Navy announces program to screen Individual Augmentees for post-deployment mental health problems

Above: An Individual Augmentee Training Course at the McCrady Training Center in South Carolina. Sometimes known as 'sand sailors', Individual Augmentees (IAs) are basically Navy personnel who either volunteer or are involuntarily transferred to work with the Army in combat duty. There are approximately 13,000 sailors serving in IA billets, split between active duty and reserve components. The majority of IAs serve in Iraq or Afghanistan. In order to accomplish the transition from sailor to soldier, they go through a shortened version of combat basic training and learn Army tactics and doctrines, and train on the various weapons they will use in theater as well as patrol techniques, land navigation, and urban assault.

By the end of this month, all Navy individual augmentees returning from Iraq will pass through the Warrior Transition Program in Kuwait, Navy officials said.

The program will give sailors three to five days to decompress, and will allow the Navy to pre-screen sailors to see if any might have mental health problems when they get home, officials said...

Snyder said the Navy has heard of individual augmentees coming home, feeling depressed and not knowing whom to talk to. The Navy has also heard news reports about reservists coming back from their tours as individual augmentees and committing suicide.

Unlike other sailors, individual augmentees do not return home in units, and if they are reservists, they may not have access to military medical care, Snyder said.

Read the rest at Stars and Stripes

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