Stop the sugarcoating
Soldiers coming home and not receiving services due to an inadequate amount of facilities and clinics … soldiers coming home and living in dirty, infested hospital wings … soldiers in combat becoming suicidal, told they are faking it, sent back to their units with no psychological help and then killing themselves … and soldiers never coming home. This is the way to honor our veterans? In general, Americans never tire of professing in words their gratitude to the brave men and women who fight the nation’s wars.
And most take it on faith that someone else will take good care of our nation’s veterans, without ever bothering to check if what they believe is really true. So it’s not until reports surface of seriously wounded soldiers housed in rodent-infested facilities, with holes in the ceiling and paint peeling off the walls at the nation’s top army hospital, that ultimately people sit up and take notice.
While a bipartisan commission can help shed light on what our veterans have faced upon returning home and can make recommendations as to what should be done in the future, the government needs to take a good hard look at the military health care system in general and the VA network around the country.
Our leaders need to come up with a plan that guarantees a more streamlined process for transferring soldiers from deployment to civilian life, assuring high quality services are available to returning service members, and making sure they have increased access to benefits and services, not just in Washington, D.C., but in cities and towns all over the country.
Let’s stop with the Band-Aid fixes, which usually occur after shortfalls in the bureaucracy are revealed and come under public scrutiny.
As a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, I knew I wouldn’t be evaluated on how I reacted to correct things, rather than blamed for things I couldn’t control.
We need to put people in place, such as administrators who are capable of doing the right thing in positions of authority and responsibility.
Dedicated people need to be led by dedicated supervisors who aren’t afraid to tell it like it is.
Enough with the sugarcoating. Enough with the rhetoric. If it’s ugly, it’s ugly. Period.
William Pelkey
Brownsville