Opinion: Beyond Yellow Ribbons and Parades

By Bradley S. Barton
National Commander
Disabled American Veterans

We've all seen those "Support Our Troops" signs and yellow
ribbon car magnets, and soon there will be patriotic parades and
celebrations marking our nation's independence. Those are great ways to
show appreciation for our brave men and women in uniform---those in
Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as veterans who served before them.

But what about when they come home? Many of them have life-long
disabilities, lives forever changed by their service to our country. We
need to make sure their service and sacrifice are not forgotten.

The types of injuries, most notably from improvised explosive devices,
and the high survival rate among the casualties in Iraq are
unprecedented. For every soldier or Marine killed there, 15 survive
injury or illness.

According to a recent Associated Press article, as many as 53,000
Americans have been wounded or injured in Iraq, including more than 800
who have lost an arm, a leg, fingers or toes. More than 100 have been
blinded, many more have been disfigured by burns and thousands have
brain injuries or suffer other psychological wounds.

Both the military and the veterans health care systems are struggling
to cope with the influx of casualties. But despite the Walter Reed Army
Medical Center scandal and some reported lapses elsewhere, for the most
part the injured are getting very good care. The most seriously
wounded---complicated cases with multiple injuries---often are assigned
to one of the polytrauma centers run by the Department of Veterans
Affairs. There they are swarmed over by a team of specialists unlike
anywhere else. This holistic approach to treatment and rehabilitation
is one of the great success stories of modern medicine.

However, the less visible wounds of war, often go untreated. An
estimated 2,000 cases of traumatic brain injury have been treated, but
doctors think thousands more have gone undetected. The Defense
Department's Mental Health Task Force report released in June and a
Washington Post series on post-traumatic stress disorder among soldiers
at Walter Reed exposed many problems in the current response to
veterans with mental health needs.

Without proper intervention, these psychologically wounded veterans and
their loved ones can be sent into a downward spiral that often leads to
substance abuse, violent behavior or suicidal urges, ultimately ending
in tragedy.

Political pressure brought on by the ongoing war has forced the
military, the VA and Congress to address these weaknesses, at least in
the short run. A number of commissions have been set up to assess the
current state of medical and mental health care and make
recommendations to the administration and Congress. Of course, Capitol
Hill is awash with legislative proposals accompanied by
self-congratulations and press releases about supporting the troops.

But our policy makers must do more than just talk about supporting
American service-members and veterans. Both the Defense Department and
the VA must implement a comprehensive, coordinated system of medical
and mental health care to meet not only the immediate but the long-term
needs of returning veterans.

More than one-third of the half-million eligible veterans of Iraq or
Afghanistan have gone to the VA for health care. They and those who
follow will join the more than seven million veterans already enrolled
in the VA health care system. While the current fiscal outlook for
veterans health care is promising, it is absolutely vital to ensure
guaranteed full funding for the VA to care for the men and women who
have served and sacrificed for our nation well into the future.