Make an effort to bring peace to our troubled veterans

Woolner: Make an effort to bring peace to our troubled veterans
Ann Woolner, BLOOMBERG NEWS

He is wearing an orange prison jumpsuit during the TV interview, so you figure life hasn't turned out so well for this open-faced young man with an engaging smile.

What you can't see is the Purple Heart Jose Barco earned when, as a teenage soldier stationed in Iraq, he ignored his own wounds and pulled burning wreckage off two Army buddies pinned beneath it, even as his own clothes were aflame.

These days Barco lives in a Colorado prison, where he's serving a 52-year sentence for twice shooting randomly at party-goers in Fort Collins, Colo., after his second tour of Iraq. No one was seriously injured, although a pregnant woman was shot in the leg. Barco was convicted of two counts of attempted murder.

Troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have been getting short shrift on several fronts. But, as Barco's case shows, the legal system usually cuts them no slack and sometimes slams them extra hard precisely because they wore a U.S. uniform.

Prison is where "Frontline" interviewed him for the documentary "The Wounded Platoon." He is one of 17 men returning to the Army's Fort Carson in Colorado, who, over a five-year period, were convicted or charged with homicide or attempting it. Most of them seemed to suffer from a condition that has plagued combat veterans as far back as anyone noticed.
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Make an effort to bring peace to our troubled veterans