Nearly one million current or former service members were diagnosed with mental health conditions from 2001 to 2011, Gillibrand said, including at least 30,000 who were deemed to have pre-existing conditions like personality disorder or adjustment disorder. It was later discovered that many of these men and women were improperly diagnosed, she said.

Goldsmith also noted that some service members are never diagnosed because they don’t seek help, fearing they might jeopardize their military careers. In either case, he added, symptoms of psychic injuries can be misinterpreted as acts of misconduct, ultimately resulting in less-than-honorable discharges.

Gillibrand explained that service members who receive general or dishonorable discharges can be denied access to many of the services and benefits to which they should be entitled under the G.I. Bill, and can encounter obstacles when looking for work or housing. That is why she wants to ensure that their appeals are expertly reviewed –– and that the records of service members who were improperly discharged can be corrected.

“The men and women of our military risk their lives to protect our country, and we need to ensure they receive the care they earned and deserve,” said Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We have just come out of more than 10 years of war … The stress and strain on our military is among the toughest it’s ever been. We need to do much better.”

 A trying deployment

Goldsmith, a 2003 graduate of Mepham High School in North Bellmore, was deployed to Iraq in January 2005 with the Third Infantry Division. When he returned home a year later, he said his family and friends knew that what he had seen at war had changed him. They saw him have a panic attack when a firework went off on New Year’s Eve in 2006. They often watched him drink until he passed out. And they saw him get into bar fights, chasing what Goldsmith described as “combat high.”

When he finally sought medical attention, Goldsmith said he was misdiagnosed with pre-existing conditions and prescribed anti-depressants –– but he remained deployable. When he expressed concern about being unable to receive the care that he needed while on duty, his Army psychiatrist, a colonel, told him that he had three options: “One, I could suck it up, be a man and deploy. Two, I could go AWOL and get treatment at home. Three, I could kill myself."

A few days later, Goldsmith took bottles of vodka and Percocet pills, walked into a field in Fort Stewart, Ga., - where a tree is planted for every soldier from the Third Infantry who died overseas, - and attempted to take his own life.