US struggles with surge of returning veterans

When reporters heard the words coming out of the mouths of politicians, did they ever think to ask exactly what they meant by "support the troops" when they said it in speeches? Did reporters ever bother to read the transcripts from the speeches when some members of congress were saying they couldn't afford to increase the funding for the VA with "two wars to pay for" as if that was supposed to make any sense at all? Nope. They just let them get away with saying whatever they wanted to.

Five years ago on my other blog, Screaming in an Empty Room, I was screaming but no one heard me. Three years ago I started to scream even louder but no one heard me. All the work of putting together these stories in one place so that people could find out what a huge problem was going on as well as find someone going through the same thing, did very little good.

So here we have a great article about 5 pages long and really worth the read. This is the point I want to focus on right now so that nobody ever tries to minimize the crisis we are already in, how we got here but above all, does something before the tsunami hits!

Wounds of Iraq war: US struggles with surge of returning veterans
With combat operations set to end in Iraq, many veterans come home diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome and other maladies related to modern war. What's being done to help.

By Michael B. Farrell
Correspondent
August 16, 2010

"We were not only caught with our pants down, but we were dropping them farther," says David Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland in College Park. But, he says, "under the best of situations you can't ramp up a military structure to meet the needs as fast as you need."


Critics say the military services and the VA didn't move fast enough to meet the growing needs of wounded warriors and disabled veterans. In fact, the VA underestimated by 77,000 the number of returning vets who would seek its services, according a 2006 Government Accountability Office report. Today, it faces a backlog of about 1 million benefit claims. Many wounded veterans complain that the system is cumbersome and antiquated. Even though it has made efforts to address the issues of today's vets, the VA is still struggling to adapt to the demand created by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan – as Brian Fuqua knows all too well.

In september 2006, Mr. Fuqua, an Army paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, was in Iraq battling an increasingly deadly insurgency. The war was grinding into its fourth year. The fighting was intense and frantic.

At one point in the hostilities, Fuqua found himself too close to a detonation set off by US forces to disarm an unexploded bomb. He lost consciousness and, like many others who suffer possible brain injuries on the battlefield, didn't seek immediate help.

"There really wasn't time to sit there and analyze that," he says. "It was more like, I had a job to do and I had to be on point – people are getting killed."

When he got back home to Roanoke, Va., however, Fuqua did have time to think about the experience. Maybe too much time. Doctors had diagnosed Fuqua with both PTSD and probable TBI.

At first, he sought help from the VA. But he soon became frustrated with the agency's slow pace and burdensome bureaucracy. Fuqua, a big man with tight-cropped hair and a quiet demeanor, says many of his fellow service members refuse even to go to a VA hospital.

"I had better luck Googling how to deal with PTSD than going to a specialist," he says over a cup of coffee at his apartment in Roanoke. "When you have this government you just fought for, and all of a sudden you have to fight them, it makes people go rogue."

Fuqua finally decided to handle the problem on his own, through self-medication and finding other ways to deal with daily life. For him, that means working out or keeping his mind focused on anything other than his time in Iraq.

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US struggles with surge of returning veterans

linked from http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx

The last combat troops left Iraq this morning.

Here are more stories to read
DAY 1: The soldiers
As U.S. combat troops exit Iraq, unresolved issues left behind in country facing uncertain future
Personal victories, personal sacrifices
Is Iraq worth fighting for?
DAY 2: The wounded
Back home, but still fighting
'I chose the right way, and no one rewarded me'