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July 3, 2009

Military tries to address stress, rear admiral says

Monique Headley

Rear Adm. Sean A. Pybus, recently appointed to command the Special Operations Pacific region, works to be sensitive to the individual and familial needs of troops.

Pybus, who refers to himself as a career special ops guy with more than 30 years as a Navy SEAL, said military careerists and special operations professionals remain busy with multiple deployments of six months at a time only to rest, recover, retrain and go back into the cycle.

“This is what they signed up to do but it does wear on a person,” he said. “A lot of people don’t realize, we have been at war since 2001 — that’s longer than World War II. It’s a long time.”

Over the last few years, said Pybus, there have been major changes to the way the military attends to the stress on its people and families.

“The service has done much to address mental health and physical therapy,” he said.

“Commanders have to pay much more attention to family health and family support. For the most part we do.”

Ten years ago, he said that was not necessarily so.

Since then, he explained, “the services have generated good programs to address mental and physical health and family support — both proactive and reactive ... I have to watch for the fatigue of troops and to see if there are other troops available.”

The best case scenario for the return home of troops, said Pybus, depends on where you are.

“In the Pacific, we have been there since 2002 with a lower profile,” he said. “We are here to help Philippine forces deal with their own issues and handle terrorist forces on their own. I would like those troops off mission and somewhere else when the Philippines is fully prepared and capable. They are at about 90 percent solution.

“Before here, I was in Tampa, Fla. I can’t speak for Afghanistan and Iraq but everything appears to be on right vector ... I continue to have a positive view that we are on our way to improving the capability of Iranian and Iraqi forces.

“Obviously, Afghanistan will take longer ... We all work to provide the peace we are all looking for but sometimes that takes years. You have to be patient and perseverent.”

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