Save our Vets

A few weeks ago, Michelle Obama, various celebrities, and people all over the internet were hashtagging (is that even a word?) to bring attention to the Nigerian girls that were kidnapped by an evil man. First of all, putting a pound sign (aka hashtag) in front of a catchy phrase does not solve any of the world’s problems. Neither does “tweeting” about it. You cannot replace foreign or domestic policy and action with social media. Period. That aside, what happened and is currently happening to those girls is horrible. It needs to be addressed and those girls need to be reunited with their families. The kidnappers need to be punished. You’d think the Nigerian government would be concerned about it. If something like that happened in our country, local police, state police, FBI, and various other law enforcement agencies would get involved and do everything in their power to free the children. See how many Americans got involved via social media? Americans care about children.

That brings me to the main point of what I’m writing tonight. Where is the social media outrage about the horrible care our nation’s veterans are receiving? Where is Michelle Obama’s hashtag? Where’s the catchy phrase people post all over to bring attention to this huge problem? I guess #saveourvetsfromgovernmentrunhealthcare isn’t quite as catchy. How about #eliminatesecretwaitinglists or #fixtheVAbacklog? How many veterans have to die while awaiting medical care before people take notice?

Men and women have sacrificed so much in service to our country. For some wars, they didn’t even have a choice whether they wanted to serve or not. Their number was called, and they went to war. Others have volunteered to protect our country since its founding. Our post-9/11 wars were made up completely of volunteers. Regardless of the reasons for joining and whether they were volunteers or drafted, they made sacrifices. Serving in the military is not always kind to the service member’s body. Even before losing his legs, Justin’s body had taken a beating. The heavy gear often causes compression of the spine. Somehow, he managed to get a fracture in his back that he was unaware of until he was at Walter Reed. It had already started to heal, so it was prior to the blast that took his legs. It would take me a while to list all of the injuries he’s sustained…and that’s just prior to June 9, 2013. And that’s considered normal for someone in his occupation. Now, take the beat up body of a 20-something soldier and add 40 years to it. Add in some of the normal problems that come with aging (though many started having these problems like hearing loss at a much younger age) and in the veteran population, there’s probably quite a few who get cancer of some sort. With a lot of medical conditions, early detection and treatment have a HUGE impact on survival rates. Now throw in secret waiting lists and backlogs and we’ve got a problem. No accountability because the people our veterans have entrusted their medical care to are the ones hiding the fact there even was a problem. These men and women deserve so much better. They have made so many sacrifices already. Should they be expected to sacrifice their lives because of a waiting list that nobody can see?

Justin is still active duty and is not yet in the VA system. Honestly, the thought of him being subjected to all this scares me. Recently, he spoke with a fellow amputee who drove about 18 hours to come to Walter Reed because the VA in his area wasn’t taking care of his needs. He is out of the military now and was having trouble getting a new prosthetic that he needed. Thankfully he had the option of coming to Walter Reed, but what if he couldn’t have afforded the trip? What if he was physically unable to drive so far? The VA system let him down. Fortunately for him, it wasn’t a life threatening issue, but it certainly effected his daily living. What will it be like for Justin when he’s no longer active duty? I hope and pray that they get things fixed before he has to deal with it.

The people who caused this tragic mess need to be held accountable. Eric Shinseki, former head of the VA, resigned today after politicians on both sides and veteran groups called for it for weeks. People lost faith in his ability to fix the problems that happened under his watch. His resignation does not fix the problems and he should not be the only one that loses a job over it. They investigation is looking into how widespread this issue is, and the deeper they look into it, the worse it gets. This should be cause for a public outrage. The majority of the people I know either have served/are serving in the military or have a family member who has served/is serving. I was homeschooled and my homeschool group had 8 of us who graduated together. Of those 8, 4 joined various branches of the military, and 2 of us married service members. Both of my grandfathers served. With having so many friends and family members who are veterans, this is a subject I am very passionate about. Our service members deserve the best. Everyone from the person at the VA call center who scheduled appointments all the way to the top need to be held accountable for their actions which led to the deaths of too many veterans – and by too many I say that one is one too many. Politicians need to set aside their difference, stop pointing fingers at each other, and fix the problem. This isn’t just an issue for politicians, this is an issue that has a personal impact on Americans as a whole. Our military serves and protects our country. What happens when people stop volunteering to serve because they don’t want to be left to die on a never ending waiting list? Let’s not let our country let down those who have served and sacrificed!