Eight Fort Hood Wounded to Deploy

The Nov. 5 Fort Hood shooting decimated two units that were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq, but it disproportionately affected mental health specialists set to deploy. Five of the 13 people killed during Army Maj. Nidal Hasan's alleged rampage were mental health specialists, and 19 of those wounded in the shooting were behavioral health specialists. However, eight of the wounded specialists are still willing to deploy, and 14 other mental health reservists have volunteered to fill the vacancies, important because last week the Army said that the need for mental health workers in Afghanistan was dire. The Army usually tries to maintain a ratio of 1 mental health clinician to 700 soldiers, but last spring the ratio slipped to 1-to-1,123.