Veterans deserve needed care for life

Editorial: Veterans deserve needed care for life

Eagle Editorial



Byron Hancock is a hero, a veteran of battles foreign and domestic who continues to struggle with emotional wounds suffered in defense of this country.

His war in Iraq is over, but we fear his war with his own government for the treatment he deserves will continue well into the future. Like far too many other service men and women, he has had to fight for the treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder he has received so far.

A four-part series in The Eagle this past week (www.theeagle.com) told Hancock's story in dramatic and often frustrating detail. Parts of the saga make you want to cheer. Others make you want to weep for a country that would do so little for those who have done so much for us all. It is a cautionary tale about the cost of waging war and the obligation we have to those who fight our battles.

Hancock joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1988, while still a senior in high school near Nacogdoches. At boot camp, he was named his platoon's top graduate and earned the marksmanship and physical fitness awards. In 1992, Hancock was sent to the extremely difficult Marine Corps Sniper School. Of the 32 men who started the training, Hancock was one of only six to finish, graduating second in the class and becoming one of the elite of the elite. The next year, he became the first Reservist and the first corporal to be invited to return for advanced training.

Being a sniper requires great patience, outstanding skills and the ability to kill, even when not directly threatened. It is a thankless job, but a necessary one.

Hancock spent the next few years as part of the 15-member Marine Reserve Rifle Team, during which he continued to hone his sniper skills.

Eventually, though, he decided to return full time to his job with the Bryan Police Department. He was named Officer of the Year by the Bryan Police Officers Association in 1997 and again in 1998. Eventually, Hancock left the Marine Corps Reserves - that is, until after Sept. 11, 2001. He rejoined the active Reserves and, after service teaching sniper tactics to South American militaries, Hancock was sent to Iraq in August 2004. He fought in Fallujah, killing an enemy insurgent from 1,050 yards away - believed to be the longest successful sniper shot of this war. Months later, after six days lying in a cold, wet ditch observing suspicious activity, Hancock was ordered to kill a teenage boy who was trying to connect several improvised explosive devices that could have killed many American soldiers.

Eventually, Hancock came home, bringing with him an emotional burden that would haunt him and his family in the months to come. He began having flashbacks and nightmare images of slitting throats - events that never happened. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, an illness once denied by the government but one that continues to haunt many veterans of the Korean and Vietnam conflicts and, increasingly, veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Doctors still struggle to learn all its ramifications, but treatment is available, although success rates vary with the individual.

The real problem is that the Veterans Administration is unable to handle the growing number of current and former service members needing assistance. Hancock learned that when he tried to get help for his illness from the VA. Amazingly, he was put on a waiting list for the post-traumatic stress disorder program at the Temple Veterans Administration Hospital.

The VA says between 12 percent and 20 percent of Iraq war veterans suffer from the disorder, although a study cited by a Department of Defense task force puts that number at 38 percent for Army soldiers and 31 percent for Marines. Alarmingly, the study found that 49 percent of its respondents in the National Guard reported problems.

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