NOR ARE SOLDIERS IMPERVIOUS TO THE STRESSES OF COMBAT.

"I'm not going to lie to you," he said. "Every time you go out the gate, you get nervous, especially when people have been shooting at you for two months."


Col. Robert Knapp, a psychiatrist with the 113th Medical Co., said it was not unexpected that soldiers would begin to experience combat stress now, after the worst fighting ended. The searing reactions to combat, the fear, exhaustion, grief and guilt, are often suppressed in the heat of battle, he said, surfacing only when the pace of operations slows.


"They're told to suck it up and drive on," he said. "Sooner or later, they have to work it out."

Find out how they do that here.