BEIJING, April 4 -- With the war in Iraq entering third year, the US military is fighting a growing problem. One recent study by the New England Journal of Medicine found that nearly 17 percent returning soldiers were suffering from some form of post-traumatic stress disorder.

    At Camp Pendleton in California, US Marines say that coming home is in fact a difficult readjustment.

    Marines Pvt. Nate Barbosa said, "Coming back, there is some adjustments. It takes an average of anywhere from 30 days to 6 months to adjust mentally, to not get jumpy everytime you hear loud noises, things like that."

    "There's no guarantee, you could have the easiest job, working battalion, doing paperwork all day," said US Marines Pvt. Jason Cohea." One mortar, just one mistake of a mortar round by the enemy and you're not there anymore."

    To help deal with combat stress, a number of military scientists are betting on a new high-tech treatment. It's a program that uses virtual reality, literally taking soldiers back to the front lines.

    Psychologist James Spira said: "The virtual reality environment is clearly not the same thing as being there and we don't want it to be the same as being there. We want it to be semi-realistic. We want it to be enough to trigger the thoughts and feelings so they can control those. "

    Funding for the virtual-reality program is said to be around $4 million dollars for the next three years. It's one of several options the US military is looking at, as they take a pro-active approach to a problem they vow won't be a repeat of what took place after Vietnam.

    (Source: CCTV.com)