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ORLANDO, Fla. — Often, when Ryan Svolto manages to sleep, he finds himself back in Iraq, preparing for triage, awash in blood and bodies. But he can't find his medical kit, and, helpless, he thrashes awake, damp with sweat.

As an infantry medic, he patched up soldiers wounded in combat in Iraq. Now, Svolto, 24, is trying to fix his own wounded life after a recent stint at a Daytona Beach, Fla., homeless shelter.

Svolto is one of a growing number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who joined the ranks of the homeless after returning home. Experts say a system already buckling under one of the nation's largest homeless populations might collapse under the weight of a new wave of veterans, many saddled with mental-health issues and crippling brain injuries.

For Svolto, it's yet another battle — one he believes he won't be fighting alone.

"That's the scary part, when they get out of the Army and realize they're not who they used to be," he said. "It seems easier to disappear in the woods and live that way. A lot of these kids aren't going to be prepared. I wasn't prepared."

Nearly half of all homeless veterans served in Vietnam. Hamstrung by a lack of job skills, drug addictions and psychological issues, they became homeless 12 to 15 years after discharge.

But veterans of the latest war are hitting the streets much sooner.

A recent report by the Iraq Veteran Project of Swords to Plowshares, a San Francisco advocacy group for veterans, says new vets "are already seeking housing services, some just months after returning from Iraq."

"There is no 28-day treatment program that's going to wave the magic wand and throw a little bit of pixie dust out there and make it all right," said Thomas Griffin, CEO of The Transition House, a veterans-recovery program in Kissimmee, Fla.

Experts think thousands of new vets burdened with war-related psychological problems will make a bad problem even worse. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that nearly 20 percent of Iraq vets show clinical signs of major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Similarly, about a fifth of them have traumatic brain injuries, often the result of being wounded by roadside bombs. Such injuries can produce personality changes, mood swings and impaired memory.

Undiagnosed veterans become vulnerable to homelessness as relationships wither because they "may be blamed for their behaviors and struggles," said Shari Balter, a psychologist with Stand Down House, a Florida drug program for homeless male veterans.

Svolto, who missed his daughter's birth while in Iraq, left the military last year. But he and his wife soon separated.

"We were newlyweds when I left, but once you get back from combat, you're nothing like you used to be," he said.

Post-traumatic stress gripped Svolto, and he turned to alcohol to dull memories of the war.

Svolto says he couldn't hold a job because of his condition. He maxed out his credit cards trying to stay afloat and lost his home in October.

He turned to Serenity House of Volusia Inc., a homeless shelter and substance-abuse-treatment program that provides transitional housing for veterans. He graduated from the program about three months ago and is receiving VA help with his post-traumatic stress.

Now, he's living with his parents in Deltona, Fla., and working to win back his family.

Svolto said Serenity "kind of helped me to learn to cope with things and live life sober, but nothing (the memories) really went away. It's just a matter of accepting it more and more."

Read more news and watch multimedia presentations about the war in Iraq at azstarnet.com/attack