Iraq vet, rescued from suicide, tells of VA gaps

Is the VA a "broken" system? No, it's cracked. Broken would mean that the majority were not getting what they need. Cracked means there are way too many not getting the help they need.

We could start with the DOD. The attitude of treating PTSD servicemen and women as "less mentally tough" is still going on especially when they come out with programs to train them on how to become tough enough. This message has been heard loud and clear but not in the way the DOD intended it to be. They end up walking away thinking there was something wrong with them instead of there being something wrong with the DOD itself. While they are great on teaching them and training them to fight battles in combat, they are really lousy at understanding the men and women they bring home.

Then there is the VA with the backlog of claims, research projects being used as treatment with no proof they work, understaffed mental health departments, claims processors not being replaced and the list goes on.

What makes all of this worse is the fact the DOD and the VA have been had the attitude of "take a pill" and go away.

Yet again, congress is holding hearings. Yet again, they are asking about the problems, as if they're hearing anything new, instead of listening to what works. Yet again as the problems our combat veterans face gets worse, their numbers grow, congress is wasting time with these hearings. For heaven's sake! Haven't they visited YouTube to watch the hearings they've had over the last ten years? That sure would save a lot of time and money but above that it would save some lives and maybe some marriages.

Iraq vet, rescued from suicide, tells of VA gaps

By BRETT COUGHLIN | 7/14/11 3:55 PM EDT

“We’re taught how to be soldiers, not civilians,” he said, and “once we’re put out, we’re hung out to dry.”

The human costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were on full display in the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Thursday when an Iraq veteran explained, haltingly, how he only got care for post-traumatic stress disorder after he attempted suicide.

An Army infantryman and biochemist who was injured by an improvised explosive device during his first deployment to Iraq in 2003 explained that after being told he was suffering from anxiety and “readjustment issues” by caregivers at a Fort Hood clinic and placed on a six-month wait list to see a psychiatrist, he fell into despair.


Daniel Williams explained that in the winter of 2004 he locked himself in his bathroom, took out his .45 and shoved it into his mouth. His former wife Carol called the police.

“When the police arrived I argued with them. When they kicked open the door I pulled the trigger, but by the grace of God the weapon misfired,” Williams said. When one of the officers tried to clear the weapon it went off, but Williams said no one was hurt.
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Iraq vet, rescued from suicide, tells of VA gaps

There are over 20,000 posts on this blog alone in just under 4 years. Most of them are about PTSD and very depressing reports about what they face when they come home.

While the above story is about an Iraq veteran putting the gun in his mouth, this video is about another one but his story didn't end with putting the gun down. His story is still going on after he learned how to put the pain to peace.

Last year I was speaking at the Point Man Ministries conference in Buffalo. Dana Morgan, President of Point Man, asked me to come to hear about what I track as much as he wanted to hear about my views as a wife of a Vietnam Vet with PTSD. After I did my presentation, I was in the audience listening to the other speakers. There was a band playing and I wanted to get some audio, so I grabbed my camera, went to the back of the room and started shooting. Since it was just for the audio, I didn't use a tripod or adjust the focus. After the band was done, an Iraq veteran named Paul got up and I kept the camera rolling.

He talked about how he put the gun in his mouth.

After he was done talking, I introduced myself to him and told him I taped him. I offered him three choices. I could give him the tape, destroy it or put it up on YouTube. A sadness took over his eyes as he looked up to heaven. I was sure he was going to tell me to destroy it. He said "Get it up on YouTube. I'm tired of losing these guys." Paul is an Out Post leader with Point Man in Washington. He knows what is needed to help veterans just like him heal. It isn't in a bottle of beer or in a bottle of pills. It isn't expensive. It is rebuilding the link back to the person the veteran was, helping them find peace with what they had to go through and helping them forgive others as well as themselves. The healing is spiritual and component has been ignored for far too long.



This is what is happening all across the country but you'd never know it. Point Man began to address Vietnam veterans but they have embraced all veterans. Just like Paul, they are tired of losing these guys.

There are many others incorporating spiritual healing with taking care of the combat veterans from tiny towns to huge cities but while we know about them, congress remains clueless. Until they begin to listen to what is working, they will keep holding hearings on what they already heard and we will see more of them come back to find themselves at the wrong end of their gun.