Last spring, after touring a mental health center at Fort Bliss, Texas, Defense Secretary Robert Gates noted that awarding Purple Hearts to service members dealing with illnesses like PTSD was "clearly something that needs to be looked at." Recently, however, the Pentagon decided against it. The reasons given were that mental health conditions aren't intentionally caused by enemy action, like a bomb or bullet, and because they remained difficult to diagnose and quantify. Eileen Lainez, a...
