TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01 - TRADOC - U.S. Army

TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01environment is unlike the intensity of earlier wars “demonstrates a lack of appreciation of whatconstitutes combat in general, and ignorance as to the level of combat Soldiers and Marines areexperiencing.” 158 Today’s junior leaders have spent two to three of their first years in the Armydeployed in a complex evolving environment for which there are no clear school solutions.Frequently, they must learn the lessons of complex warfare while fielding unfamiliar equipmentand bearing responsibility for what their subordinates do at all times.Consistent with rotation practices in World War II and Korea, the Mental Health AdvisoryTeam IV Operation Iraqi Freedom 05-07, Final Report strongly recommends establishing intheaterunit rotation policies. It supports a longer period of recovery rather than the in-countryrest and recreation (that few combat troops were allowed to take) or the two-week individualrotation policy currently in effect in OEF and OIF. 159 Steeling the Mind, a separate RANDCorporation study, examines the psychological implications of stress in future urban warfare andagrees with the recommendation adding, introduce, and integrate replacements into the unitduring in-theater rotations. 160 Allowing replacements to train with the veterans improvescohesion and unit effectiveness. Both of these recommendations are currently in place and willwarrant integration in future operations.Endorsing the findings of an earlier Walter Reed Army Institute of Research Land CombatStudy, the Mental Health Advisory Team IV report also recommends shorter deploymentsbecause deployment length relates to mental health. Earlier conflicts indicated that shorterdeployment periods provided greater hopeamong Soldiers that they might surviveunharmed. The Walter Reed study also foundthat the current dwell time between unitdeployments is insufficient for Soldiers toreset mentally. As a result, even thoughsecond time deployed Soldiers are generallyolder, more senior, better educated, married,and more experienced—factors thought to bementally protective or restorative—they aretwice as likely to screen for mental healthproblems as those deployed for the first time.It is simple human nature to breathe a sigh ofrelief at the end of a combat tour. It issimilarly natural for returnees to wonder if,having survived the first time, their numbermight come up the second or third time. Thepercentages of all Soldiers screening forpotential mental health problems is increasingas OEF and OIF continue. This finding hasmajor implications for the Army operating infuture environment characterized by near persistent conflict and an OPTEMPO that assumesmultiple operational deployments in a career of service for both active and reserve componentSoldiers. This finding also confirms the earlier World War II study that Soldiers do not “get usedto combat” and that previous experience does not “inoculate” Soldiers against COSR.141