A friend recently asked me about the mental health problems faced by veterans of the war on terror. It was a painful moment for me.

After a brief pause, I informed him that I had post-traumatic stress disorder. His look betrayed his "you, too" feeling. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 179,713 Vietnam War veterans are being compensated for PTSD. Nearly 16,000 veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom have been seen at VA medical centers for the disorder.

There are those who will tough it out. Each of us struggles because we are fighters, and this is an enemy, an emotional darkness, that we delude ourselves into thinking we can overcome. But improved testing and compensation are needed, a fact that a panel of medical experts from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council recommended this week to the VA.