With less than 1% of Americans serving our longest war in history – and suicides, joblessness,and invisible wounds setting a record pace – we should take a minute every day to thank ourveterans – and do more to help many who are tragically falling through the cracks.
Two-and-a-half million Americans have answered the call and served in combat since 9-11. Almost half a million now suffer the signature injury of Iraq and Afghanistan – the invisiblewounds of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
The numbers are staggering. Every 80 minutes a veteran in America commits suicide. The luckyones who survive war still face an uphill battle adjusting to peace back at home: for everycombat death in Iraq or Afghanistan, there are 25 suicides. Some 6,500 veterans taketheir lives every year, mostly by gun shot.
But these statistics don’t tell the personal stories, like two young men from Delaware with tragicendings. Army Captain Ian Morrison was a young, good-looking honor student and West Pointgraduate who flew Apache helicopters in Iraq in 2011. Less than eight months ago, after trying invain six different times to get help for the mental stress he was suffering with – including one timewhere he waited for three hours before being turned rudely away – his wife Rebecca found herhusband on the floor in their Texas apartment after he shot himself in the neck. Time magazinetold his story, and how after waiting on hold with the crisis hotline, his final text message to hiswife was “STILL on hold.”
Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times profiled Army Staff Sergeant DwightSmith, an Afghanistan veteran who served multiple deployments. Home last Christmasin Delaware, Dwight snapped while driving his red Hummer. He ran over a 65-year old womanwho was walking her dog. As she lay injured and writhing in pain, Dwight grabbed her off theasphalt and threw her in the back of his vehicle. She was later found naked in a wooded area.She had been raped. In a letter to his father from jail, Dwight wrote: “I became addicted to killingpeople.”
There are no easy answers on how to deal with the signature injuries of PTSD or TBI. In fact,mental health has long been considered the stepchild of healthcare. It wasn’tuntil the 2008 Mental Health Parity bill that health insurance companies were mandated togive minimum mental health coverage. But President Obama and the Pentagon are making a concerted effort to addressthe incredible struggles of our returning veterans. Drastic increases in health care funding -from $38.7 billion under President Bush’s 2009 VA healthcare budget to $53 billion in PresidentObama’s – have led to thousands more mental health care professionals. Private initiatives, likeGive an Hour, have also tried to fill the need — before even more vets fall through the cracks — by inspiring6,500 mental health care professionals to give one hour of their time each week.
Of course, even those veterans fortunate to avoid the horrors of PTSD or TBI face daunting jobprospects at home. When asked why I joined the military in 1994 after making the dean’s listin college, I answered, “Because they need folks and they asked me to join.” It helped that myfather and uncles served, and many of my fellow soldiers also saw the military profession as acalling. But while Gallup ranks the military as one of the most respected professions, returningveterans still face a 25% higher unemployment rate than their civilian counterparts.
Contributing to this crisis in unemployment is the public’s general unawareness of what themilitary does and the skills veterans possess. In 2007, a Military.com study showed that 61%of the employers surveyed admitted they didn’t completely understand servicemembers’qualifications. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America have been at the forefront inadvocating on behalf of the joblessness issue. Paul Rieckhoff posted today, “[T]hat’s the greatthing about vets – even when they’re down, they’re never out.”
Initiatives like the new 21st Century GI Bill – which doubled college benefits to $90K, books, anda monthly housing allowance; the Hire Our Heroes tax credit, and the First Lady’s Joint ForcesInitiative, also look to carve out much-needed professional opportunities. But as legislatorsseek to avoid the “fiscal cliff” it’s imperative that funding for veterans programs be increased,not decreased. They didn’t ask to fight these wars – we asked them to. We have no choice butto ensure they get the treatment they earned, and if Congress does anything to limit access tomental health care, they have committed one of the most immoral acts in recent history.
While the challenges and statistics can be intimidating, and the personal stories canbreak your heart, I hope those reading this will do what they can to motivate a country to dosomething more about addressing these challenges. Working together, we can make everyday Veterans Day.
Patrick Murphy