Nightmare on Elm Street when veterans need help

by
Chaplain Kathie

If you took the best talent producing some of the best horror movies and locked them in a room, they could not come close to what is happening on every Elm Street USA. Take Nightmare on Elm Street for a start. I remember seeing the first one. The terror always came when they were asleep. They were terrified to fall asleep. This movie left me going out to my car and searching the back seat to make sure no one was there. But it's not a movie for the troops coming home and it certainly hasn't been entertainment for the veterans finally figuring out what has been wrong with them all these years after combat had ended for them.

He woke up last night with another nightmare but Freddy wasn't there to haunt his dreams. Today he woke up drained as they tried to steady the hand reaching for the coffee pot. He looked at his wife sitting across from them wondering why she didn't say a word to him as she turned away instead of looking at him. He knew what his wife was thinking. She's thinking of leaving just like every other day. He can't blame her but somehow he also knows she shouldn't blame him.

It wasn't his fault he was sent into combat and it certainly wasn't his choice to change or have to face what he's been facing ever since. He's done everything in his power to make it right, do better, be less angry, apologize faster and try harder to go over her family's house the way they always used to do. He also knows that all he needs is a break. That someone in the VA will find his file and actually read it this time knowing the truth about what happened to him is in there if someone would bother to look instead of denying his claim.

This was us. No, it wasn't last night but it was us up until 1999 when the VA finally approved my husband's claim. It didn't take someone at the VA to find the error but the nightmare was the same as they are going thru today. The only difference between now and then is that there are no more excuses for it to still be going on today.

You've read my blog and watched my videos. Is any of this right? Should there still be one more suicide of a soldier that needed help? Should there be one more veteran ending up dying on the street tonight because he ended up homeless? Should there still be one more wife not knowing why her husband came home changed? No. That's the point. Congress can hold all the hearings they want but until they just figure out it's time to do the right thing and give the veterans whatever they need, there will be many more horror stories all over this country.