Here is what was done when they came home.
(VA) The Department of Veterans Affairs was established on March 15, 1989, succeeding the Veterans Administration. It is responsible for providing federal benefits to veterans and their families. Headed by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, VA is the second-largest of the 15 Cabinet departments and operates nationwide programs for health care, financial assistance and burial benefits.
Of the 23.4 million veterans currently alive, nearly three-quarters served during a war or an official period of conflict. About a quarter of the nation's population is potentially eligible for VA benefits and services because they are veterans, family members or survivors of veterans.
The responsibility to care for veterans, spouses, survivors and dependents can last a long time. Two children of Civil War veterans still draw VA benefits. About 184 children and widows of Spanish-American War veterans still receive VA compensation or pensions.
VA's fiscal year 2009 spending is projected to be approximately $93.4 billion, including $40 billion for health care, $46.9 billion for benefits, and $230 million for the national cemetery system. This is more than a 7 percent increase from the department’s $87.6 billion budget for fiscal year 2009.
Compensation and Pension
Disability compensation is a payment to veterans who are disabled by injury or disease incurred or aggravated during active military service. Wartime veterans with low incomes who are permanently and totally disabled may be eligible for financial support through VA’s pension program.
In fiscal year 2008, VA provided $38.9 billion in disability compensation, death compensation and pension to 3.7 million people. About 3.2 million veterans received disability compensation or pension from VA. In addition, about 554,700 spouses, children and parents of deceased veterans received VA benefits. Among them are 170,144 survivors of Vietnam-era veterans and 235,000 survivors of World War II veterans.
Medical Care
Perhaps the most visible of all VA benefits and services is health care. From 54 hospitals in 1930, VA’s health care system now includes 153 medical centers, with at least one in each state, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. VA operates more than 1,400 sites of care, including 909 ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics, 135 nursing homes, 47 residential rehabilitation treatment programs, 232 Veterans Centers and 108 comprehensive home-care programs. VA health care facilities provide a broad spectrum of medical, surgical and rehabilitative care.
Almost 5.5 million people received care in VA health care facilities in 2008. By the end of fiscal year 2008, 78 percent of all disabled and low-income veterans had enrolled with VA for health care; 65 percent of them were treated by VA. In 2008, VA inpatient facilities treated 773,600 patients. VA’s outpatient clinics registered over 60 million visits.
VA manages the largest medical education and health professions training program in the United States. VA facilities are affiliated with 107 medical schools, 55 dental schools and more than 1,200 other schools across the country. Each year, about 90,000 health professionals are trained in VA medical centers. More than half of the physicians practicing in the United States had some of their professional education in the VA health care system.
VA’s medical system serves as a backup to the Defense Department during national emergencies and as a federal support organization during major disasters.
In 1996, VA put its health care facilities under 21 networks that provide more medical services to more veterans and family members than at any time during VA’s long history.
VA has experienced unprecedented growth in the medical system workload over the past few years. The number of patients treated increased by 29 percent from 4.2 million in 2001 to nearly 5.5 million in 2008.
To receive VA health care benefits most veterans must enroll. The VA health care system had nearly 7.9 million veterans who were enrolled as of October 2008. When they enroll, they are placed in priority groups or categories that help VA manage health care services within budgetary constraints and ensure quality care for those enrolled.
Some veterans are exempted from having to enroll. People who do not have to enroll include veterans with a service-connected disability of 50 percent or more, veterans who were discharged from the military within one year but have not yet been rated for a VA disability benefit and veterans seeking care for only a service-connected disability. Veterans with service-connected disabilities receive priority access to care for hospitalization and outpatient care. Veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) are eligible to receive enhanced health care benefits for five years following their military separation date.
Since 1979, VA’s Readjustment Counseling Service has operated Vet Centers, which provide psychological counseling for war-related trauma, community outreach, case management and referral activities, plus supportive social services to veterans and family members. There are 232 Vet Centers.
Since the first Vet Center opened, more than 2 million veterans have been helped. Every year, the Vet Centers serve more than 130,000 veterans and accommodate more than a million visits by veterans and family members.
Vet Centers are open to any veteran who served in the military in a combat theater during wartime or anywhere during a period of armed hostilities. Vet Centers also provide trauma counseling to veterans who were sexually assaulted or harassed while on active duty, and bereavement counseling to the families of service members who die on active duty.
VA provides health care and benefits to more than 100,000 homeless veterans each year. Though the proportion of veterans among the homeless is declining, VA continues to engage veterans in outreach, medical care, benefits assistance, transitional housing, and case management for veterans in permanent housing. VA has made more than 450 grants for transitional housing, service centers and vans for outreach and transportation to state and local governments, tribal governments, non-profit community and faith-based service providers.
Indispensable to providing America’s veterans with quality medical care are nearly 127,000 active volunteers in VA’s Voluntary Service who donated more than 11 million hours in 2008 to bring companionship and care to hospitalized veterans. These hours equate to 5,519 full time employee-equivalent (FTEE) positions.
Research
VA research focuses on areas of concern to veterans. VA research has earned an international reputation for excellence in areas such as aging, chronic disease, prosthetics and mental health. Studies conducted within VA help improve medical care not only for the veterans enrolled in VA's health care system, but for the nation at large. Because seven in 10 VA researchers are also clinicians, VA is uniquely positioned to translate research results into improved patient care. VA scientists and clinicians collaborate across many disciplines, resulting in a synergistic flow of inquiry, discovery and innovation between labs and clinics.
VA investigators played key roles in developing the cardiac pacemaker, the CT scan, radioimmunoassay, and improvements in artificial limbs. The first liver transplant in the world was performed by a VA surgeon-researcher. VA clinical trials established the effectiveness of new treatments for tuberculosis, schizophrenia and high blood pressure. The “Seattle Foot” developed in VA has allowed people with amputations to run and jump. VA contributions to medical knowledge have won VA scientists many awards, including the Nobel Prize and the Lasker Award.
Special VA “centers of excellence” conduct leading-edge research in areas of prime importance to veterans, such as neurotrauma, prosthetics, spinal cord injury, hearing and vision loss, alcoholism, stroke, and health care disparities. Through VA's Cooperative Studies Program, researchers conduct multicenter clinical trials to investigate the best therapy for various diseases affecting large numbers of veterans. Examples of current projects include testing whether intensive control of blood sugar can reduce cardiovascular problems for patients with type 2 diabetes; and comparing deep brain stimulation with other treatments for Parkinson's disease.
Deployment health is a major priority for VA research. In addition to studies focused on recent veterans of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, research continues on issues of special concern to veterans of earlier conflicts, such as the Gulf War and Vietnam War.
Home Loan Assistance
From 1944, when VA began helping veterans purchase homes under the original GI Bill, through December 2007, more than 18.4 million VA home loan guaranties have been issued, with a total value of $967 billion. VA ended fiscal year 2008 with almost 2.1 million active home loans, reflecting amortized loans totaling $220.8 billion.
What they also brought back with them was the hidden wounds carried deeply within them. Some tried to hide it, some hid it well, but others, well, it was just a family secret that was not to be talked about ever to anyone. Some were just too busy to even think of themselves as they tried to earn wages to support their families. It was not until they had retired they began to experience the awakening of the dark secrets they tried so hard to hide from everyone.
There wasn't the power of the Internet to connect them. Aside from hometown halls where they could connect with others, the realities they lived with were not well known.
It was the same when they came home from Korea.
One thing we don't talk about when we use the term MIA is how many from WWI, WWII and Korea were lost and not recovered as well. You can read more about this here.
Finding the Fallen
All of the veterans making it back home ended up raising the generation to come. They raised them to believe that the nation would respect their service, honor their willingness to sacrifice their lives, fully trusting should they return wounded, the nation would tend to those wounds and replace incomes they lost because of the wounds of war. Tough, proud, patriotic, and carrying a lot of pain they refused to show, they sent their sons off to Vietnam, usually cheering at the airport but cheering louder when they returned home for good.
The VA however, as well as the rest of the nation, was not so inclined to deliver on what generations before had received. They had to fight for a system not prepared for them and they fought to make sure the deep, dark secrets their fathers brought home would not be allowed to haunt them as well without proper care. Nostalgia, Soldier's Heart, Shell Shock died and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was born. Another birth was the attitude of "get over it" and "we don't want to hear about it" after the combat was sent into our TV sets during dinner every night. Local newspapers delivered on local stories about the fallen, the wounded and the awarding of medals. Pretty much, the American people thought we knew it all.
The Wall in Washington was joined by traveling Vietnam Memorial Walls.
So they kept fighting and by the time Saddam tried to take over Kuwait, the Gulf War began and ended soon after, the American people felt really badly about how they treated the Vietnam veterans, especially when so many of them were not given a choice about any of it as the draft notices came with the unlucky number. By the Gulf War, we had learned our lesson and the Vietnam veterans began to finally break through our bad impression of them. We knew we were wrong with how they were allowed to be treated when they came home so, we, always liking a winner, plus regretting how we treated the Vietnam Vets, went a bit overboard when it came to the Gulf War veterans, but that didn't last too long.
As they came home with the same wounds other generations did, Agent Orange was just beginning to break into the news reports, the Gulf War veterans had to deal with their own illness related to combat but no one was sure of what it was, what caused it or how to treat it. Considering how long they've had to figure it out, it's really a wonder they have not been able to put their finger on it yet. What they also returned to was a whole new world to reach from the comfort of their own homes. They were connected to other veterans across the country and internationally. What was discovered in one nation was found by a veteran in Boston. What was being complained about in California was being copied and sent by email across the world in a few days.
Now with Afghanistan and Iraq, the news reports are few. With the election of 2004 and 2006 over, the debate about the necessity of Iraq, left Afghanistan forgotten about and then Iraq began to be replaced by the economy in 2008. Iraq and Afghanistan were not mentioned that much and the news reports were more focused on the problems the veterans were facing coming back than the numbers of those killed or wounded on any given day unless there was something catastrophic to report on.
Looking back at what we managed to do after WWII and after the depression, it really should be looked at knowing what we could do for our veterans even though the rest of the country was hurting. At least back then, we thought about those we asked so much of but asked so little of us to do for them. Amazing what can happen when we put our minds to it.
So we showed up at when a coffin made it's way to the cemetery, waved a flag, put hand over heart or bent our elbow for a salute. Some offer a quick prayer then get back to our own lives while some complain about traffic that's being held up by the funeral procession or thinking "Oh, well, sad he/she was so young. Feel badly for the parents, young widow and kids, but we have our own problems." If you live near a National Guard armory, an Army post or Marine Camp or Navy base, then you may even show up to welcome them home. You may write a check or send a card. You may join a group to do what you can, but sooner or later, the feeling of being connected to them fades away. Sooner or later, you forget all about what they went through. Sooner or later, that veteran you welcomed home, felt honored to have met, becomes the "crazy vet" down the street with the police showing up again. What they brought back inside of them doesn't seem to matter any more to far too many of us.
The homeless veteran you read about dying in the woods means nothing to you because you may judge how they came to be homeless. They could have come back with PTSD and a family unable or unwilling to help them. They could have come back with no family to lean on and no jobs to go to. They could have come home wounded to the point even if they had a job, they wouldn't be able to do it and they can't get their VA claim out of the pile to be approved. Then they could also be among the members of the military always knowing they only wanted to be a Marine, a Soldier, an Airman or a Sailor and the was all they knew but now because they are wounded they cannot be one anymore.
See, when we say we "support the troops" we think that's all they need and they only need it when they are deployed with the rest of the "troops" and some of us are so lazy we forgot that one soldier is not called a "troop" but a soldier and a Marine is called a Marine, that there is an air National Guard and an Army National Guard. They need us when they wake up and when they finally get to find some few hours to sleep. They need us when they are out of danger just as much as when they are facing it. They need us in the hospital and out of it. They need us in the service to us just as much as they need us after. The question is, "when will we stop wanting to stop taking care of them in return for what they did for us?" We did it after WWII, we can do it now.
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