and how much time they need for that break back home. And the other issue with the problem of traumatic stress, when you're in combat and you experience that, it can expose itself in the individual with serious depression. And are our soldiers in Iraq being treated when they have those symptoms of depression? Are they given medication? These are a lot of questions that need to be answered that haven't been, I think, addressed clearly enough from, I use the term, because of the partisan cacophony of chaos that has happened here for such a long period of time.”