By Mickey Friedman
November 18, 2016
I have three friends who served in Afghanistan and Iraq: Christa, John, and Rich. Rich, unbeknownst to many in our community, served multiple tours, risking his life continuously flying into combat zones to rescue our wounded soldiers.
I spent several years making a film about John’s two-a-day combat missions in Iraq, his life in a world on fire. I listened to many hundreds of hours of radio broadcasts about the war, searched the Pentagon’s extensive photo collection, read whatever I could.
And each Saturday my friend Peter, a Vietnam Vet, joins me in front of Great Barrington’s Town Hall to demonstrate for peace.
My work on “World on Fire” and friendship with Peter has changed me. Because while I opposed each of these wars, I’ve learned to better understand what we asked of those we sent to fight them. As we approach 11/11, Veterans Day, here’s a little research about what is happening to our veterans.
An average of 20 veterans die by suicide each day. Six of these 20 die even though they are using Veterans Health Administration services. In 2014, while constituting only 8.5 percent of the country’s population, Veterans accounted for 18 percent of all suicides. Sadly, about 67 percent of these deaths were the result of firearm injuries. For me, yet another reason to re-examine the ease with which we gain access to guns.
Peter speaks positively about the health care he receives at the VA hospital in Albany, and he continually volunteers there to help his fellow vets, yet there are many not so lucky. A study of the Phoenix VA Health Care System (PVAHCS) in Arizona found the following:
“PVAHCS patients died waiting for consultative appointments … A report … listed 87 deceased patients and 116 open consults … PVAHCS had more than 35,000 patients waiting for consults … PVAHCS patients were waiting in excess of 300 days for vascular care.”
Now one of the major differences between our two most recent wars and previous military engagements is that many of those who served have served multiple tours.
A January 2014 article by Gregg Zoroya in USA Today quotes Gregory Scott, president of New Directions For Veterans, a non-profit assistance group in Los Angeles: “They’re coming home to a bad economy. The country is different. Their families are different. They are different. Plus they are dealing with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and other issues around mental health.”
The National Center for PTSD defines posttraumatic stress disorder as “a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault.”
They highlight several symptoms: reliving the event; avoiding situations that remind you of the event; having more negative beliefs and feelings; feeling guilt or shame or numb; feeling keyed up, jittery, always alert; having trouble concentrating or sleeping; experiencing sudden anger or irritation; you’re easily startled; or you act in unhealthy ways (like smoking, using drugs and alcohol, or drive recklessly.
The complicated reality of PTSD is that it can appear soon after the traumatic event or many years later. And, of course, over time we learn more about the problem. According to the author of “Veterans statistics: PTSD, Depression, TBI, Suicide,” a U.S. government study of Vietnam veterans conducted in the 1980s found that “15% of men had PTSD at the time of the study and 30% of men had PTSD at some point in their life.”
But when researchers went back in 2003 to review that study they found that “contrary to the initial analysis of the NVVRS data, a large majority of Vietnam Veterans struggled with chronic PTSD symptoms, with four out of five reporting recent symptoms when interviewed 20-25 years after Vietnam.”
So now we know that four out of five Vietnam Vets suffer from some symptoms of PTSD. As for our most recent veterans, CW Hoge et al note: “A striking 94% of veterans deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq reported experiencing life-threatening, combat-related events.” Their study of four U.S. combat infantry units found: “Of those whose responses were positive for a mental disorder, only 23 to 40 percent sought mental health care.”
As many as 50% of veterans seeking treatment screen positive for PTSD, though much fewer receive a diagnosis. A review of 29 studies found that between 5 to 20% of Afghanistan/Iraq vets suffered from PTSD though they hadn’t sought treatment, while 50% of those utilizing the VA screened positive. Sadly, fewer than that received a PTSD diagnosis.
Although accurate statistics are hard to come by, the Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated that 47,725 veterans were homeless on any given night in 2015: 31,505 in homeless shelters and 16,220 on the street.
11/11 prompts many to pontificate about war and sacrifice. But what we owe our vets is less talk and better health care and far more understanding.
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For More Information
“World on Fire: Spc. John Flynn’s War In Iraq” is the intimate portrait of one young American’s experience at war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5AQ_mhXAoA
“Suicide Among Veterans and Other Americans 2001-2014” – you can download the document here:
www.mentalhealth.va.gov/docs/2016suicidedatareport.pdf
Veterans Health Administration Review of Alleged Consult Mismanagement at the Phoenix VA Health Care System, October 4, 2016, 15-04672-342
http://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-15-04672-342.pdf
“Up to 48,000 Afghan, Iraq vets at risk for homelessness”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/16/veterans-homeless-afghanistan-iraq-wars/4526343/
What Is PTSD?
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/PTSD-overview/basics/what-is-ptsd.asp
“Veterans statistics: PTSD, Depression, TBI, Suicide.”
http://veteransandptsd.com/PTSD-statistics.html
“Combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, mental health problems, and barriers to care.”
N Engl J Med. 2004 Jul 1;351(1):13-22.
Hoge CW1, Castro CA, Messer SC, McGurk D, Cotting DI, Koffman RL.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15229303
“Disparate prevalence estimates of PTSD among service members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan: possible explanations.”
Ramchand R, Schell TL, Karney BR, Osilla KC, Burns RM, Caldarone LB.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20135699
National Coalition for Homeless Vets
http://nchv.org/index.php/news/media/background_and_statistics
HUD Statistics of Homeless Vets by State
https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2016-PIT-Estimate-of-Homeless-Veterans-by-State.pdf
“11/11” was first published on November 10, 2016 by The Berkshire Record.