Oregon National Guardsmen Joint Base Lewis-McChord were shoved aside to “make room” for active-duty troops

While the national news focuses on Whitney and politics, along with anything else they want to show on the 24-7 reports, our veterans, especially National Guards and Reservists, have been suffering.

Nothing will be fixed for any of them unless the general public knows what is going on. Pass on this fantastic report from the Washington Post so your friends can be just as outraged as you are and then do something about it!

Efforts lag to improve care for National Guard
By Lauren Everitt, Andrew Theen and Gulnaz Saiyed,

In 2010, members of the Oregon National Guard’s 41st Brigade who were returning from Iraq for demobilization at Joint Base Lewis-McChord were shoved aside to “make room” for active-duty troops, sometimes without being treated for combat injuries, said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Despite years of efforts to improve health care and support networks for the National Guard and military reserves, these service members report higher rates of mental health problems and related ills than active-duty troops, according to current and former officials, troops, experts and government studies.

More than 665,000 National Guard and reserve troops — known collectively as the reserve component — have served in Afghanistan and Iraq during the past decade. Upon returning home, many have been hastily channeled through a post-deployment process that has been plagued with difficulties, including a reliance on self-reporting to identify health problems, the officials and experts say.

Reservists do not have access to the same system or networks that experts say are needed to assess and treat their injuries. After brief demobilization assessments, reserve troops return home and must navigate disparate health-care and support providers, often without the psychological safety net that comes from living near members of their unit.

“The National Guard faces unique challenges compared to our active-duty counterparts,” Gen. Craig R. McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau — which is responsible for administering the guard’s 54 state and territorial units — said at a public forum in November. He said the Obama administration is increasing its efforts to address resulting problems, including substance abuse, depression, PTSD and suicide.
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