Tester, military brainstorm on VA services

Senator Tester said it's time to think outside the box and that is exactly what has been needed all along. Between service and civilian life, they don't fit in either box and we let them down expecting them to just jump right in.

When they are in the service and wounded, physically with visible wounds and invisible ones, they are expected to just do with what the unwounded receive and no longer fit into that box.

The DOD and the VA have a habit of just plodding along with the same treatments and rules as if one size fits all, when they never did. Sure, you can train them all alike but they never all end up with the same talents or excel at the same tasks. Would you take a Marine with the skills of a sniper and put him in the motor pool just because he was trained like everyone else? Would you take a man trained to cook for hundreds and put him in a tank? None of that would make any sense at all so how is it they can manage to think then but not when the men and women they trained need them instead?

The rest of the country has been doing very well addressing PTSD head on when it comes to police, firefighters, emergency responders and survivors. There are trained people all over the country to respond to traumatic events and emergencies. Crisis Intervention, Community Emergency Response Teams, Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness teams, Stress Debriefers, you name it, they are trained and ready to go, but when it comes to the military and the VA, they only allow in certain types instead of highly trained, ready, able and willing to step in people from the communities.

I am a Chaplain, trained, certified and experienced to respond to traumatic events because I know what it looks like from the other side when no one responded to Vietnam veterans. I've been a Chaplain for a year, but have been doing the same work since 1982. Would the VA hire me as a Chaplain with all of this topping it off with my own insurance and licenses? No. I didn't get a degree from a seminary. What good does it do to take a person with very little life experience and put them on the front lines just because they went to the right school? If this worked, there would be no need for all the trainers traveling all over the country doing the training of responders in the field.

The troops are waiting for help and so are the veterans. It's time the DOD and the VA caught up to the rest of the country and got out of the box no one really fits in.

Tester, military brainstorm on VA services
By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - Independent Record - 08/22/09

FORT HARRISON - A group of military leaders and health experts joined Sen. Jon Tester Friday in a brainstorming session aimed at finding ways to help veterans transition out of the service, find jobs and better promote the VA's many services.

A member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, Tester, D-Mont., has held similar sessions since his election to office three years ago.

Among the results of the sessions are new vet centers in Kalispell and Great Falls, an increase to the mileage reimbursement for disabled vets, and more clinical resources to help treat veterans living in rural areas.

But Tester admitted Friday that work remains and the group spent more than an hour thinking "outside the box," broaching such ideas as educating families on post-war issues, reaching veterans on reservations, and expanding the VA system to include something of a hiring service for vets leaving the service.
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Tester, military brainstorm on VA services