Open Letter to Major General James Terry, Commander, 10th Mountain Div., Ft Drum Asking Him to Convene an Official Investigation of Base Mental Health Practices for War Veterans Considered at Risk for Suicide or Homicide

Major General James Terry, Commander,
10th Mountain Division (Light)
Headquarters Bldg.,
Ft Drum, N Y 13602-5000

Dear General Terry,

I am director of Citizen Soldier, a soldier/veterans advocacy organization chartered as a non profit public foundation in 1975. As an attorney, I have been involved in the past three years with several cases at Ft Drum where we concluded that war veterans did not receive efficacious treatment for mental illness brought on by combat trauma.

I'm certain that you're aware of the 325 page AR 15-6 investigative report, released October 16, that was prepared in the aftermath of Sgt. John Russell's alleged killing of five soldiers, including two therapists, at Camp Liberty in Iraq on May 11, 2009. For me, the report's most significant finding was that, "there was no clear procedure or established training guidelines...for managing soldiers identified as 'at risk' for suicide." Witness reports in the study describe Sgt. Russell as paranoid and angry in days before the shooting and say that his behavior was "deteriorating."

We know of at least three incidents involving 10th Mountain soldiers in the last seven months which I believe document the need for a similar AR 15-6 investigation. It wouldn't surprise me if there are additional incidents which have not yet been made public. The three known incidents are;

1) Suspected suicide of a Ft Drum mental health professional last March or April 2009 not long after she was deployed to Iraq.

2) Suspected suicide of Pvt.Tam T. Nguyen, 19, of San Jose, CA.,found dead in his barracks at Ft Drum on Wednesday, November 25, 2009

3) Stabbing deaths of two Ft Drum soldiers, Spec. Waide James, 20, of Cocoa, FL and Spec. Diego Valbuena, 23, of Port St Lucie, FL, discovered in their apartment in Evans Mills on Tuesday, December 1st.
Since then, another Ft Drum soldier, Justin Hunter, 20,of Ona, West Virginia has been apprehended and returned to Watertown where he was arraigned for two counts of second degree murder on Friday, December 4, 2009.

Hunter's wife Emily told the Associated Press that he had returned from a combat tour of Afghanistan a "changed man," plagued by flashbacks, stress and sleeplessness. "He saw his best friend get blown to pieces and he tried to put him back together. He was never right after that," she told reporters. She added that she'd recently gone to the hospital twice after her husband had injured her arm and thumb. The accused's mother Judy commented; "In my heart of heart, I think he snapped."

As an attorney, I am also disturbed by what seems to be the practice of Ft Drum personnel, without authorization, releasing information from Hunter's personal military records in an effort to downgrade the family's claim that the accused suffered from post traumatic stress disorder prior to the alleged murders.

General Terry, I am concerned that the incidents outlined above reveal a disturbing pattern of malfeasance and/or negligence toward mentally stressed soldiers at Ft Drum. My greatest fear is that additional deaths or injuries may occur if corrective action isn't taken. I urge you to order an independent investigation that will fully disclose administrative failures within Ft Drum's mental health system.

Yours truly,

Tod Ensign, Esq.,Director, Citizen Soldier
(212) 679-2250

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