Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm: A Summary Report.

When the United States forces deployed to the Persian Gulf in August, 1990, many senior military leaders were appropriately concerned about the psychological stress that would be created by this high-threat deployment to a harsh operational environment. To learn more about the stress of th deployment and how soldiers were adapting, the Department of Military Psychiatry, Water Reed Army Institute of Research, took a research team to Saudi Arabia to study the deployment first hand. The team conducted an initial assessment of stress and adaptation in the Persian Gulf theater from 22 September through 6 October 1990. A second team returned for additional interviews and surveys of soldiers and their leaders from 11 November through 13 December 1990. The objective of this research program was to determine the psychological consequences of deployment, combat, and redeployment to home station for soldiers and their families. Together, these visits resulted in interviews with approximately 1,000 soldiers and their leaders, and the collection of more than 2800 self-administered questionnaires from soldiers in these same combat and combat support units.