'Mentally Unfit, Forced To Fight"
"Mentally Unfit, Forced To Fight" By Lisa Chedekel And Matthew Kauffman was published in The Hartford Courant on May 14-17, 2006. It recently won the 39th Annual Worth Bingham Prize:
... Based on never-before-released Department of Defense data on pre-deployment screenings, the series revealed that the military is increasingly sending, keeping, and redeploying mentally troubled troops into combat, in violation of its own regulations and with devastating consequences.
Chedekel and Kauffman fought the military for months to obtain critical data and documents detailing tragic gaps in the military mental health system. By analyzing hundreds of non-combat deaths, the reporters also identified every war-zone suicide in 2005 and determined that soldiers were killing themselves at a record rate – a fact the military would finally acknowledge seven months later.
In direct response to this series, Congress added to the Defense Authorization bill of 2007 legislation that addressed the flaws in the military’s mental health system. In response to that congressional mandate, the U.S. military issued new guidelines for screening for troops being sent to war and set limits for when those with psychiatric problems can be kept in combat.
“The articles were based on reporting that was both broad, exposing the pattern of deficiencies, and deep, telling the stories of the young men and women who had committed suicide in the war zone,” said Rebecca Corbett, deputy Washington bureau chief for The NewYork Times, one of the four judges. “It was a powerful series, powerfully told, and it provoked changes that may save soldiers' lives.” ...
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