"These findings, along with indicators of stress in mental health, are not entirely surprising given the role of the military in recent world events in the period 2002 and 2001," said William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.

The survey, which was conducted by the Research Triangle Institute, found that heavy drinking rose from 15.4 percent in 1998 to 18.1 percent in 2002. Heavy drinking was defined as having five or more drinks in a single sitting once a week.

Cigarette smoking was up from 29.9 percent to 33.8 percent in the same five year period.

Reported use of illegal drugs climbed from 2.7 percent to 3.4 percent, a change that the researchers said was statistically insignificant.

The survey was the latest in a series of eight that have tracked health trends in the US military since 1980.

More than 12,700 questionaires -- about 56 percent of the total handed out -- were completed by servicemembers at 30 US military installations, said Robert Bray, who led the study.

The survey also included a broad range of questions to see how the military stacked up against a set of health objectives set forth by the US government in 2000.

The study concluded that more attention needed to be paid to stress-related problems.

Military personnel were more likely to describe their military duties as more stressful than their family or personal lives, it found.

The sources of stress most commonly cited by men were deploymentspercent) and separation from family (18.7 percent). For women, they were changes in personal life (21.4 percent), separation from family (21.1 percent) and deployment (19.6 percent).

"More than 40 percent of military women reported being under a 'great deal' of stress or 'a fairly large amount' of stress related to being a woman in the military," the Pentagon said.

More than 25 percent of the respondents reported using alcohol or cigarettes as a way of coping with stress.

Just over five percent, 5.1 percent, said they had had thoughts of suicide.

Although the percentage of respondents reporting heavy use of alcohol rose in the 2002 survey, it remained within a range that has remained fairly constant since the surveys began in 1980.

The percentage of people who reported abstaining from alcohol or drinking infrequently climbed to 41.3 percent, a sharp rise when compared to the 25.6 percent who reported being abstemious in 1980.

Nevertheless, over 12 percent reported symptoms of dependence on alcohol.

Heavy drinking was highest in the marine corps (27.7 percent) and lowest in the air force (12.3 percent). The army and navy were about the same at over 18 percent.

WAR.WIRE