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Mar 3 2009

Dart Award Winner

Mentally Unfit, Forced to Fight

By Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kaufman

Part 6

"My head was in a scary place. I remember thinking, `I can't believe I'm working on a $14 million aircraft. I just don't care about this,''' he said. "When I'd come out of my daze, I was worried about messing up and endangering the life of my guys.''

"My head was in a scary place. I remember thinking, `I can't believe I'm working on a $14 million aircraft. I just don't care about this,''' he said. "When I'd come out of my daze, I was worried about messing up and endangering the life of my guys.''

Denton, 30, said his depression was easy to keep secret -- pre- and post-deployment health screenings were self-reported, and commanders hustling Marines through six-month rotations never probed his mental state.

Now back home, Denton, who is being treated for depression, isn't sure whether he managed to stay below the radar -- or whether there was any radar to stay below.

"If a man is having serious mental problems, and the chain of command knows about it, you get him out of there and get him help." -- Warren Henthorn, father of Army Spec. Jeffrey Henthorn

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Monday: Ignored

"They talked about how he had a history of mental problems. No kidding. ... I mean, if you're flat-footed, you don't go in. So isn't there a clause in there if you had mental problems?''

-- Margaret Brabazon, mother of Army Spec.

Edward W. Brabazon

Tuesday: Drugged

"Bobby is on a mind-altering drug, with a loaded rifle, and he is requested to guard an Iraqi detainee?'' -- Ann Guy, mother of Marine Pfc.

Robert Allen Guy

Wednesday: Recycled

"It just floors us that they'd send him back. To be in a psychiatric hospital last summer and now back to a war zone.'' -- Larry Syverson, father of Army Staff Sgt. Bryce Syverson

Article Sections

Lisa Chedekel

  • Lisa Chedekel is a senior writer and co-founder of the online news service C-HIT (the Connecticut Health Investigative Team), which has a section devoted to veterans’ issues. She is an award-winning investigative reporter who wrote for the Hartford Courant for 15 years, covering a wide range of beats, from politics to healthcare.

Matthew Kaufman

  • Matthew Kauffman has been a reporter for The Hartford Courant for 21 years, and is currently assigned to the paper's investigative desk, where he works on longer-term projects. He also specializes in computer-assisted reporting and manages the newsroom's databases and Intranet. Outside the paper, he teaches a graduate-level course in computer-assisted reporting at Quinnipiac University. Before joining the investigative desk in 2004, Kauffman was a business writer and columnist, covered legal affairs, and wrote from the paper's New Haven bureau. Prior to joining The Courant, Kauffman covered local news for the Wausau Daily Herald in Wisconsin and was a reporter and editor at New Jersey Reporter magazine.  He graduated from Vassar College with a degree in political science.

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