Here’s a comprehensive USA Today article on the mental health needs of women veterans:

The overarching theme of the piece shows an increasing awareness of gender-specific issues women face both in the combat zone and on the home front. A look at the numbers presented:

–More than 182,000 women have been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, or surrounding regions–about 11 percent of U.S. troops who have served there.

–7,500 women (mostly nurses) served in Vietnam; 41,000 women deployed during the Gulf War.

–More than 100 female servicemembers have died, and nearly 570 were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

–According to USA Today, “In 2006, nearly 3,800 women diagnosed with PTSD were treated by the VA. They accounted for 14 percent of a total 27,000 recent veterans treated for PTSD last year.”

–Also according to USA Today, “The Defense Department’s 2-year-old Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office says there were 201 sexual assaults in 2006 within the U.S. Central Command, which includes Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s up from 167 in 2005, when the Pentagon began a policy that allows victims to get medical help without launching a criminal investigation.”

For a better understanding at issues related to Military Sexual Trauma, take a look at this interview Soldier’s Home did with an author who’s extensively studied the subject.

Over in the U.K. the largest medical investigation of its Armed Forces is about to get underway, according to The Times. Researchers will look at how public opposition to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan affects soldiers’ mental health. In particular they’ll be focusing on British reservists who, unlike their active duty counterparts, are faced with assimilating back into civilian society almost immediately following combat deployments. The leader of the study told the paper:

The Saginaw News provides a brief profile on a Michigan National Guard unit shipping out to Iraq. It’s the kind of article that’s been written hundreds of times by local papers to the point where it’s easy to gloss over them. While most of us Americans are now used to having a country at war, the words of this 18-year-old soldier are a reminder of the individuals who are still facing war for the first time:

The unit contains veterans of a 2005 deployment to Iraq; seven members were killed in the 16 months the unit was in the country.