Group: PA vets pay high price

By Brad Rhen, Lebanon Daily News

A report released Thursday by a veterans advocacy group claims Pennsylvania National Guard members have borne a “disproportionate share of the burden” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But a Pennsylvania National Guard official said the report contains nothing new.

The report, which was released by Veterans for America, includes a list of six prominent strains and challenges placed upon Pennsylvania National Guard members and their families by the heavy use of the Pennsylvania National Guard since Sept. 22, 2001.

Among them are: Guard members returning from deployments experiencing great difficulty readjusting to their civilian lives; post-traumatic stress disorder and other post-deployment readjustment issues; and some small businesses are finding it difficult, if not impossible, to retain the same position vacated by employees who are deployed with the National Guard.

The report states that the VFA will recommend specific proposals to close the gap between the pressing needs created by deployments and services available in a subsequent report.

Adrienne Willis, co-director of VFA’s National Guard program, said VFA has been working on the report since January, and interviewed dozens of veterans, guard members and guard officials.

“We had a lot of responses from the Pennsylvania National Guard because they have been used so heavily,” she said. “Really there is no state that better exemplifies the needs of the National Guard than Pennsylvania.”

Kevin Cramsey, a spokesman for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs at Fort Indiantown Gap, said the report contained nothing guard officials did not already know.

“There’s really nothing new in this report,” he said. “The Pennsylvania National Guard has played an important role in the global war on terror since 9/11, and that’s a source a great pride.”

Cramsey pointed out that the Pennsylvania National Guard is the only national guard in the nation that has been selected to have a Stryker brigade. Because of that, officials have assumed for a while that it would be deployed as soon as it was ready.

“So the idea that we would have a lot of deployments is not a revelation,” he said. “We’re one of the largest guards in the entire nation, and we’re one of the most active. While we are deploying a lot, we always have a lot of soldiers and airmen at home, and we always have the state covered.”

According to its Web site, http://www.veteransforamerica.org, VFA is an advocacy and humanitarian organization whose primary mission is to ensure that the United States meets the needs of service members and veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the past, the organization was known as Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.

Jason Forrester, the other co-director of VFA’s National Guard program, said guard officials were very helpful in putting the report together.

“They greeted us with an outstretched hand, and they were very interested in getting feedback on how things were working with the various programs that have been put in place,” he said.

Forrester said VFA is a bipartisan organization and has not endorsed a candidate in the presidential race.

Willis said the report was released now with the hope that the candidates will discuss issues that face the National Guard during the run-up to the election.

“I do think that this is a challenge for the next president, whoever it is,” she said.

The report can be read at the Web site http://www.veteransforamerica.org.

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