What about soldier's rights?

We know they have the right to a military funeral and a flag over their coffin but what about the men and women coming home alive?



Think of what they give up before they go. They give up seeing their families, birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, and some soldiers even missed their own wedding days. They miss the birth of their children, first steps, first words, just as the miss the last words of people they loved passing away while they were gone. They give up the right to decide everything from where they go, when they go, how long they'll be gone and face the fact returning home wounded is a possibility out of their control just as dying in combat is. They also give up the right to free speech, are prevented from participating in political gatherings and in some cases, prevented from even posting online how they feel.

While they are gone they face all the same "normal" problems with messages from home, letters, emails and phone calls. This topped off with the reality of combat, putting someone else's life ahead of their own and mission above wanting to "call in sick" when they are too tired to get dressed. They do it over and over again no matter how they feel that day because it's their job. A job they were willing to do because they believed in something greater than themselves. It is one of the most dangerous jobs there are in this country.

We see police officers and firefighters putting their lives on the line everyday but once we send off a Soldier, a Marine, an Airman or a Sailor, we manage to forget all about the risks they take everyday doing their jobs. Out of our sight, out of our mind because we are not reminded of any of it as we watch the news or read the paper.

All of this and more, and it goes on until they come home again. Some come home on their own two feet and families breathe a sigh of relief never knowing if there could be wounds they cannot see yet. Some come home on stretchers facing months in the hospital and countless operations. Their families end up giving up their own lives to be by their side in military hospitals trying to put them back together again.

We're all oblivious to everything they go through. We talk about civil rights but we forget about a soldier's rights. Shouldn't it be their right to receive medical care as soon as they need it? Shouldn't it be their right to receive compensation to replace the income they can no longer make when they are wounded on their jobs? Shouldn't they receive all we expect for ourselves without endless lines, excuses and denials?

We've read for many years how the military is taking PTSD seriously but we see the suicide rate go up every year at the same time the suicide prevention hotline reports increased numbers of veterans seeking emergency help. If the military had it right, if the VA had it right, those numbers would be going down instead of up. If they had it right the numbers of successful suicides would be going down. The numbers of divorces would go down, just as the numbers of homeless veterans and incarcerated veterans would go down. The point is, none of it has been "gotten right" for a very, very long time.

I would love to see congress debate the rights of soldiers for a change. They manage to fight over everything but you'd think this one thing would unite all of them if they really do care about the men and women risking their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, just as they had risked their lives in Kuwait, Bosnia, Somalia, Vietnam, Korea and other nations. Common sense should tell us that if congress really cared about the men and women putting this nation first above their own lives, above all they have to give up in order to do their jobs, they would be really taking care of all of them. If they really felt the way they say, I'd have very little to post about, less veterans to talk off the ledge and less families to comfort when they've found me too late.

Let's make sure that no veteran has to wait for a funeral like this WWI veteran. There are ashes of veterans in most funeral homes because no one claimed them and no one helped them receive the military honor they thought they had the right to.

Iowa military funeral planned to bury ashes of World War I veteran
WQAD
By AP DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The ashes of a World War I veteran are to be buried in Iowa. The Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs plans a military funeral

Let's make sure that something this stupid does not happen again because it is not the first time soldiers have been orded to stop killing themselves.

Army Officer Orders Troops Not To Commit Suicide
Blog All Over ...
By The Huffington Post News Editors
It's bad for soldiers, it's bad for families, bad for your units, bad for this division and our Army and our country and it's got to stop now, he insisted. Suicides on Fort Campbell have to stop now.

But this is the one that has my anger this morning the most.

Army Unit in Colo. Called Dark Place, Worse Than Iraq-
Soldiers returning from battle trauma say they're warehoused with too many drugs.
By JAMES DAO
THE NEW YORK TIMES


Published: Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 9:42 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 9:42 p.m.


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. A year ago, Spc. Michael Crawford wanted nothing more than to get into Fort Carson's Warrior Transition Battalion, a special unit created to provide closely manage care for soldiers with physical wounds and severe psychological trauma.

A strapping Army sniper who once brimmed with confidence, he had returned emotionally broken from Iraq, where he suffered two concussions from roadside bombs and watched several platoon mates burn to death. The transition unit at Fort Carson, outside Colorado Springs, seemed the surest way to keep suicidal thoughts at bay, his mother thought.

It did not work. He was prescribed a laundry list of medications for anxiety, nightmares, depression and headaches that made him feel listless and disoriented. His once-a-week session with a nurse case manager seemed grossly inadequate to him. And noncommissioned officers - soldiers supervising the unit - harangued or disciplined him when he arrived late to formation or violated rules.

Last August, Crawford attempted suicide with a bottle of whiskey and an overdose of painkillers. By the end of last year, he was begging to get out of the unit.

"It is just a dark place," said the soldier, who is waiting to be medically discharged from the Army. "Being in the WTU is worse than being in Iraq."

There are currently about 7,200 soldiers at 32 transition units across the Army, with about 465 soldiers at Fort Carson's unit.

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