My name is Carolyn Schapper, and I am a combat veteran. While serving as a member of a Military Intelligence unit in Iraq from October 2005 to September 2006 with the Georgia National Guard, I participated in approximately 200 combat patrols. While many of these patrols included positive interactions with the local population, I did encounter direct fire, Improvised Explosive Devices, and other threats during some of my missions. Overall, I valued the opportunity to learn more about the Iraqi people, my country, and myself.

When I came home from Iraq, I dealt with a wide range of adjustment challenges/Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms; rage, anger, withdrawal from friends and family, depression, high anxiety, agitation, nightmares and hyper-vigilance. When you are in this state of mind, it is difficult to traverse the VA maze. I might still be lost if I had not had the luck of running into another veteran who already had gotten help, and who pointed out that a Vet Center could help me start navigating the VA system. While I was able to receive the appropriate help and rating from the VA for my psychological injury, many of my sisters-in-arms have not been so lucky.

Part of the problem is that, because females are excluded from official “combat roles” in the military, women veterans have a greater burden of proof when it comes to establishing combat-related PTSD. But the reality on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan is that there is no clear front line, and female servicemembers are seeing combat.

Modern warfare makes it impossible to delineate between combat, combat-support, and combat service support roles. You do not even need to leave the Forward Operating Base to be exposed to the continual threat of mortars and rockets. Military personnel are often required to walk around in or sleep in body armor. As one female veteran told me, “Life in Iraq and Afghanistan is combat.” Moreover, many female troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have been exposed to direct fire while serving in support roles, such as military police, helicopter pilots, and truck drivers. All of our troops, whether or not they serve in the combat arms, must exhibit constant vigilance, and this can take an extreme psychological toll on our servicemembers.

The traditional understanding of female servicemembers’ military duties has been the biggest hurdle to getting them adequate compensation for their injury. The nature of PTSD and other psychological injuries makes it difficult to identify the exact stressor, and therefore, disability may be determined based on the claims processor’s perception of exposure to combat. While a service-connection for PTSD would seem obvious for a male infantryman, it could easily come under more scrutiny for a female intelligence soldier despite how much actual contact either of us had with enemy forces.

Another obstacle that female servicemembers face when trying to establish presumption of service-connected PTSD involves collecting the proper paperwork. Especially in instances of Military Sexual Trauma, some women forgo documenting their injury, rather than get official military documentation from a male commander or doctor. If you are suffering from a mental health injury, the possibility of having someone question, deride or expose such a personal and painful experience is often overwhelming, and can lead many female servicemembers to avoid the process altogether.

H.R. 952, introduced by the Chairman, solves this problem. It changes Title 38 to presume service-connection for PTSD based solely on a servicemember’s presence in a combat zone. IAVA wholeheartedly endorses this legislation, and looks forward to working with the Subcommittee to see this bill become law.

Ron Vance, who served as a sergeant in the California Army National Guard, remembers being knocked out cold in a shower building in 2004 in Taji, Iraq. He said he screamed and fell while showering, suffering burns on his back and shoulders. Another soldier who tried to pry him from the shower head also was injured. Vance, 57, of Fresno, Calif., said he's still too traumatized to shower without his wife nearby.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., called Task Force SAFE's findings troubling. He said the task force is doing good work but the problems should have been fixed much earlier.

"Just imagine getting the news that they've done 25,000 facilities, but your son or daughter is in the 65,000 they haven't done," Casey told the AP.

Last year, 94 troops stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan or other Central Command countries sought medical treatment for electric shock, according to Defense Department health data. KBR's database lists 231 electric shock incidents in the more than 89,000 facilities the company runs in Iraq, according to military records.

KBR is the target of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Maseth's family. They claim the company knew there were electrical problems in the building where he died, but didn't fix them. His mother testified last year on Capitol Hill.

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CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.—Viral infections, including hepatitis, have been found in 16 patients exposed to contaminated equipment at Veterans Affairs medical facilities, a department spokeswoman said Friday. So far, 10 colonoscopy patients from the VA medical center in Murfreesboro, Tenn., have tested positive for hepatitis, VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts told The Associated Press.

In a later e-mail, she reported six patients at the VA's ear, nose and throat clinic in Augusta, Ga, tested positive for unspecified viral infections.

The number of reported infections could rise.

More than 10,000 veterans were warned to get blood tests because they could have been exposed to contamination at those two facilities plus a medical center in Miami. All three sites failed to properly sterilize equipment between treatments, and the problems dated back for more than five years at the Murfreesboro and Miami hospitals.

Roberts said the department doesn't yet have results from most of the veterans it warned.

A VA alert to patients said they "could have been exposed to body fluids from a previous patient."

Roberts said four Tennessee patients have tested positive for hepatitis B and six have tested positive for hepatitis C. No one has tested positive for HIV, she said.

Hepatitis is a viral infection of the liver. The most common form, hepatitis C, is potentially life-threatening and can cause permanent liver damage. Both the B and C forms are spread by contact with the blood or other body fluid of an infected person, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Roberts stressed that the source of the infections isn't known and may never be identified.

"There's no way to scientifically, conclusively prove they contracted this due to treatment at our facility," Roberts said.

But the VA will make sure those who tested positive "get the best possible treatment," she said.

The VA's inspector general office has started a review, spokeswoman Joanne Moffett said Friday.

According to a VA e-mail, only about half of the Murfreesboro and Augusta patients notified by letter of a mistake that exposed them to "potentially infectious fluids" have requested department blood tests.

Some veterans said they decided to seek tests from their private physicians, rather than the VA.