WASHINGTON - As they prepare to come home from Iraq, thousands of U.S. soldiers are being screened for emotional problems. One goal is to prevent tragedies such as those last summer when three men who returned to Fort Bragg, N.C., from Afghanistan killed their wives.

"We have people who have gone through some tough stuff," Brig. Gen. Steven P. Schook of the Army's human resources office told a Pentagon news conference Wednesday.
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Part of the reason is to make sure units that suffered a significant number of casualties in Iraq do not go home without proper help. But the program is not just for them, but for all Army active and reserve troops, as well as family members who want it.

"Part of the message ... is that you've been through something extraordinary, every person who has been through it and every family that has been through it ought to have some kind of reaction to it. And that's OK," Army psychologist Lt. Col. Charles S. Milliken said at the news conference.

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"They may find if they've been gone six months to a year that their wife may have exerted a greater role in running the household," Schook said. "The kids have adjusted to the wife's new role in that household. So as they come back they are going to find a different set of conditions within that home."

Some may have a parent who died while they were away, or a spouse who started divorce proceedings in their absence.

While screening is being done overseas, officials are working with families to "arms the spouse with the skill" needed for the reunion or with information on how to spot problems.

"America provides to the Army its most precious thing -- its people -- and we as an institution are going to do all we can to ensure that we bring our people back from doing America's duty and get them ready to be fully reintegrated back into American society," Schook said.

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