Commander details tough war tour, redeployment challenges

The commander of Fort Carson’s 4th Brigade Combat team said Friday he is confident the Army is “doing everything humanly possible” to help returning Afghanistan war veterans who grapple with combat stress.

“When we know there is an issue with them, we are responding to them,” Col. Randy George said.

“And when mistakes happen, or the situation changes, I know also that we’re quick to adjust.”

Soldiers’ behavioral health challenges — and the Army’s approach to addressing them — were among the topics George addressed at a luncheon sponsored by the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce.

Speaking before an audience of business leaders, George provided an overview of the unit’s yearlong tour that ended in June, highlighting how forbidding terrain, tribal factions and fierce resistance complicated its fight in a four-province swath in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

But after attacks in which 39 soldiers were killed and 311 wounded, readjusting to normalcy may be a challenge equal to the others.

In May, the Gazette reported that nearly 1,000 4th Brigade soldiers were flagged for close behavioral health assessments during screenings the brigade conducted in Afghanistan before its return this summer.

In his presentation, George said the Army’s precautions resulted in “less issues” than in the past redeployments.

According to the figures George supplied, 130 soldiers were referred to seminars focusing on sleep disorders and other lingering problems; 28 were sent to marriage counseling, and nine soldiers ended up as hospital patients.

Maj. T.G. Taylor, a 4th brigade spokesman, said more than 40 soldiers were placed in Warrior Transition Units, the Army’s home for some of its most vulnerable soldiers, until they can rejoin their units or be released from service. Fort Carson officials had previously said they were preparing to receive as many as 100.

George credited squad- and platoon-level leaders with arranging help for comrades who needed it the most. He said the brigade has also benefited from Army-wide efforts to dispel the idea that counseling is for the weak.

“Everybody deals with these kinds of stresses and tragedies a little different, so what we try to do is basically reduce the stigma and deal with everybody as an individual,” George said.

More than 300 of the brigade’s soldiers received awards for valor during the combat tour, and 22 received the Silver Star, the nation’s third highest award for valor in combat.

Two soldiers were nominated to receive the Medal of Honor, George said, without mentioning further details.

Most of the brigade served in the northeastern provinces of Nuristan, Nangarhar, Laghman and Kunar, an infamous province that George said is often recognized as “the most lethal and kinetic province in all of Afghanistan.”

One 800-soldier battalion, the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, was posted in Kandahar province 400 miles to the south of their comrades.

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