By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

THE military must ensure that proper mental care and counseling services are made available on island once the 8,000 Marines are relocated from Okinawa to Guam, Sen. Judith Guthertz, D-Mangilao, said yesterday.
“We are hearing that one-fourth of all the Marines and Army who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan now has mental problems. This is based on the information released by the Department of Defense,” said Guthertz, a minority representative to the Civilian-Military Task Force.
“If we are talking one-fourth of the 8,000 Marines coming to Guam, that means about 2,000 active duty Marines stationed here will be suffering combat-related trauma,” she warned.
The Marines’ mental health is one of the several issues that Guthertz included on the list of items that she said the military must address before the Marines start relocating in 2012.
During a breakfast meeting with General David Bice, head of the Joint Guam Program Office, Guthertz said “as a patriotic American and a devoted Guamanian, I believe that we will welcome our Marines home with our noted hospitality.”
However, she added, the local community needs to ensure that Guam is prepared to deal with the impact of military build up on the lives of the civilian population.
Unchecked behaviors by the troops, Guthertz said, might result in increased crimes such as assaults, domestic violence, mistreatment of children, and sexual offenses.
“As a community, we need to be assured that our troops who served in the battle are given proper care while on Guam. I’m sure there will be a small portion who will be needing this kind of counseling service, but we need to have the right facility,” Guthertz said.
“We have service men and women returning to the war zones for second and third tours. Their families are also suffering from mental problems. We have war veterans who fought in Vietnam and Korea, but mental healthcare is not available in our own local healthcare system,” she added.
A 2004 research published by The New England Journal of Medicine cited the findings by various study groups which indicated that Marines and Army who were sent to the battle zones in Iraq and Afghanistan faced a significant risk of mental health problems, including major depression, generalized anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.