Strategic Analysis of the 2014 Wounded Warrior Project Annual Alumni Survey: A Way Forward

Abstract : More than 2.7 million service members have served in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) (Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, undated). Although U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) statistics list 52,010 U.S. members as injured in action, they fail to account for the large number of injuries not diagnosed until service members return home (Fischer, 2014). Of 1.8 million separated veterans, 60 percent have obtained health care from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system (VA, 2014a). This includes care for both physical and mental health conditions, with patients often receiving multiple diagnoses. The most frequent diagnosis in separated OEF, OIF, and OND veterans receiving care at VA is musculoskeletal-system diseases, mainly joint and back problems (VA, 2014a). Second to musculoskeletal diseases are mental health diagnoses (VA, 2014a). For example, between 7 percent and 20 percent of troops deployed during OEF and OIF met criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Hoge, Castro, et al., 2004; Ramchand, Schell, et al., 2010; Seal et al., 2007; Smith et al., 2008; Tanielian and Jaycox, 2008; Vasterling et al., 2010), and VA reports more than 300,000 PTSD diagnoses since 2002 (VA, 2014a). Many service members have also experienced traumatic brain injury (TBI), sometimes referred to as the signature injury of the recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars because of its prevalence.