Traumatized Female Vets Face Uphill Battle

Traumatized Female Vets Face Uphill Battle

Traumatized Female Vets Face Uphill Battle

The first day Kristine Wise returned from eight months military service in Iraq, she knew something was wrong. Driving from San Diego to Bakersfield to see her brother, the road signs triggered flashbacks.

Kristine Wise (left) of Oceanside, Calif., had trouble getting respect from VA doctors when she returned from Iraq with symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. She is shown here in Kuwait in 2003.

(Courtesy Kristine Wise )

"One said 'railroad,' but instead I saw 'roadside' and in my mind a roadside bomb," said Wise, who supplied parts to combat vehicles in the first wave of the war. "I would see 'beware' and my mind would see 'Baghdad.' I couldn't explain it."

The depression and panic attacks began long before her honorable discharge in 2004, but the battle to get the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to take her symptoms seriously was just as difficult.

"They had a hard time comprehending I was a combat vet and didn't treat me with the same respect," said Wise, now 40 and rated 10 percent disabled for post traumatic stress disorder.

Wise is one of more than 230,000 women -- about 11 percent of the U.S. military -- who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As of the third quarter in 2009, the VA reported that 11,713 of the women evaluated received a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Women have experienced the same psychological and emotional trauma as their male counterparts, but the VA has only begun to pay attention to their gender-specific needs, according to to "Combat to Community," a 2009 report conducted the veterans' advocacy group, Swords to Plowshares.