clark17357 Posted November 11, 2009 Report Share Posted November 11, 2009 It is Veterans' Day. We each have our own feelings about this day and we are all feeling thankful to our Veterans today. This article touched me deeply. My brother-in-law was in Force Recon in Vietnam. He was a successful banker after coming home only to be consumed in later life by that which he could not forget. He only talked about what he saw and did when he was drunk. The most helpless I have ever felt is watching him struggle with his memories. This was one tough, tough hombre. I offer this to you as something we all might consider lobbying our elected officials to deal with more than is happening now. I know I would not have a problem being taxed to pay for what our Veterans need. Jim The Forever War of the Mind By MAX CLELAND Published: November 6, 2009 “EVERY day I was in Vietnam, I thought about home. And, every day I’ve been home, I’ve thought about Vietnam.” So said one of the millions of soldiers who fought there as I did. Change the name of the battlefield and it could have been said by one of the American servicemen coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan today. Wars are not over when the shooting stops. They live on in the lives of those who fight them. That is the curse of the soldier. He never forgets. While the authorities say they cannot yet tell us why an Army psychiatrist would go on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas, we do know the sorts of stories he had been dealing with as he tried to help those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan readjust to life outside the war zone. A soldier’s mind can be just as dangerous to himself, and to those around him, as wars fought on traditional battlefields. War is haunting. Death. Pain. Blood. Dismemberment. A buddy dying in your arms. Imagine trying to get over the memory of a bomb splitting a Humvee apart beneath your feet and taking your leg with it. The first time I saw the stilled bodies of American soldiers dead on the battlefield is as stark and brutal a memory as the one of the grenade that ripped off my right arm and both legs. No, the soldier never forgets. But neither should the rest of us. Veterans returning today represent the first real influx of combat-wounded soldiers in a generation. They are returning to a nation unprepared for what war does to the soul. Those new veterans will need all of our help. After America’s wars, the used-up fighters are too often left to fend for themselves. Many of the hoboes in the Depression were veterans of World War I. When they came home, they were labeled shell-shocked and discharged from the Army too broken to make it during the economic cataclysm. So it is again, with too many stories about veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan ending up unemployed and homeless. Figures from the Department of Veterans Affairs show that 131,000 of the nation’s 24 million veterans are homeless each night, and about twice that many will spend part of this year homeless. We know of the recent failures at Walter Reed Medical Center, where soldiers were stranded in substandard barracks infested with rats while awaiting treatment. I was in Walter Reed myself at that time seeking counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder, which, ignited by a barrage of Iraq headlines and the loss of my United States Senate seat, had simply consumed me. I never saw it coming. Forty years after I had left the battlefield, my memories of death and wounding were suddenly as fresh and present as they had been in 1968. I thought I was past that. I learned that none of us are ever past it. Were it not for the surgeons and nurses at Walter Reed, I never would have survived those first months back from Vietnam. Were it not for the counselors there today, I do not think I would have survived what I’ve come to call my second Vietnam, the one that played out entirely in my mind. When I was wounded, post-traumatic stress disorder did not officially exist. It was recognized as a legitimate illness only in 1978, during my tenure as head of the Veterans Administration under President Jimmy Carter. Today, it is not only recognized, but the Army and the V.A. know how to treat it. I can offer no better testament than my own recovery. Weeks before the troubles at Walter Reed became public in 2007, my counselor put it to me simply. “We are drowning in war,” she said. The problems at Walter Reed had nothing to do with the dedicated doctors and nurses there. The problems had to do with the White House and Congress and the Department of Defense. The problems had to do with money. When we are at war, America spends billions on missiles, tanks, attack helicopters and such. But the wounded warriors who will never fight again tend to be put on the back burner. This is inexcusable, and it comes with frightening moral costs. There are estimates that 35 percent of the soldiers who fought in Iraq will suffer post-traumatic stress disorder. I’m sure the numbers for Afghanistan are similar. Researchers have found that nearly half of those returning with the disorder have suicidal thoughts. Suicide among active-duty soldiers is on pace to hit a record total this year. More than 1.7 million soldiers have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Imagine that some 600,000 of them will have crippling memories, trapped in a vivid and horrible past from which they can’t seem to escape. We have a family Army today, unlike the Army seen in any generation before. We have fought these wars with the Reserves and the National Guard. Fathers, mothers, soccer coaches and teachers are the soldiers coming home. Whether they like it or not, they will bring their war experiences home to their families and communities. In his poem “The Dead Young Soldiers,” Archibald MacLeish, whose younger brother died in World War I, has the soldiers in the poem tell us:“We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.” Until we help our returning soldiers get their lives back when they come home, the promise of restoring that meaning will go unfulfilled. Max Cleland, the secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission, was a Democratic senator from Georgia from 1997 to 2003. He is the author, with Ben Raines, of “Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherri Leicht Posted November 11, 2009 Report Share Posted November 11, 2009 So true. The brave soldiers never forget their wars. They fight them the rest of their lives. We as a nation have short changed them greatly while spending trillions on other "stuff" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordRocks1 Posted November 11, 2009 Report Share Posted November 11, 2009 Great post. As a combat vet we never forget what we have done and seen on the battlefield- I'm lucky to have a support network that has helped me make my transition into civilian life a good one. I feel sorry for those who come back and at times are jobless because of injuries and the fact that who now a days will hire a one armed or one legged veteran,what most employers see is what's on the outside and not how mentally strong we are despite our injuries. I know its life but I hope that our wounded service members get fair treatment, the VA is doing its best but as has been mentioned they can only do so much with the amount of money they have. PTSD is real folks and with today's economy its not a easy transition for most service members who comes out and has no education other than what he or she has earned in the military. Yes we get GI Bill help to go to school but we have to make a living first, put food on the table and clothe our children and when most can't get a job because they were infantry and now wounded what kind of jobs are there for them. What I'm trying to get to is that they/we want a chance to show that we can work and do a damn good job but we can only do it if we are being helped. Please, to those who have a business out there please help out the vets with on the job training or give them a chance to make a decent living by giving them a opportunity to prove themselves even if they do not have a college degree, I'm sure they would love to go to school full time but they can't without a job and a support network help them to take care of life's basics, shelter, food and clothing. We have fought for you will you give us a chance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azmartin Posted November 11, 2009 Report Share Posted November 11, 2009 Great post. As a combat vet we never forget what we have done and seen on the battlefield- I'm lucky to have a support network that has helped me make my transition into civilian life a good one. I feel sorry for those who come back and at times are jobless because of injuries and the fact that who now a days will hire a one armed or one legged veteran,what most employers see is what's on the outside and not how mentally strong we are despite our injuries. I know its life but I hope that our wounded service members get fair treatment, the VA is doing its best but as has been mentioned they can only do so much with the amount of money they have. PTSD is real folks and with today's economy its not a easy transition for most service members who comes out and has no education other than what he or she has earned in the military.Yes we get GI Bill help to go to school but we have to make a living first, put food on the table and clothe our children and when most can't get a job because they were infantry and now wounded what kind of jobs are there for them. What I'm trying to get to is that they/we want a chance to show that we can work and do a damn good job but we can only do it if we are being helped. Please, to those who have a business out there please help out the vets with on the job training or give them a chance to make a decent living by giving them a opportunity to prove themselves even if they do not have a college degree, I'm sure they would love to go to school full time but they can't without a job and a support network help them to take care of life's basics, shelter, food and clothing. We have fought for you will you give us a chance? FordRocks1 - Thank You from the Martins in AZ, Thank You for protecting and supporting our country. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stidog Posted November 12, 2009 Report Share Posted November 12, 2009 In 20 years, the worst I ever saw were the kids in the airport in New Orleans awaiting evacuation. We flew em out, but the fact that those were our people suffering like that stuck with me for a long long time. ---Edit, we flew them out during the days after katrina. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywickedshelby Posted November 12, 2009 Report Share Posted November 12, 2009 many friends of mine have struggled and continue to struggle with the memories of their experiences while in combat....... lets try to remember that they never forget the horrors of war! And my many thanks to those who have served and continue to serve our great nation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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