Failing our Soldiers at Home

The War in Iraq does not just kill Iraqi civilians, insurgents and American soldiers inside the borders of Iraq. 

The War in Iraq does not just kill Iraqi civilians, insurgents and American soldiers inside the borders of Iraq.  The war also kills soldiers who have returned home after their tour is over.  Jeanne "Linda" Michel, 33, was one such soldier.  She shot herself, taking her own life two weeks after returning home.
She will be one of the uncounted deaths in the toll this war has taken on our own country.  She leaves behind a husband, a veteran of the war himself, and three children, ages 11, 5, and 4.

Re-entry into the world of peace can be harder than deployment, experts say. Picking up where you left off doesn't just happen.

Michel was in the Navy, but was left without support from the Armed Forces or the government when she returned to the United States after serving in Iraq.  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder affects many of a military men and women for years after they return home.  War is the worst of human inventions, yet we do not fully support those we send to fight. 

What I cannot comprehend is why our returning soldier do not undergo a thorough psychiatric evaluation and a continuation of treatment long after they return home.  Instead we have one of our best facilities in Walter Reed being merged and the necessity of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund being done through private donations.

The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund is constructing a world-class state-of-the-art advanced training skills facility at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.  The center will serve military personnel who have been catastrophically disabled in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The center will also serve military personnel and veterans severely injured in other operations and in the normal performance of their duties, combat and non-combat related.

I am not saying that the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund is a bad idea, but why is there a need for its existence?  Soldiers who sign up voluntarily and sacrifice so much should be cared for with the best medicine in the best hospitals, without the need for charity.

If our soldiers had the best medicine available to them then Jeanne “Linda” Michel might still be alive, she might still be able to hug her children at night. 

Our government failed her and her family.