This is the longest war that we have ever fought with an All-Volunteer Force. When the question was raised 30 years ago, when we launched the experiment of the all volunteer Army, if we could stay at war for eight years and not have to resort to the draft, most said, “No way.” They were wrong. Our Soldiers and Army Families proved them wrong.

Not everyone would see that as an unmitigated good thing — We sure showed the critics that we can have a manpower-intensive series of indefinite wars! — but Geren’s heart is clearly in the right place.

In a statement issued after the hearing, Udall pointed to an Army study and an investigative series published this week by the Colorado Springs Gazette examining why some soldiers at Fort Carson have turned violent back home after serving tours in Iraq. One unit’s soldiers have been arrested for murder and manslaughter at 114 times the rate of the surrounding community of Colorado Springs, Gazette reporter Dave Philipps found.

“This is a matter of life and death, for our service members – and civilians,” Udall said earlier this month after the Army released its Epidemiological Consultation, or EPICON, study, initiated by Fort Carson commander Major General Mark Graham. “We must do everything in our power to ensure that the military is providing all necessary treatment and support to protect our service members, their families, and our communities.”

Last week, Udall and fellow Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet wrote the Army surgeon general asking him to extend to Fort Carson a pilot program aimed at encouraging soldiers to seek treatment for substance abuse. During Thursday’s hearing, McHugh praised the program and suggested it might help soldiers experiencing problems like those at Fort Carson.

Here’s the full statement Udall issued after the McHugh hearings:

“The Colorado Springs Gazette, the EPICON study, and other reports have shined a light on the violence committed by our own soldiers as well as the contributing effects of severe substance abuse, a military culture that has stigmatized mental health care, and the horrors of war. Serious questions have been raised about the military’s screening of recruits and the mental health treatment available to them when they return. We must do better – it’s a matter of life and death – in theater and here at home.

“I commend the steps that have been taken by General Graham at Fort Carson. I will be following up with the new Commander at Fort Carson, General Perkins, to make it clear that we must continue to make progress. And if Congressman McHugh is confirmed as Secretary of the Army, I will be following up with him as well. I will hold him to his commitment to help our soldiers get the best mental health care we can provide.

“As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I will continue to fight for the resources our soldiers need to ensure that they are safe. But I also believe that we must think outside the box. We need programs that work – we can’t just throw money at the issue and hope it goes away.

“We also need to dig deep to find the root of the problem. We must continue to work to change the military’s culture, which has stigmatized mental health treatment and care. We have made some progress, but the Gazette story and other reports prove there is much work to be done.

“We owe our men and women in uniform nothing less than to dedicate every available resource to taking care of the people who have sacrificed so much in the defense of our country.”

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Sen. Mark Udall

The nominee to become secretary of the Army promised Colorado Sen. Mark Udall on Thursday he would read a two-part series published this week by the Colorado Springs Gazette examining a string of killings committed by soldiers from a Fort Carson unit. U.S. Rep. John McHugh, a New York Republican, said he had only learned about the articles yesterday, so he didn’t directly address questions raised by senators about the Gazette’s disturbing revelations during his confirmation hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Calling the lengthy stories by Gazette reporter Dave Philipps “sobering,” “concerning” and “horrifying,” Udall urged McHugh to read them and take them into account to determine “how do we take care of our soldiers when they return from theater.”

McHugh pointed to a handful of pilot projects under way at military bases — not including Fort Carson — where soldiers with alcohol and drug-abuse problems are encouraged to “self-identify, come in and receive assistance” without their commanders having to be notified.

A recently released Army study found substance abuse figured heavily in the “negative outcomes” among soldiers in the 4th Infantry Division, 4th Brigade Combat Team. The report (viewable here as a PDF) also fingered intense warfare, a stigma in the military against seeking help and failures in mental-health treatment for soldiers before concluding more study was necessary.

Turning his questioning to the Army’s contentious expansion plans for the Piñon Canyon training site, Udall asked McHugh whether the Army would commit to “only [proceeding] on the basis of willing sellers and not using eminent domain.”

Mentioning his own experience representing an upstate New York district surrounding Fort Drum, McHugh said he has a “healthy distrust for the process of eminent domain” and stressed the “first path” is for the Army to do an effective job engaging the community.

“The Army should want happy, good, positive neighbors,” McHugh said, “and you don’t get that by going in and condemning property.”

Udall closed his remarks with some thoughts about the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.

“I believe Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is a failed policy,” Udall said, noting he wasn’t asking McHugh a question but rather stating his own views. “It’s a good example of a law that Congress should repeal.”

Calling the ban on gay soldiers serving openly a “discriminatory policy that undermines the strength of our military,” Udall said he “[looks] forward to working with you and others at the Department of Defense to accomplish the full repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Responding to another senator who finally asked McHugh his views on DADT, the nominee sounded a cautious note about pursuing President Obama’s stated goal to overturn the Clinton-era law.

“I have no doubt the president is going to press forward with his intent to change that policy,” McHugh said, “I think he’d like a full reversal,” he added, to remove any ambiguity about what that “change” might entail.

Acknowledging it would be his job to gather input from the Army before the administration finalized its proposal, McHugh reminded the senators it would be the responsibility of any Army secretary to appear before congressional committees “to best describe the reasons, rationale and justiication for any policy.”

“At the end of the day,” McHugh said, in customary deference to his fellow lawmakers, “this is a policy embedded in law, and there will be no overturning of it without the agreement of this Congress.”

The committee plans to convene and vote on forwarding McHugh’s nomination to the full Senate before the August recess.

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