There has been an effort to do some screening and particularly when members are close to discharge. Russ would be a better person than me to answer this. The reality is that a lot of PTSD doesn't show its ugly face until many months and sometimes years after a person is discharged. Men, particularly veterans, are used to saying, “I'm okay. I'm fine. There's nothing the matter with me. I've been through this.” It's only when they get home and experience all of the difficulties that come with the recollection of what happened that they feel the impact.
I would like to add on your question to Nora. One of the issues, in terms of family identity, is that kids watch dad or mom go away, and they're so happy. There are pictures in the paper and big kisses at the navy wharf or wherever, and dad or mom goes off. Then dad or mom comes home, and there's a celebration, and the kids are proud of their parents, proud of their dad and mom. They talk about it in school. Their kids are there.
All of a sudden, six months later, out of the blue—mom may have seen a little bit but the kid hasn't—dad beats the tar out of mom. Holy mackerel, what a trauma. And nothing happens. Mom has heard a little bit about military issues and decides to do some checking, and then it happens again. Then all of a sudden, dad is charged. He goes to jail. There's a divorce. All this stuff happens. That is a trauma that will drag that kid for 60 more years after dad comes home from Afghanistan. We frequently forget that that happens and the impact of that trauma, which goes untreated and unrecognized. Forty years later that kid may have a real problem, and they'll never be able to track it back to that incredible trauma. They're high one minute and right at the bottom the next.
Sorry for that, Chair.