Clinic shooter leaves Iraq

BAQUBA, Iraq, May 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army sergeant who allegedly shot and killed five other service personnel at a mental-health crisis clinic in Baghdad last week has been transported out of Iraq for further questioning and legal processing.

Sgt. John M. Russell of Sherman, Texas, was sent to Camp Arifjan in neighboring Kuwait, Lt. Col. Brian Tribus, the corps-level spokesman for Multi-National Forces-Iraq, said over the weekend.

Additional information on whether Russell would be transferred to a U.S. military facility in Germany, where his 54th Engineer Battalion is based, or sent to the United States was not immediately available.

Russell, finishing his third tour of duty in Iraq at a large support base on the edge of Baghdad, is accused of entering the crisis center at Camp Liberty and gunning down five troops with a weapon he had wrested from another soldier.

He's charged with five counts of murder and one of aggravated assault.

The shooting was the worst single act of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war. In 2003 an Army sergeant killed at least one soldier and wounded 15 others in a grenade attack at an encampment in Kuwait. In 2005 two soldiers were killed when a mine was placed on the window sill of their office in Tikrit.

The reason for last week's massacre is either still undetermined or unreleased, but it's known that Russell had been sent to the center for counseling by his commanding officer, who also had him disarmed.

News reports have said Russell was having financial difficulties.

Among the five killed were two military doctors and two soldiers from Forward Operating Base Hammer in southern Diyala province.

Michael E. Yates Jr., a private first class from Federalsburg, Md., was just 19. Peruvian-born Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos from Paterson, N.J., was 25.

"Losing soldiers in battle is an unfortunate cost of our chosen path," Lt. Col. Louis Rago, commander of 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, said at a memorial ceremony in FOB Hammer's chapel on Saturday. "It's something we can understand and learn to accept. But losing comrades in the manner we lost Christian and Michael is probably more difficult to understand.

"Many of us are filled with anger. … Together we must move through the rage and the horror."

Anger, rage and horror -- three components of new stress for the men and women of 3-66 who, like compatriots throughout the country, must deal each day with the problems and anxieties of a long deployment from home.

"Combat" stress is a concern. But kinetic operations in Iraq are now increasingly infrequent for U.S. military forces. Levels of violence have ebbed to post-invasion 2003 levels, and under January's Strategic Framework Agreement between Washington and Baghdad, U.S. troops now play supporting roles. Iraqi security forces are in lead in terrorist sweeps, arms-cache searches and similar operations.

The stress of separation from families and relationship troubles with loved ones, comrades and superiors appear to dominate the list of issues soldiers in Iraq today stress about, soldiers said.

"It's hard to say which are the top two concerns," said Lt. Col. Steve Lewis, an officer with medical Task Force 44, which runs mental-health clinics in Iraq. "Common concerns are home relationships, marital problems; other times it may be related to work, conflict in the office or what they have observed in battle."

Maj. Roderick Mills, chaplain for the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, to which 3-66 is attached, added, "The challenges people here have may be unique because they are in the Army, but they're still total persons. So there are relationship challenges, life challenges, work challenges. In that respect, they are no different from anyone else except that they are in a high-stress situation."

Task Force 44 runs stress clinics at about 25 military installations in Iraq. In addition, teams of psychiatrists and psychiatric technicians are regularly sent to outlying bases to offer their services to troubled soldiers. Lewis said about 5,000 soldiers visit the clinics each month in Iraq. That figure, however, includes those on return treatment visits.

The Battle Buddy concept, in which soldiers look out for each other, helps troops spot those who may be having difficulty. Lectures, briefings and public service announcements on base televisions in dining halls all push the concept of mental-health vigilance and treatment to help prevent potential suicides and to help comrades cope with problems by getting medical attention.

Suicides by military personnel, for years lower than the civilian population, have now nudged above the civilian mark. According to an Army report from January, the overall rate of suicide among all soldiers was 20.2 per 100,000 in 2008. The rate for civilians in 2006, the latest year for which statistics were available when the study was made, was 19.2 per 100,000 people.

According to reports, officials suggested the high operational tempo being experienced by troops and long deployments away from family to Iraq may be possible factors in the suicide rate.