More sad details keep trickling out of the Fort Lewis case (Leah King, the 16-year-old who was found dead in a barracks was on her first real date and went to the barracks against the advice of her friends). And doctors at Madigan have found minor brain injuries in 15 to 25 percent of the soldiers at Fort Lewis:

"Mild traumatic brain injury is occurring in 15 to 25 percent of soldiers deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan," said study author Brett J. Theeler, MD, of Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, WA, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

"The associated headaches can be a source of impaired occupational functioning. These findings should alert health care providers, especially those affiliated with the military or veteran health care systems, to the need to identify and properly treat headache among soldiers."

Sixty percent of those studied were having migraines, the others just having headaches that impaired their day-to-day routine. Then this other study, from last year, found that Iraq veterans with migraines are twice as likely to have post-traumatic stress, depression, or anxiety.

All those headaches might also be fueling what seems to be a flood of prescription drugs in the military, which may have been a contributing factor in King's death. A senator from Missouri has proposed a bill that would allow an outside agency to evaluate the degree of addiction and abuse in the military:

The proposed changes include an independent review of military drug abuse and treatment by the Institute of Medicine at the National Academies of Science or a similar outside agency.

Army records show that legal painkiller use by injured troops has increased nearly 70 percent since the start of the Iraq war six years ago.

Surveys show that more soldiers are struggling with prescription drug addiction while also seeking help from Army doctors and counselors.

Yes, soldiers are jes' folks—I grew up in a military family, moved every few years, frequented the bases, was surrounded by people in the Marines and Coast Guard, my father's a veteran of two wars—but any group of people with under-reported brain and post-traumatic stress injuries, plus lots of pills to go around, is trouble waiting to happen.