AT WHAT PRICE?

AT WHAT PRICE?

 

 

As the Beetles song goes, "I read the news today, Oh Boy".  Once again lives are forever destroyed and irrevocably altered on Fort Hood.  The facts are vague at best but what seems to be confirmed is that a troubled young soldier, father and husband returned from war and had been assessed with depression and "behavioral and mental" maladies.   It is confirmed that he was on anti-depression medicine and the "system" was evaluating him for possible PTSD.  The short version is that he snapped.  He killed three other patriots, injured 16 more and then when confronted by a Military Police Patrol Woman, took his own life.

 

In short, the system had an epic failure once again.  This young man arrived on Fort Hood less than three months ago.  His prior command, although treating him for his mental issues, allowed him to PCS (Permanent Change of Station) to Ft. Hood and somewhere, somehow in all of the budget cuts and bull, this kid became so messed up that he found no other solution than to claim lives, injury others and then end his own existence.

 

Even if this soldier who claimed to have suffered TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) while deployed to a combat zone had chosen to end only his own life this would be a tragic event.  The fact that the White House, Congress the Senate and yes, even senior military leaders are talking about budget cuts including those that fund veterans benefits which include assessment and treatment at the V.A. Hospitals in the face of the ever increasing post deployment struggles our young patriots are facing is, in my humble opinion, unconscionable if not at least border line criminal.

 

We are taking 18 year old kids who think that they have a clue what it is like to witness death because of the graphic nature of their video games and thrusting them in to real world horrors of war.  They are seeing sights no one should have to endure.  They are engaged by enemies who use hit and run tactics from hardened positions and then they are forced to radio up the Chain of Command and wait for authorization to return fire and defend themselves while their comrades and friends are being decimated right in front of them.  By the time the authorization comes back down the Chain of Command, the fight is over and the enemy is gone. 

 

They come home and they are mailed packets of questions that are supposed to raise flags if that service man or woman might have lingering issues from their exposure to the spoils and ravages of war.  Are you kidding me?  No one can go to war and come back the same as when they left home.  If you have never had to take a live or faced the reality of your life being taken, you have idea how to assess, treat or even establish common ground with someone who has.  In our father's father's days, the old war horses went to the VFW's and AM-VET's where they talked with others who had been there and done that.  Today, we ask our young warriors to fill in the blanks of a pre-printed form and give them no real outlet to deal with their very true and raw emotions. 

 

Yes, some have returned and feigned PTSD as a way to get out of the armed forces.  Yes, the powers that be should be cautious and complete in assessing our military members and ensuring that they get proper treatment for whatever malady they bring back with them from war. 

 

But at what price are we cutting the budgets that deal with these issues?   We have epic numbers of brave souls returning from deployments who are committing suicides or acting out in manners that most cannot understand and simply chalk up as bad behavior.  It is possible that these are their cries for help and because the powers that be are making conscious choices to cut the funding to help these veterans return to as close to a normal way of life as is possible, they are dying.  Dying literally and figuratively. 

 

So I ask you, at what price are the budget cuts coming?   Personally I would rather see a Congressman or Senator's  aide be force to drive their own car and pay the same high prices for gas as I do and send that money back into the system to treat the mental wounds of our warriors.  I would gladly witness the President taking one or two less fund raising trips a year and having the costs of Air Force One, the pilots, ground crews, security, hotels etc.. conveyed to the V.A. for the proper diagnosis and treatment of even one or two additional returning hero's.  Why not stop the White House Press Diner and take those funds to pay for a year's salary for just one true mental health professional to assess whatever additional percentage of returning service members properly without worrying about running out of funds? 

 

Lastly, I heard the banter of the news about why not allow service men and women carry concealed weapons on base.  As a retired Military Police Officer I can assure you that that would be an even bigger epic failure on the part of the Government and the Military.  Set up an additional duty roster to have soldiers actually secure their perimeters domestically as if they were abroad and in harms way, absolutely.  If you have ever made a felony traffic stop, pulled someone over who you knew was armed and dangerous, imagine being that poor young MP on patrol knowing that potentially every time you pulled someone over they might be more heavily armed than you and it is easy to see the flaws in that line of thought.  The men and women of our armed forces are highly trained in the art of war including marksmanship.  Let's protect them with common sense and place additional armed guards on the bases who may have been able to respond in a more timely manner then did the MP;s in this latest incident.  Remember that the ratio of on-duty MP's to soldier's on a standard base is minute.  The "Good Order and Discipline" of the military ensures that generally we don't need one patrol person to every hundred people on base.  Ft. Hood is 300 square miles in size.  The MP's are spread thin to say the least so the response time under the conditions was more than reasonable.  What was unreasonable was the fact that this young man was failed by the system and one or two less budget cuts within the military may have made a difference and saved lives.