Profile of an Army base after the wars

Kim
Murphy of the Los Angeles Times
ran a
scary profile of life around Fort Lewis, Washington, nowadays. (The base
had a record 12
suicides in 2011, according to another article.)

One local police chief reports that in his town over the
last two years, there were "24 instances in which we contacted soldiers
who were armed with weapons . . . . We've had intimidation, stalking with a
weapon, aggravated assault, domestic violence, drive-bys."

Here's
the overview:

Over the last two years, an Iraq
veteran pleaded guilty to assault after being accused of waterboarding his
7-year-old foster son in the bathtub. Another was accused of pouring lighter
fluid over his wife and setting her on fire; one was charged with torturing his
4-year-old daughter for refusing to say her ABCs. A Stryker Brigade soldier was
convicted of the kidnap, torture and rape or attempted rape of two women, one
of whom he shocked with cables attached to a car battery; and an Iraq war
sergeant was convicted of strangling his wife and hiding her body in a storage
bin.

In April, 38-year-old combat medic
David Stewart, who had been under treatment for depression, paranoia and
sleeplessness, led police on a high-speed chase down Interstate 5 before
crashing into a barrier. As officers watched, he shot himself in the head. His
wife, a nurse, was found in the car with him, also shot to death. Police later
found the body of their 5-year-old son in the family home.