The recent shootings at Ft. Hood, allegedly by an army psychiatrist, have placed much needed focus on army mental health care. Questions are now being raised as to whether longstanding and severe shortages in the number of mental health professionals in the army may have led authorities to overlook danger signals in this psychiatrist, failing to remove him in order to retain a worker with rare and valuable psychiatric credentials for army service. Whether or not this is the case, examination of mental health care in the army shows a system that is indeed understaffed, under tremendous pressure, and near the breaking point.