Military deployment to combat zones puts military personnel to a number of physical and mental challenges that may adversely affect mental health. Until now, few studies have been performed in Europe on mental health utilization after military deployment. We compared the incidence of mental health consultations with the Military Mental Health Service (MMHS) of military deployed to Afghanistan to that of non-deployed military personnel. We assessed utilization of the MMHS by the full cohort of the Netherlands Armed Forces enlisted between 2008 and 2010 through linkage of mental health and human resource information systems. The total population consisted of 50,508 military (18,233 deployed, 32,275 non-deployed), who accounted for 1,906 new consultations with the MMHS. The follow-up was limited to the first 2 years following deployment. We observed higher mental health care utilization in deployed vs. non-deployed military personnel; hazard ratio (HR), adjusted for sex, military branch and time in service, ...