A general battles post-combat stress

Gen. Carter Ham, United States Army Europe commander, talks about the difficulties of readjusting to life after a deployment during an interview with Stars and Stripes in his office in Heidelberg, Germany.


A general battles post-combat stress
By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, January 11, 2009

HEIDELBERG, Germany — Just back from a year in Iraq, Gen. Carter Ham got into the car with his wife, Christi, and began a strangely silent, cross-country drive.

“I probably said three words,” Ham recently recalled of the trip four years ago from Washington state to Washington, D.C.

His time in Iraq, what the future held for them, the sites along the way — that was a lot not to talk about, Christi thought, for her usually communicative husband.

It was almost like he resented being home.

“I sensed a huge feeling on his part that there wasn’t a huge purpose to his being here (with her) and there were important things being done (in Iraq), and that he wasn’t part of it,” she said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59926