Mentally Unstable Soldiers Redeployed to Iraq (with video)
BOB WOODRUFF, JAMES HILL and JAIME HENNESSEY
Dec. 22, 2009
(Oct. 2008)
Two weeks before his second deployment to Iraq last September, Army Specialist Michael DeVlieger broke down.
"At first, I thought it was something that everybody experienced," DeVlieger told ABC's Bob Woodruff, "and just through time and perseverance I guess it would pass." It didn't pass.
After an 11-day hospitalization, DeVlieger was given a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, three psychiatric prescriptions -- and deployment orders.
"Eighteen hours after he got out of the hospital, he deployed to Iraq," DeVlieger's wife, Christine DeVlieger, recalled. He left for Iraq despite Pentagon policy requiring that service members establish three months of "stability without significant symptoms" before deploying.
"I was a ticking time bomb," Michael DeVlieger said.
Watch "World News" Tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET for the full report
Citing privacy, officials at DeVlieger's base in Fort Campbell, Ky., declined to comment except to say there was a combat stress unit assigned to DeVlieger's base in Iraq.
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http://abcnews.go.com/International/WoodruffReports/Story?id=6095812&page=1