By Meredith MacKenzie

I was born on Hahn AFB in Germany during the Cold War. I was baptized by an Air Force chaplain. For most of my life my father has been an F-16 Fighter pilot and my mother the most understanding and enduring of military spouses. All of my father’s friends went by names like “Fuzz,” “Mad Dog,” and “Chairman.” I have waited at an airport many times with that “Welcome Home Daddy!” sign. I understand every phrase from military life from “hurry up and wait” to the alphabet soup of TDY and the SOP and I will never forget the ROE my dad made me sign in order to get my learner’s permit.

As an Air Force brat, I thought that I understood America’s military. I mean, I come from a military family, the military helped pay for my education, my favorite college team (after my alma mater, of course) is the Fighting Falcons. But being on the ground, on base, even my own failed attempt to join AFROTC in college, could not have prepared me for getting to know the Department of Defense all over again.

As the TRNS Pentagon correspondent I had the chance over the last week to travel with the Secretary of Defense to Mexico City, Ft. Bliss, Texas, and the largest Army vehicle depot in the country at Texarkana. It was my first time traveling with a government entourage and I want to tell my fellow citizens that there is no better way to travel. I imagine that only the President or the Secretary of State travel in more style than Secretary Gates.

It was the contrast between our great accommodations (which the journalists themselves pay for) and the convenience of riding in a police escorted motorcade and the drab brown surroundings of Ft. Bliss that stuck out to me. I thought I knew what military life was about– turns out that I know military life in an officer’s family. My family has never had to live on base, my father has never had a 15-month hardship deployment, and he certainly has never had three of them.

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Speaking at the Restoration and Resilience Center at Ft. Bliss, Texas the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says that after changing the questionnaire for security clearance, seeking help for post combat mental disorders will not, in and of itself be a disqualification for receiving or renewing the security clearance. (0:51)

Speaking at the Restoration and Resilience Center at Ft. Bliss, Texas the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says that part of the effort to remove the stigma of PTSD is to reassuring military members that seeking help does not make them weak. (0:22)

 

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Speaking form the Restoration and Reliance Center at Ft. Bliss Texas, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced changes to the questionnaire that military personnel are required to fill out in order to obtain their security clearance. Question No. 21 on the form asks about the applicant’s mental health history and whether the applicant has sought mental health treatment.

Gates spoke about a review by the Army inspector general which found that soldiers were not seeking help with mental health issues because military member feared that by doing so they put their security clearance and therefore their jobs at risk. Gates said that after he learned about this, the Department of Defense undertook to change the wording of the question to exclude counseling for combat related stress disorders.

After an eight month process to change the government wide form, the questionnaire now makes clear that seeking treatment for mental health problems related to combat stress is not a disqualification for receiving or renewing security clearance.

“There are two aspects it seems to me when dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,” said Gates. “First developing the care and the treatment of these soldiers…the second and in some ways perhaps equally challenging is to remove the stigma that is associated with PTSD to encourage soldiers, sailors, Marines and airman who encounter these problems to seek help.”