In addition to unemployment among returning vets being higher than the national average here are some additional thoughts.Vets filing for their benefits are experiencing waiting times exceeding 250 days. In larger cities like New York and LA, waiting times exceed a year. Those benefits include medical support for people who have lost limbs, hearing, vision, etc. Support for soldiers with PTSD and other psychological damage is even worse.Suicide rates among veterans is one to two a day depending on what source you use.Homelessness and divorce among veterans is high as a group.Families, spouses and children, of soldiers killed in action often have to hire a lawyer at their own expense to get benefits.I read an open letter by a young man who is dying from injuries received in Iraq.^http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/the_last_letter_20130318/^I read it at a different site than the one I link here, however, I saw scathing comments criticizing this young man who was angry at being sent to a war for which he didn’t sign up. They said he was a volunteer and therefore had no right to complain. This young man gave his youth, his flesh, and will soon die because he was sent to a war of choice and he is angry. The young man who wrote this recent letter had wanted to fight in Afghanistan where his President told him our enemies waited. He says he’d have no complaints if he had been injured there, but…Read the letter. Then…Write a letter to your Senators, your representatives, and your President. Tell them our neighbors who went overseas to fight for their nation, for their neighbors, and for the man standing beside them, deserve better. They fought for us, they need US to fight for them.Respectfully,C.
In addition to unemployment among returning vets being higher than the national average here are some additional thoughts.Vets filing for their benefits are experiencing waiting times exceeding 250 days. In larger cities like New York and LA, waiting times exceed a year. Those benefits include medical support for people who have lost limbs, hearing, vision, etc. Support for soldiers with PTSD and other psychological damage is even worse.Suicide rates among veterans is one to two a day depending on what source you use.Homelessness and divorce among veterans is high as a group.Families, spouses and children, of soldiers killed in action often have to hire a lawyer at their own expense to get benefits.I read an open letter by a young man who is dying from injuries received in Iraq.^http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/the_last_letter_20130318/^I read it at a different site than the one I link here, however, I saw scathing comments criticizing this young man who was angry at being sent to a war for which he didn’t sign up. They said he was a volunteer and therefore had no right to complain. This young man gave his youth, his flesh, and will soon die because he was sent to a war of choice and he is angry. The young man who wrote this recent letter had wanted to fight in Afghanistan where his President told him our enemies waited. He says he’d have no complaints if he had been injured there, but…Read the letter. Then…Write a letter to your Senators, your representatives, and your President. Tell them our neighbors who went overseas to fight for their nation, for their neighbors, and for the man standing beside them, deserve better. They fought for us, they need US to fight for them.Respectfully,C.