Combat Stress Unit Returns to Iraq

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Associated Press | August 19, 2005
BOSTON - Members of the 883rd Medical Company treat the kinds of wounds that can't be seen but are sometimes just as damaging as physical injuries. The "combat stress control" unit, which heads to Iraq on Friday for a second deployment, offers counseling and advice to soldiers who may be suffering from anxiety, depression, insomnia and a host of other psychological problems associated with combat.

The unit, which spent three months in Iraq in 2003, is comprised of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other mental health workers.

Staff Sgt. Robert Davis, 30, of Newton, a mental health technician, said during his first deployment that he saw many soldiers who had anxiety and trouble sleeping, conditions that were magnified by the mobile nature of the war.