It follows an Army study, carried out last year, which found that one in every six soldiers was exhibiting signs of traumatised behaviour. And psychologists fear the numbers suffering may get far higher as Iraq's insurgency continues.
Our Washington Correspondent, Jonathan Rugman, reports.
These soldiers were not greeted as liberators, instead Iraq now America's most sustained combat zone since Vietnam. Over 1200 dead, nearly ten thousand wounded. Not just broken bodies but shattered minds
In Vietnam, the enemy melted into the jungle, there were no clear front lines. And after the danger passed the panic attacks, the nightmares, the flashbacks often lasted for years, some 15% of veterans reckoned to be suffering post combat stress.
Amid today's insurgency the US army's own study suggests the figure is even higher. 17%. of troops exhibiting traumatised behaviour, America's military hospitals now overrun with soldiers like Chris Bain.
Chris was hit by mortar fire in April, and is now in psychiatric therapy. The sergeant's twelve year army career brought to a standstill by Iraq.
After 16 years in uniform, Lieutenant Philip Goodrum was last year tasked with running supply convoys across Iraq. Like the soldier who last week asked Defense Secretary Rumsfeld why soldiers had to find scrap metal to protect their humvees, Goodrum says his men used Iraqi manhole covers to reinforce their vehicles, and that they travelled with no escort, no radio and no map.
Goodrum, now so traumatised by what he did, finds that now just being stuck in town traffic terrifies him.
And when this officer isn't seeing a psychiatrist he's meeting his lawyer. Because the army wants Lieutenant Goodrum court-martialled. Why? Because he checked himself into a civilian hospital after a nervous breakdown, effectively going absent without leave. And that was after an army doctor had turned him away.
But army psychiatrists know there's a problem and fear its growing; because over 50% of America's combat troops are not full-timers but reserves, some on their third tour of duty. Military hospitals including Walter Reed in Washington, are preparing for the biggest influx of psychological casualties in 30 years
And over 10,000 returning soldiers showing up at veterans affairs centres this past year, around 30% of them - the biggest single proportion - seeking help for post traumatic stress. Vietnam veterans led by Alfonso Bartres now re-employed to offer advice
The army's advice? Turn off that killing switch. But for marine reserve Jeffrey Lucey that proved impossible.
Earlier this year Lucey brought his sister Deborah to a stream near their Massachusetts home, haunted as he was by what he'd seen and done in Iraq
It was last Christmas Eve that Deborah's brother gave her the first indication of what upset him so much and told her he intended to kill himself, after being so traumatised about events in Iraq.
Six months ago, the former truck driver in Iraq hanged himself in the family home. He was just 23.
Jeffrey Lucey's grave is adorned with his favourite things. a refuge from the flashbacks, from the desert spiders which filled his nightmares. He'd refused medical help out of fear the marines would think him weak. And while a marine investigation found no evidence to back up his claims of murder, the corporal's family believes every word of it.
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