Published Saturday, November 11, 2006 in East Valley Opinions of the Arizona Republic as “Their stories tell us why veterans need our support.”
Also published in the Tucson Citizen on line as “Election is past, now is time to meet vets’ needs” and White Mountain Independent as “Supporting Veterans requires more than parades.”
“The extreme and terrible nature of war touches something essential about being human. For those who survive, the victors and the defeated, the battle lives in their memories and nightmares…. It survives as hundreds of searing private memories, memories of loss and triumph, shame and pride, struggles each veteran must fight each day of his life.” –Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down: a story of modern warfare
With the election behind us, our re-elected and newly elected representatives need to put partisanship aside and support our Iraq war veterans.
We can wave flags and march in Veteran’s Day parades, but we are failing our obligation to our soldiers after they’re discharged, as I learned from talking with two local marines and a marine mom about their experiences. They asked to remain anonymous, so I’ve used pseudonyms.All struggled with returning back to civilian life, but what made their stories most disturbing was the repeated feeling of abandonment by the armed forces they had so proudly served.
Jack, who served two tours in Iraq, told me when he returned they give him a brief lecture on behaving yourself such as “not beating your wife” and a five-minute discharge interview with a psychologist, then they sent him on his way. For those suffering mentally, honesty only delays your discharge, and in many cases the worst problems take months to appear. No one called to check up on him, even when depression overtook him eight months later. The only time he hears from the military is when they try to convince him to go back to Iraq. “It’s like they don’t give a [expletive],” exclaimed Jack. Read the rest of this entry »