Next headline declares we have done far too little for them

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 14, 2014

We can pretend that our ignorance is of no importance but in the process of our watching reality TV shows and using Netflix to catch up on our favorite shows, graves have been filled all across this country while they wait for us to catch up on what has been happening to them. They wait for someone to actually do something before the next headline declares we have done far too little for them.

The Associated Press reported this in May of 2007

Deployments strain troops' mental health Both the VA and the Pentagon in recent weeks have acknowledged a need to improve mental health treatment. Jan Kemp, a VA associate director for education who works on mental health, has estimated there are up to 1,000 suicides a year among veterans within the VA system, and as many as 5,000 a year among all living veterans.

A recent investigation by the Government Accountability Office found that just 22 percent of U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who showed signs of PTSD were being referred by Pentagon health care providers for mental health evaluation, citing inconsistent and subjective standards in determining when treatment was needed.

The four-page summary of findings, which will be incorporated in a final report to Defense Secretary Robert Gates in June, comes amid renewed attention on troop and veterans care following recent disclosures of shoddy outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The task force found 38 percent of soldiers and 31 percent of Marines report psychological concerns such as traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from deployment.

Among members of the National Guard, the figure is much higher — 49 percent — with numbers expected to grow because of repeated deployments.

Each time back increased the risk of PTSD by 50%. They knew what redeployments would do but did not let that simple fact stop them from sending troops back over and over again. The worst part was no one thought to make sure the VA was ready for any of them should they survive long enough to become veterans. The suicides within the military were already increasing.

By August the reports got worse. The Associated Press reported that military suicides were at a 26 years record high. The number was 99 as of the end of 2006. The same month, General Richard Cody, Vice Chief of Staff for the US Army traveled to Fort Hood and told the the Killeen Daily Herald "We have a new system in place where every commander and soldier is having classes on traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder, so they can recognize the symptoms and be treated properly," he said. "We want to alert everyone in what to look for so we can assist the soldiers and their families."

That "alert" was followed by Sgt. Erik Botta of Florida asking the Federal Court to block his 5th deployment even though he was already declared medically unfit and was waiting to be discharged. This happened while others wanted to stay in and get treated for what combat did to them were being discharged under "personality disorders" leaving them with no help at all. They were simply disposable. The Christian Science Monitor reported on these discharges.

Treating the trauma of war – fairly
The new diagnostic label sends the message: This suffering is your fault, not a result of the war. On one level, it's hard not to see this as another example of the government falling short on its care for Iraq war veterans. Yet there's another, more insidious, bit of sophistry at work.

The implication is that a healthy person would be resistant to the psychological pressures of war. Someone who succumbs to the flashbacks, panic, and anger that haunt many former soldiers must have something inherently wrong with him. It's the psychological side of warrior macho: If you're tough, you can take it. Of course, we know this is not true. Wars forever change the lives of those who fight them and can leave deep scars.

While all this was going on, USA Today reported on the extra burden for National Guards and Reservists.

Despite signs that the war in Iraq is taking a toll on National Guard troops' mental health, members are no more likely than active-duty soldiers to develop post-traumatic stress, psychologists reported over the weekend.

But financial problems are creating emotional pain. Deployment-linked money trouble raises the odds sixfold that a National Guard soldier will have mental-health problems after leaving Iraq, studies from a team at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research suggest. The researchers spoke at the American Psychological Association conference here.

More than 400,000 National Guard troops have served in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a congressional report.

The military broke them then tossed them.

Pfc. Ryan LeCompte, an Army scout, has been diagnosed by military and private doctors with post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury after serving two tours in Iraq with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.

He came home with a wounded mind and a broken body.

Now senior officers want to get rid of him.

The 27-year-old Lakota warrior from Lower Brule, S.D., was a standout soldier, earning accolades for working “tirelessly, without complaint, despite the long hours and harsh conditions he faced,” according to a December 2003 award recommendation.

He participated in more than 160 combat missions.

We can pretend that none of this happened. We can pretend that the government made sure all was ready for the willing and all they had to do was seek help. We can pretend it is all the fault of the VA but then we'd have to determine who was responsible first.

Was it the appointee of President Obama? President Bush's three appointees? After all he was the president when two wars were started. Why didn't he make sure everything was ready for the wounded? Then you'd have to ask why President Clinton, President Bush Sr. after President Reagan established the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Department of Veterans Affairs Act of 1988 (Pub.L. 100–527) changed the former Veterans Administration, an independent government agency established in 1930, primarily at that time to see to needs of World War I, into a Cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs. It was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on October 25, 1988, but actually came into effect under the term of his successor, George H. W. Bush, on March 15, 1989.