Why Should You Pay Attention to What Isn't Said?

There is a lot of confusion in this country on multiple issues. One of them is when the press says "PTSD is an invisible wound" because they look at veterans from a distance. Removed from the reality veterans face on a daily basis, they simply can't see it. Yet if you are up close and spend time with them, aware of what you are seeing, it is all so clear.

You can see it in their eyes. You can even hear it in what they don't say. Folks have been given permission to settle for what has been going on because no one told them their obligation didn't end when wars ended.

Awareness is key to most things. Assuming you know what is going on is how we all allowed the problems to become greater at the same time more was being done.

When suicides went up after over a decade of groups collecting billions a year to help veterans along with the federal government, red flags were flying all over the veterans community. We knew what price was being paid for claims being made yet nothing being delivered. It just sounded good to hear someone was doing something. It just didn't matter if that thing being done was helping or not.

I don't know why I am still shocked with what can be discovered online when we search for answers.

This morning I was searching for a story on another amputee receiving a home from a bank. It was a foreclosure they had renovated to give to the veteran and his family. The problem was I caught the news report at the end of it. I'll still look for the story but in the search I found this.

I went to the link Bullets First and it linked to the article on the Daily Beast. Wounded Warrior Project Under Fire

The organization also engages in branded partnerships for everything from ketchup to paper towels to playing cards—something that rubs other veterans’ groups the wrong way.

“It’s more about the Wounded Warrior Project and less about the wounded warrior,” said a second veterans’ advocate.

After years of hearing complaints it got to the point where if I see the logo on Bounty paper towels, I won't buy them no matter if Publix (local supermarket) has them bogo (buy one get one free) or any other product with the logo that came from a group of real Marines in Iraq.

The Marines Sgt. Matt LeVart carries injured Cpl. Barry Lange off the battlefield as members of India Company 3rd Battalion 7th Marine Division engage Iraqi soldiers in battle. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch)

Wounded Times has posted a stories about this group in the past including this one from the Daily Beast piece in September Wounded Warrior Project Under Fire,,,,Again with extended information including videos and the back story on the Marines discovered after WWP decided to sue another charity out of Indiana for calling them a fraud. Help Indiana Veterans was their target then.

To date, the WWP's benefits team has helped 6,600 veterans submit benefit claims, and their Warriors to Work program helped place 1,900 veterans in jobs. The organization offers peer mentoring, employment assistance services, physical health and wellness activities, and long-term support initiatives.

But of the more than 56,000 veterans the group counts as “alumni,” meaning that they have been registered with the organization, many don’t directly engage with WWP.

Ok, now you know why when I am introduced to folks and someone says "She's with Wounded Warrior Project" I gag then explain that Wounded Times is about raising awareness, not money. 

Wounded Times is not associated with WWP now, has not been in the past and never will be. There is only one ad source I have blocked from this site and if you guessed it was them you are correct. As for the name, that came from how there is Army Times, Marines Corps Times and others but this is about veterans from all branches and all wars focusing on PTSD.  Considering I wrote a book back before WWP started and used the term Wounded Warriors in it along with videos, simply because I got tired of writing about wounded Soldiers, wounded Marines and separating them from each other it just made more sense to use the ancient term of Warrior.

This group does not make any claims in their commercials, so calling them a fraud is not accurate. If folks are falling for their heart tugging commercials to the point where they're writing out checks without ever once really listening to the commercial, it is their problem.

Funding millions into a group asking for donations so that the donors can "honor and empower them to aid and assist each other" is the clearest indication no one really pays enough attention.

In the Veterans community our conversations are much different than within the general public. Few still support this group. Most have been turned away from them or know someone denied help they sought.

The kicker is, veterans don't rely on huge sums of money to do it. They do it for the sake of other veterans and no one can ever replace that. They do not shut out other veterans because they are not the right kind of veteran or forget that older veterans suffered the same as the younger ones but waited longer on their own when no one was paying attention to them.

Veterans stand by each other because side by side they are stronger together and that is priceless! Something WWP will never really understand.