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BECKLEY -- As fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan extends, new studies show it's affecting the soldiers involved. Mental health specialists say multiple re-deployments, and new studies directed at soldier's mental health, are putting a spotlight on the wounds no one sees.
According to USA Today, one in nine of soldiers discharged from the United States Army can trace their discharge to a mental illness. That's a 7-percent increase over figures collected in 2005.
Andrew Caldwell, a mental health specialist at Beckley's VA Medical Center, says those numbers make sense. He points to several issues including a new interest in mental health that didn't exist in the past, a different atmosphere in Iraq and Afghanistan, and multiple re-deployments.
