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

TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01“Relieve him? Yes, he did mention that. I’m not a psychologist or psych guy Sir, but I’d saythe major is pretty close to burnout. He’s tired and very agitated. It will only get worse unlesshe gets some rest. You want my recommendation, Sir?”Stacy didn’t answer right away, thinking hard about his options. He’d need to tell thebrigade commander about this one way or another. If Sam was sick, if only it was the flu orsomething concrete like that…. Okay, Susan, what do you say?”“I can prescribe some pretty strong medicine to settle his nerves. It will make him drowsyand justify leaving him here. I’ll write it up as fatigue and recommend further evaluation withoutmentioning his request to you.”“Cover it up? Cover up his asking to be relieved? I can’t, no, I won’t do that. Write yourreport and I’ll request an evaluation by the brigade Combat Operational Stress Control Team.I’m going up to brigade. Oh, and thanks, Susan. I appreciate your effort to save Sam some facehere, but, if he needs help he’s going to get it.”Major Sam Kurtis manifests the cumulative effects of combat operations stress reaction. Herepresents everything a Soldier should be in terms of moral, mental, and physical fitness. As adecorated combat veteran, he has “seen the elephant,” and should be better prepared than thoseentering combat for the first time. Yet Kurtis, for all his toughness, competence, anddemonstrated bravery, is a victim of repeated exposure to the horrors of war that, for him at least,built up to the point of burnout. Lieutenant Colonel Stacy may have been more inclined toshelter his brother-in-law than another officer in Kurtis’s position, but he makes the rightdecision. The Army must find ways to treat post traumatic stress victims in a way that does notautomatically terminate their careers. One option is to treat these conditions like other injuriesand illnesses with the intent of returning the Soldier to duty if possible. This chapter emphasizesprevention, but Major Kurtis presented absolutely no indications of his eventual collapse. In thiscase, the brigade commander might offer Major Kurtis to the TF Green commanding general as alimited duty staff officer who could help monitor his battalion’s coming combat operation.Required CapabilitiesThe Army must develop doctrine and TTPs that recognize and integrates measures forCOSR prevention into planning, preparing, and executing future full spectrum operations.Army future Modular Force commanders must have the capability to provide adequatemental health care providers who can monitor moral, cohesion, and unit mental healthstatus across the deployment cycle.The Army must integrate measures to prevent COSR into the pre-deployment trainingprograms.Army training exercises must habitually integrate the stressors Soldiers will commonlyencounter into all training and training assessments, with emphasis on the CTCs.145