Mental-health care for the troops

Regarding the Nov. 7 front-page article "At Walter Reed, a palpable strain on mental- health system":

Although noting that the Army has only 408 psychiatrists for its force of 545,000, the article did not mention the compassionate, dedicated and effective service those health-care professionals provide. The examples of treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the comments made by former Walter Reed mental-health workers told a one-sided story.

As a retired Army officer, I am very aware of the tremendous difference that psychiatrists and other mental-health workers at Walter Reed (and at other Army medical facilities around the world, including in combat zones) have made in the lives of countless soldiers. The vast majority of your readers are not. As I think about the strain on the Army's mental-health system from eight years of conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, I am reminded of Winston Churchill's tribute to the Royal Air Force's fighter pilots at the height of the Battle of Britain: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

Anthony Christino III, Alexandria

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Once again, reporters Anne Hull and Dana Priest have done an excellent job at looking beyond the headlines to the continuing lack of adequate, appropriate mental-health services for soldiers dealing with post-combat trauma. One only hopes that President Obama will heed the call so many of us have made, to provide them with first-rate, sensitive, culturally appropriate and comprehensive mental health services. But this still amounts to closing the door after the horse is stolen.

Let's bring home all those who are sacrificing for a cause no one can explain, justify or excuse any longer. Enough.

Susan Kleinberg, Columbia

The writer serves on the board of directors of the Maryland Mental Health Association.