"Military Psychiatric Screening Still Lags," by Matthew Kauffman and Lisa Chedekel, Hortford Courant, March 9, 2008.

• Position: THE Monthly JOURNALISM AWARD - Brief article

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One of the greatest stains on the record of the Bush administration is its neglect of veterans returning home from Iraq. But for the past two years, Matthew Kauffman and Lisa Chedekel of the Hartford Courant have been investigating a lesser-known disgrace: the numerous American soldiers who have been deployed despite being mentally unfit for combat. In 2006, the Courant obtained predeployment records for nearly a million soldiers and found that the Army was failing to screen troops for psychological problems before sending them to war. Even when the Army did know that soldiers were suffering from serious mental illnesses, or were even suicidal, these servicemen and servicewomen were often sent on second and third tours because of troop shortages. Although the military doesn't track suicides (it counts them with other noncombat fatalities), the Courant identified such deaths--many for the first time--by obtaining autopsy reports and speaking with the family and friends of dead...