" Beginning Wednesday, service leaders will start a program to educate more than 1 million soldiers within 90 days, whether at home or deployed overseas, including active duty soldiers, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard. The program also will be made available to families. "

" The key messages are that mild traumatic brain injuries, or concussions, and post-traumatic stress disorder are serious and soldiers should seek treatment, said Lt. Gen. James L. Campbell, director of the Army staff. "

" "They impact soldiers and they impact those soldiers' families," he told Pentagon reporters Tuesday. "And as a result of that, that impacts the readiness of our great army." "

" The program is designed to teach leaders and soldiers to recognize symptoms in themselves and others and to know what treatment is available, he said. "

" "I'm not naive ... there is a huge culture issue here," he said of a common fear that those who seek help for mental problems will be perceived as weak and that will damage their military careers. "

" The program will argue that the reverse is true -- that getting help is a sign of personal courage, he said. "If young soldiers see other soldiers and their leaders seeking help, then what we do -- and it's a slow process -- is we reduce an associated stigma," Campbell said. "

" In small groups of about 40 people each, everyone is to receive a one-hour class on brain injuries and stress, in which teachers will be equipped with videos, slides and a list of expected questions and answers. It will be done through a rarely used "chain teach" program, that is, the subject is taught to leaders, who then teach it to soldiers, continuing the sessions down through the Army's chain of command. "

" The effort is one of many being made by the Army and the Department of Defense to try to keep up with the wounded and injured from an Iraq conflict that has gone on
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