“A couple of individuals are messing things up for the rest of us and putting us in danger,” said Joan Araujo, a private from New York who said he was in an infantry division at Lewis-McChord and expected to deploy to Afghanistan soon. “The people who are burning Korans and killing innocent people are making it harder to do our job.”

Lewis-McChord, one of the largest military bases in the United States, with about 40,000 soldiers, has been the subject of repeated scrutiny in recent years. With the military in conflicts overseas for more than a decade and soldiers constantly being redeployed, the base has been criticized both for how its units have operated overseas and for how it treats soldiers at home. Critics cite high rates of deployment and what they say are related high rates of mental illness, suicide, domestic abuse and other social troubles among soldiers.

“They’re being constantly used up,” said Jorge Gonzalez, a former Stryker soldier and the executive director of Coffee Strong, a nonprofit coffee shop that serves as a support group for soldiers and veterans. “Nobody can take that much conflict. Nobody can take that much stress.”

Madigan Army Medical Center on the base has repeatedly been criticized for its handling of mental health issues. The Seattle Times reported that hospital employees who screened for post-traumatic stress disorder had been removed from that duty last month while an Army inquiry investigates the changed diagnoses. Soldiers with the disorder can receive better medical benefits and a pension after they leave active duty.