NBC REPORTS: SOLDIERS: LONG TOURS CREATE "LOTS OF STRESS"

By John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News, Washington
http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Three soldiers receiving Purple Hearts today at Walter Reed Army Medical Center spoke about the strains on soldiers in Iraq that contributed to a record number of suicides last year in the Army.

The Army reported last Thursday there were 115 suicides in 2007, the highest number since it began keeping records of suicides in 1980.

So far this year, there have been 38 confirmed suicides.

"There's a lot of strain because probably a lot of people are ready to come home," said Staff Sgt. Bennie Lamb, 40, of Macon, Ga., who was on his third tour in Iraq when he was wounded March 14 by a suicide bomber.