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Tanner Nixon
Period 8
English 1010
Mr. Erickson
“Veterans”
Imagine a world where our soldiers give their all to us and our country, in which some
have lost limbs, eyes and their minds, and in reward they get treated like garbage by our
government. Imagine wounded soldiers having to pay a shipping fee for their purple heart that
came in the mail, without a ceremony. Imagine veterans going to a V.A. (Veteran Affairs)
Hospital and having to wait on a list for more than 3 months for attention they need now.
Imagine when they finally do get help from the hospital, the hospital is in terrible condition with
rats and mold throughout the building. Now stop imagining, because this is what life is like for
some of our veterans. No one deserves to be treated like this.
We are led to believe that our veterans come home as heroes and are treated as such by
our government, but there is a huge amount of deception going on. Military veterans often
receive special treatment in their respective countries due to the sacrifices they made during
wars. Different countries handle this differently: some openly support veterans through
government programs, while others ignore them. The U.S. has a tendency to ignore. War
veterans generally get treated with great respect and honor for their contribution to the country
by their own nationals, this always doesn’t happen. Veterans face multiple challenges when they
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come home. Veterans are subject to illnesses directly related to their war efforts. Many of them
suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. PTSD occurs usually when people
encounter a life-threatening situation. Being in war creates a surrounding where it is very easy to
be in situations that cause a lot of stress and situations that are very traumatic. Veterans who
have this usually cannot stop thinking about their horrendous experience from when they served.
They try to avoid people and places that would remind them of the trauma they went through.
This affects the lifestyles of veterans because it prohibits them from going certain places or even
talking to close friends and family, which causes them to change their lives drastically. PTSD is
only one of their worries. Veterans face countless other problems. A six month plus waiting list
awaits the veterans to receive the treatments the hospital provides to treat their PTSD and other
medical issues. Adding another challenge, applying and receiving benefits have their own
problems.
It seems like veterans in the U.S. are forgotten about, that there is now help for them. This is
partly true. Necessity has resulted in a number of sources to be created to provide available help
for veterans. Many of these are independent, charitable organizations, because the aftercare and
rehabilitation services provided by the government have been inadequate. This may be because
they do not wish to give attention to the negative effects of military service and the difficulties of
readjustment to civilian life, because it might have a bad impact upon recruitment for their armed
forces. Nevertheless, help is available and veterans should feel like they are able to make contact
and ask for assistance or advice without feeling that this is a weakness. Military service can be a
profoundly unnatural experience and it is likely that some help may be needed in debriefing and
rehabilitation into the community, whether it is medical, psychological, practical or financial.
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Veterans are not completely forgotten about in the United States. Serving in the
U.S. military offers many perks. Perks include receiving many benefits. There are four major
benefits programs: disability compensation, Veteran’s pension programs, free or low-cost
medical care through VA hospitals and medical facilities, and education programs (Military and
Veteran Benefits). That’s only the surface, many more benefits await veterans. All the programs,
being very helpful to veterans, giving them something normal citizens do not have. According to
the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, more benefits include: disability compensations,
dependency compensation benefits for survivors and dependents, pension benefits for veterans,
pension benefits for survivors, education benefits for veterans, home loan benefits, and life
insurance benefits. All of these benefits give some sort of advantage over ordinary citizens.
People from all over the world, in different countries, would agree U.S. veterans get treated very
well with all of the benefits they receive. Veterans from other countries do not get most of the
benefits our veterans can apply for and receive. Receiving benefits are most important to those
who got injured or suffer from PTSD; and also to those who have had hard a time getting a job
and those not able to be self-proficient. Our country gives back to veterans and survivors who
have risked their lives for this country through giving them the opportunity to apply for benefits.
Benefits are worthwhile, but they aren’t the easiest to apply for and receive.
Forms for filling out benefits can reach up to 10 pages or more, and take many countless
hours for our veterans to even fill out, but that’s not all, in addition to the application form, there
are several other forms that need to be completed. Then to wait many months to a year to find
out if our veterans get the benefit. Many veterans do not get the benefits that they earned because
the V.A. makes the application process too complicated. In the New York Times article “The
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Long an Unacceptable Wait for a Veterans’ Benefit”, Susan Seliger tells us about how veterans
and their families are having troubles with the application process. Seliger had collected
comments about the problems the families and veterans encounter. Mary R. from Alabama, who
is helping her 87-year-old cousin apply, commented that she feels the process is set up to
frustrate and discourage eligible individuals from applying. From the same article, Adele W.
from California commented she was frustrated by the V.A.’s confusing rules and long delays.
Many veterans have died during this long waiting process.
Alongside with receiving benefits, new treatment programs are emerging to assist veterans
suffering from post-combat mental health problems such as depression and PTSD. Cognitive
Behavioral Therapy (CBT), is becoming an important method for the treatment of mental health
issues among veterans, and is currently considered the standard of care for depression and PTSD
by the United States Department of Defense. CBT is a psychotherapeutic approach that aims to
change the patterns of thinking or behavior that responsible for patient’s negative emotions and
in doing so change the way they feel (Beck Institute for CBT). It has been proven to be an
effective treatment for PTSD among war veterans. Online programs that go along with CBT with
therapist interaction have also proven effective in treating mental health problems among
veterans. Also from the Beck Institute, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is also
an effective and noninvasive, drug-free treatment for PTSD, even though it has not been tested
on specific military traumatic exposure for effectivity. Neuro-Linguistic Programming also has
applications in this field
Veterans go to V.A. hospitals to go and seek this help. Problems after problems come up
in these hospitals. Mold, rats, and bacteria, infest some of these hospitals, but the problem that
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hurts the most is the secret waiting list. This list was part of a scheme designed by VA managers
in Phoenix that hid 1400 to 1600 sick veterans who were forced to wait months to see a doctor.
Well this wait has caused many deaths; one of these was Thomas Breen. In the CNN article “A
Fatal Wait,” Thomas Breen, a seventy one year old Navy veteran’s wait was ended much sooner
than expected. This is because he died while waiting for crucial treatment. Breens had bladder
cancer that needs treatment right away. The VA sent him home telling him he had an
appointment, this appointment was for his prosthetic leg. He needed an appointment for his stage
four bladder cancer. The VA had cost him his life. Breens is not the only one who gets treated
like this. The VA needs to change.. In 2014 there was a bill passed that would demand the
hospitals to repair their facilities for a better quality medical center. Through this, veterans are
more suitable place to receive their medical attention. This reform bill was signed by President
Barack Obama in 2014, $16.3 billion bill to overhaul the troubled Veterans Affairs Department,
“Obama Signs VA Reform Bill.”
The real question is, has this bill actually worked? The answer is a slight yes. The
hospitals have improved. Although there are many problems still need to be fixed such as the
waiting list. Where veterans check in, then those papers are printed and not filed electronically.
Where veterans’ files are ‘lost’ and have to keep nagging to be able to get an appointment.
Workers at the hospitals need to be more organized. Organization would help solve a lot of
problems the VA faces. Using computers to organize will help check in veterans and set up
appointments that could save their lives.
Military veterans often receive special treatment in their respective countries due to the
sacrifices they made during wars. Different countries handle this differently: some openly
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support veterans through government programs, while others ignore them. Veterans are also
subject to illnesses directly related to their military service such as posttraumatic stress disorder.
War veterans are generally treated with great respect and honor for their contribution to the
world and country by their own nations. To the public’s eye, the U.S. does a good job.
Conversely there are often negative feelings towards the veterans of foreign nations held long
after the war is over; for example towards the German Nazi soldiers, but they are still veterans of
war, just like those of the winning side. There are exceptions. Veterans of unpopular or lost
conflicts may be discriminated against. Such as veterans that had served in the Vietnam War.
Veterans of short or small conflicts are often forgotten when the country fought bigger conflicts.
In some countries with strong anti-military traditions, veterans are neither honored in any special
way by the general public, nor have their dedicated Veterans Day. In the U.S., veterans are
respected fairly well by the citizens compared to other countries.
Many countries have longstanding traditions, ceremonies, and holidays to honor their
veterans. In the U.S., "Veterans Day" is held on November the 11th and is focused mostly on the
veterans who died in service to country. Flags are up everywhere in the weeks up to the date, and
wreaths and flowers laid at memorials to the dead.
Most veterans are respected by the country and government fairly well, except for one
instance. In the book Uncle Sam’s Shame: Inside Our Broken Veterans by Martin Kantor, it
gives us an example of a disrespectful experience one of our veterans went through. Sgt. Major
Rob Dickerson did not receive any respect by the government or the general public at all. This
Sgt. was forced to pay for his purple heart, the medal issued to soldiers wounded in action, when
the medal arrived at his door. Instead of being awarded the medal in a formal military ceremony,
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his honor was taken from him. He received this glorious medal in a package with a twenty-one
dollar shipping fee.
The effect of active military service can be profound and lasting, and some veterans have
found it difficult to adjust to normal life again. Reports from 2009 showed that twice as many
veterans were in prison than there were British troops currently in Afghanistan. Homelessness,
street-sleeping, and relationship breakdown are also commonly reported. Research done by the
US homelessness charity CRISIS, and the Ex-Services Action Group both found that a quarter of
homeless people had previously served in the armed forces. The Times newspaper reported on
25 September 2009 that the number of "military veterans in jail has more than doubled in six
years". Another Times article of the same date quoted the veterans mental health charity Combat
Stress reporting a 53% increase in referrals from doctors.
An article titled "Veterans Prone to Suicide" and cited a report by the Mental Health
Foundation which said that not enough was being done to care for the Afghanistan war veterans,
and many "plunged into alcohol problems, crime and suicide" upon their return. In the U.S., the
suicide rate among veterans is 300% the national average. This is absurd! Veterans are having a
tremendously hard time dealing with their living conditions.
Veterans have been treated many ways, some with respect and honor, others the complete
opposite. With the growing rates of veterans falling ill with PTSD, suicides, and not being able
to file for benefits, there needs to be more help. Every year on Memorial Day and Veterans Day,
Barack Obama and our other politicians make very nice speeches, but the truth about how they
feel about our veterans can be seen in how they are treated every single day. In the United States
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today, there are well over half a million veterans that have been waiting for at least 125 days to
have their benefit claims processed. Many of them will ultimately have their claims sent back or
denied just so a government employee somewhere can get a bigger bonus. Meanwhile,
conditions at VA facilities all over the country are absolutely abysmal, and many veterans have
to wait more than half a year just to get an appointment at one of those facilities. Once you start
looking into how this country really treats military veterans, it becomes easier to understand why
twenty two military veterans commit suicide in America every single day. Our vets have a higher
rate of unemployment, a higher rate of poverty, a higher rate of homelessness, a higher rate of
depression and a higher rate of divorce then the general population. It is a shame. One of the
ways that any society is judged is by how it treats military veterans, and America has failed
miserably.
Our government seems to not care for our veterans like they should, we need to step in
and help all that we can. We as American have the right to make bills. These bills can help with
the treatment of our veterans. The way that the U.S. government treats military veterans is
absolutely disgraceful. Men and women that have given everything for this nation are literally
being treated like human garbage by their own government. After watching how vets are treated,
it is absolutely amazing that anyone is still volunteering to be a part of the military. We pay those
in the military like crap, we keep sending our best soldiers back to Afghanistan and Iraq again
and again, we don’t equip them properly, military suicides are at a record pace, hundreds of
thousands of applications for veteran benefits are hopelessly backlogged, homelessness and
unemployment among vets is much higher than for the general population, the condition of most
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VA hospitals is an absolute disgrace, and to top everything off now the Obama administration
has started labeling military veterans as “potential terrorists”.
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Works Cited
“A Fatal Wait” CNN. Cable News Network. Web. 17 May 2015
“Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy.” Cognitive Therapy Training Center. Web. 19
May 2015
Kantor, Martin. Uncle Sam’s Shame: Inside Our Broken Veterans Administration. Westport,
Conn.: Preaeger Security International, 2008. Print
Matishack, Martin. “Obama Signs VA Reform Bill into Law.” TheHill. Web. 12 May 2015
"Military and Veteran Benefits, News, Veteran Jobs." Military.com. N.p., Web. 1 May 2015.
Richfeild, Claire. “Veterans in Jail.” Times.com. N.p., 25 Sept. 2009. Web. 19 May 2015
Smith, Robert. “Veterans Prone To Suicide.” Nytimes.com. N.p., Web. 14 May 2015
Seliger, Susan. “The Long and Unacceptable Wait for a Veterans’ Benefit.” Nytimes.com. N.p.,
15 May 2013. Web. 7 May 2015
“Veterans Benefits Administration.” Home. Web. 15 May 2015.