Oceanside shooting range where veteran put the gun to his head

When they ignored the veterans of Vietnam, no one cared.
It was easier to dismiss their pain than to explain why nothing was prepared.
When they walked the streets searching for a place to lay their head
it was easier to pretend to care when they were dead.
When they ignored the veterans of the Gulf War, no one cared.
It was easier to dismiss their pain than to explain why nothing was prepared.
When they walked the streets searching for a place to lay their head
it was easier to pretend to care when they were dead.
When we ignored the veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq, no one cared.
It was easier to dismiss their pain than to explain why nothing was prepared.
When they walked the streets searching for a place to lay their head
it was easier to pretend to care when they were dead.

We had decades to get this right but hey, it's a lot easier to pretend to care than to actually do something real. Make a stinking fuss over backlog of claims and some veterans dying waiting for appointments, then you get to walk away feeling oh so funking proud of "doing something" for the veterans you claim to care about.

Face it. When there are reports on suicides, everyone wants to read them but no one seems to be honest enough to say why they want to. Why does it piss me off? Because whenever someone has a chance to hear what can help, what can be done, people walk away. After all, then it would all be real and not just some story they read about a veteran in another part of the country.

When I had a chance to do something I did and so did a lot of other people but not enough. Most folks are too busy playing political games, taking sides as if one politician is any better than others when the truth is, we got what we deserved out of this jerks more interested in getting votes than earning them.

What good does it do to pay attention if you don't do anything with what you learn? What good does it do to support a charity when you don't have a clue what they do with the money and take no interest in making sure they actually do what they say they are doing?

There has never been a time when there has been more charities and more people claiming to be "addressing" the veterans needs. Congress has never spent so much money on "taking care of the veterans" and fixing the VA,,,,again. So why are we right back where we were when Vietnam veterans came home?

Nothing has changed! Nothing except there are more veterans committing suicide and more families grieving because no one cared enough to actually do something.

Did safety net fail suicidal Marine vet?
After multiple Iraq, Afghanistan tours, Jeremy Sears lost battle for benefits with the VA, then killed himself at Oceanside shooting range
UT San Diego
By Jeanette Steele
OCT. 14, 2014

Jeremy and Tami Sears— Facebook photo

Jeremy Sears is the kind of combat veteran that America desperately wants to help -- a Marine who served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yet the safety net designed to support returning troops seems to have failed in his case, according to his wife and veterans advocates.

After waiting 16 months in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs claims logjam, Sears was denied all disability payments and, untreated for trauma injuries and facing financial difficulties, took his own life.

The 35-year-old former Camp Pendleton infantryman killed himself last week, almost exactly two years after being discharged.

On Monday, Oct. 6, Sears went to an Oceanside shooting range and put the gun to his head.

Just days before, he first admitted to his wife that he might have “survivor’s guilt” -- sometimes seen as a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder.
read more here

“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me— and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
― Martin Niemöller

In the 90's when we were going through all of this we were told that for every 10 veterans putting in claims, 8 dropped out from frustration. They simply gave up. It took my husband's claim 6 years before it was finally approved. It happened to most veterans. Lives fall apart and it is easier to give up than to keep fighting even when you know you're right. Reporters didn't care about what was happening to them. They said it was "old news" and didn't matter.

History repeated itself and we let it happen. When do we actually write a new ending for these veterans after they come home?