Thank you for your question. It makes sense that a soldier has a higher level of post-traumatic stress after several missions, because the more often one is deployed, the higher the likelihood that one has experienced something extremely stressful. Based on our most recent data, we know that, with regard to the people who have come back from Afghanistan, those who have experienced the most extreme shocks are most likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, which only makes senses. I do not think it surprising that the level of post-traumatic stress is higher after three deployments.
As far as decompression is concerned, please understand that this process was not created to decrease the level of post-traumatic stress. Rather, the point of decompression is to make it easier for a soldier to go home again, which is not the same thing. It is to reduce the tension which can arise when a soldier goes from a theatre of operations to his family the next day. Everyone thinks that it will be great once they are home, that there won't be any problems, but that is not the case. While the soldier was gone, the family has reorganized the way it functions—