In Sgt. John M. Russell’s chaotic Army world the morning of May 11, the enemy was closing in. For the previous several days at sprawling Camp Liberty outside Baghdad, the big Texan had talked of conspiracies, woken up from constant nightmares, and broken down in tears, wishing someone would put a bullet in his head.

“The three of us sat on my front stoop and talked. He was visibly upset and very shaken,” an Army chaplain recalls of the conversation he and a commander had that morning with the frustrated Sgt. Russell, 44, whose Germany-based 54th Engineering Battalion operated in Iraq under Fort Lewis command. “He explained that his appointments at mental-health [clinics] went very bad,” the chaplain added, according to a newly released 325-page Army report on Russell’s case, from which names are redacted. “He just did not want to live anymore.”

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The soldier was crying, a look of fear on his face.

Accustomed to taking fire in a war zone, the combat veteran had suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder in a Nov. 5 shooting rampage at “home” — the Fort Hood military post in Texas.

As an emergency-room nurse wheeled him into a hallway filled with people, the soldier kept asking, “Is it secure? Is it secure? Please tell me it’s secure.”

Lt. Col. Les Maloney, a Church of Christ chaplain at Fort Hood, described the scene, which he witnessed while ministering to victims at Darnall Army Medical Center.

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COB BASRA – Army Chief of Chaplains, Maj. Gen. Douglas Carver, met with chaplains and chaplain’s assistants from throughout Multi-National Division South at Contingency Operating Base Basra Nov. 23, on his tour of Iraq.

He is taking the Thanksgiving tour to commemorate the 100th anniversary of chaplain’s assistant as a Military Occupational Specialty and deliver a message of appreciation to service members.

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FORT CAMPBELL, KY. — Army brigade leaders at Fort Campbell have begun monthly meetings of officers, doctors and counselors to catch early signs of emotional or mental stress among their troops and intervene before soldiers hurt themselves or others.

It’s a unique effort at this sprawling base on the Tennessee-Kentucky line that fits with broader Army initiatives to deal with a rise in suicides among troops. The Army has bolstered suicide prevention since February after a record 140 cases in 2008, but this month said the number may rise again this year. It had recorded 140 suspected cases as of Nov. 11.

The brigade teams are part of Fort Campbell’s plans that also include moving counselors and social workers out of hospitals and clinics and embedding them in the brigades to break down barriers and overcome the stigma of seeking help.

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When LaRue Holsopple of Vinco learned that many troops serving in remote areas of Afghanistan were not receiving care packages, she sprang into action.

Holsopple has rallied the Vinco area and points beyond to help the troops. During the past several months, Holsopple and her supporters have sent nearly 400 care packages.

And they are not slowing down.

The care packages let the soldiers know that people support them, she said.

Holsopple learned about the matter through her son-in-law, Capt. Carl Phillips, an Army chaplain who has been serving in Afghanistan since March.

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