Roger Beaulieu stood at the podium, swallowed hard and looked out at the faces of the people crowded into a small theater at Fort Douglas.
"I promise you I will direct all my energy toward the safety and preservation of your loved ones," the Army captain pledged.
If there is a standard operating procedure for military commanders at pre-deployment ceremonies like the one for the 934th Forward Surgical Team on Tuesday, it is this: Stand up, look confident, express pride, promise you'll do everything you can to return everyone home. And make no guarantees.
Beaulieu did all of that. But he also did something different: He asked for help.
"I am certain that we will need you to help us heal our minds, our hearts and our wounded souls," he said.
By some estimates, as many as one-third of service members returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will come home with mental health problems. And increasingly, commanders are not content to wait until homecoming to address the issue with their soldiers' families.
By that time it could be too late, Beaulieu said after the ceremony as his soldiers mingled with friends and families in the final hours before moving out for pre-deployment training in anticipation of a spring arrival in Afghanistan.
Beaulieu knows. He served with the 934th -- which provides frontline surgical care to wounded military members, civilians and prisoners of war -- during the first year of combat in Iraq. And he came home haunted by his experiences, particularly those in which his team had been unable to save the lives of Iraqi children. It took years for him to recover, he said.
The days before deployment "are not a time to turn a blind eye on this," Beaulieu said. "There will be traumatic events that occur. We will see people hurt. We will see them pass away. And that will affect us."
Beaulieu said that addressing such issues now with his soldiers' families was part of his promise to do what he could to keep his charges safe.
Department of Veterans Affairs psychologist Steve Allen applauds that approach. Like soldiers, he said, families need to know what they're up against when they go to battle -- because they can make a big difference if they're properly prepared to do so.
"The single most protective factor for people's readjustment and recovery after deployment is support from the people around them," Allen said.
And more than anything in the world, right now, Gail Black wants her son to understand that he will have that kind of support from his family, both during and after his deployment.
Among the group of 16 soldiers deploying this week with the 934th, Timothy Black is the only one without experience treating patients in trauma.
"He's such a gentle, sweet, young man," Gail Black said. "I worry about how he'll respond to what he sees. I don't want him to come back hardened and cold and angry."
And so, Black said, she'll be there for her boy.
That, she said, is what she can do to fight for him, just as he is fighting for her.
