Veterans For America

The Chicago Tribune tells the story of Spc. 4 Eugene “Doc” Cherry, an Army medic who served in Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division and returned home with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Unfortunately, Cherry’s experiences are ones that VFA has seen many, many times. Cursory exposure to the psychiatrist in the field, long waits for appointments back in America, commanders making it next to impossible for servicemembers with mental injuries to receive help, going AWOL: this is a pattern that affects more and more servicemembers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Their numbers will keep growing until the well-intentioned pronouncements about the military treating mental injuries as seriously as it does physical injuries makes its way into the heads of combatant commanders.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway, the top officer in the service, says the Marines are being broken in half by the continuing demands of two seemingly endless wars in the Middle East. “We can’t have one foot in Afghanistan and one foot in Iraq,’’ Conway said, according to a Marine Corps Times article published today. “I believe that would be — an analogy would be having one foot in the canoe and one foot on the bank. You can’t be there long.” The strains are keeping Marines away from their families too long and prompting many officers to reconsider their careers in the military. If the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan continues beyond October, “I’d like some consideration,’’ he said, in a plea to policy makers.

Beyond the Yellow Ribbon: welcome to the Minnesota National Guard’s effort to integrate returning troops. The effort works to tackle problems large and small – those lingering from the front and others arising from being home. Counselors have helped steer those returning into new jobs, into school, and back into productive lives. The program even claims lives saved from potential suicide. The problems are massive, however, and not everyone has been reached. “It’s going to take a tremendous amount of effort over the next 10 years to take care of these people,’’ said Maj. John Morris, Minnesota National Guard chaplain.

For the rest of today’s news, please visit the Our Troops Newsladder.