A new federal regulation went into effect on July 13, 2010, intended to make it easier for veterans to receive disability benefits for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The rule eliminated the requirement that veterans provide documentation of specific events like firefights, bomb blasts or deafening mortar attacks that caused their PTSD.

Hundreds of thousands of veterans report symptoms that include constant anxiety, recurring flashbacks, irritability, and emotional numbness. It is not surprising that many veterans cannot give the exact date and location of the precipitating event. Veterans groups have said that precise documentation is often difficult or impossible to find from the fierce day to day fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The rule would also apply to thousands of veterans from Vietnam who still suffer from PTSD decades later. President Obama called the new rule a “long-overdue step” in his weekly radio address. “I don’t think our troops on the battlefield should have to take notes to keep for a claims application.”

Under the new rule, veterans can qualify for benefits if they can show that they served in a war zone in a position where firefights, mortar attacks and bomb blasts occurred. They would not have to document that they came under direct enemy fire or saw their comrades killed. Veterans groups assert that tens of thousands of service members -many of them women – did not serve in combat roles but still suffered traumatic experiences. Benefits include free physical and mental health care in the veterans health system and monthly disability checks that can range from several hundred dollars to about $2,700, depending on the severity of the disability.

Eric Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, said, “This nation has a solemn obligation to the men and women who have honorably served this country and suffer from the emotional and often devastating hidden wounds of war. This final regulation goes a long way to ensure that veterans receive the benefits and services they need.” However, veterans groups say the rule, which is a major improvement, does not go far enough for veterans seeking disability compensation for PTSD. The sticking point is a provision in the rule that a final determination of whether a veteran’s disorder is tied to military service can be made only by a physician or psychologist working for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Veterans groups have urged that private physicians and psychologists also be allowed to make the PTSD determination. Department officials say that the provision is to ensure consistency in the examinations. But veterans report that private clinicians often give more thorough examinations than federal ones. And they say that they are already treating the veterans as patients and thus are more familiar with their symptoms.

Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, an advocacy group, said that more than 150,000 cases of PTSD have been diagnosed by the veterans health system among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, while thousands more have received diagnoses from private doctors. But he added that records showed that the veterans department had approved disability claims for only 78,000 veterans with the disorder. Many had their compensation claims rejected by claim processors. Sullivan said that claim adjudicators were often adversarial in dealing with veterans seeking benefits. “V.A. needs to train their examination staff so that they understand PTSD is associated with deployment.”

More than two million service members have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001– many on multiple tours of duty – and it is estimated that 20 percent or more of them have or will develop PTSD. The human side of the picture was described vividly in an article in The New York Times about the soldiers of the Fourth Brigade, First Armored Division, coming home from Iraq to Fort Bliss, Texas. During the past year, only one of the unit’s soldiers died in combat, but in 2008, when they returned to Fort Bliss from Iraq, seven soldiers were killed and six others committed crimes in which at least four civilians and soldiers from outside the brigade died in a little more than a year. Leaders of the Fourth Brigade say that there is institutional ignorance about combat stress and traumatic brain injury.

Sergeant Major Mustafa: “They were leaving a war zone, coming back home and not getting the care and supervision necessary, which allowed them to stay in the Mosul mindset.” He was referring to the violent northern Iraq city where the brigade had been stationed before it returned to Fort Bliss in 2008. “This is a group of people that had been fighting and killing and taking casualties for 14 months. You can’t switch it on and off.” Lt. Colonel David Wilson added, “Being back in garrison is what we don’t do well, because since 9/11 it seems we’ve spent more time deployed than at home.”

Colonel Peter Newell, the Brigade commander, is taking a broad holistic approach to countering the violence that occurs when the troops return to Fort Bliss. This includes meeting some soldiers with psychological problems at the landing strip and escorting them to an interview with a counselor, training leaders in suicide prevention, and monitoring traffic violations and drunken driving citations. Officers drop into bars around Fort Worth to monitor soldier’s behavior. Searches take place in barracks for drugs, including heroin to head off overdoses. Colonel Newell said, “There is a burning desire to change the military. We had to do something, or we could have bottomed out after eight years of war.”

Representative John Hall, Democrat of New York, is the sponsor of legislation to speed veterans’ disability claims due to PTSD. He reports that his office handles dozens of cases where veterans had trouble receiving disability compensation. He agreed completely with the veterans advocacy groups when he declared, “It doesn’t matter whether you are an infantryman or a cook or a truck driver. Anyone is potentially at risk for post-traumatic stress.”

Joyce S. Anderson is the author of “Courage in High Heels,” “Flaw in the Tapestry,” “If Winter Comes” and “The Mermaids Singing.” She can be reached at JSAWrite@aol.com.