Most soldiers in Iraq report low unit morale


Jim Mannion / AFP
07/22/2005

More than half of US soldiers serving in Iraq reported low or very low unit morale in an army survey conducted last year, an army mental health advisory team reported Wednesday.

However, the team, which conducted the assessment in Iraq and Kuwait from late August to mid-October 2004, found that conditions had improved over the previous year, when 72 percent of soldiers reported low or very low unit morale.
"Deployment length remains a top concern for OIF-II soldiers," the report said, referring to soldiers who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom during 2004.

"Fifty-four percent of OIF-II soldiers reported their unit moral as low or very low," it said. Only nine percent reported high or very high unit morale.
The report said 36 percent reported low or very low personal morale, an improvement over 2003, when 52 percent reported low personal morale.

Key sources of combat stress were incoming rocket and mortar fire and improvised explosive devices, which soldiers were encountering at a higher rate in 2004 than in 2003, the report said.

The main source of non-combat stress reported by soldiers was the long combat tour of duty in Iraq , with 52 percent expressing high or very high concern about the issue, 16 percent moderate concern, and 32 percent low or very low concern.
Some 41 percent of the soldiers also reported high or very high concern over the uncertainty of their redeployment date. But that was down from 87 percent of soldiers surveyed in 2003.

The report said fewer soldiers screened positively for mental health problems in the 2004 survey than in 2003 -- 13 percent compared with 18 percent.
Acute or postraumatic stress symptoms remained the top concern, affecting at least 10 percent of OIF-II soldiers, down from 15 percent in 2003.

In the 2004 survey, 17 percent of soldiers reported moderate or severe stress or emotional, alcohol or family problems. That compared with 23 percent in 2003 and 14 percent in a pre-deployment sample.

The assessment found that soldiers in National Guard and reserve units involved in transportation or combat support had significantly higher rates of mental health problems and lower perceptions of combat readiness and training than soldiers in other units.