Memorial Day thoughts: Better treatment for veterans

May 30,2008
by Father John Vigilante
St. John and St. Mary R.C. Church

See inside and in Photo Gallery for pictures of the day.

I have a sister, one and a half years younger, who worked as a civilian staff psychologist in pediatrics at Letterman Army Hospital at the Presidio in San Francisco. As some of you may know, the Presidio was one of the military installations closed during a round of base reductions. Letterman was closed in 1993. Since then, my sister has been in private practice in the San Francisco Bay area. She has not worked for the Army or the government since 1993.

Three months ago my sister received a phone call from the Army Medical Command asking if she would consider moving to San Antonio, Texas, to be on the staff of Brooke Army Medical Center to treat our wounded warriors. Since my sister has a son with special needs, she was in no position to make a move at that time. Two weeks later the Army Medical Command called again asking her to reconsider her decision. Her response was the same.

I find it astounding that five years into two wars, in Iraq and in Afghanistan, our nation is just responding to the emotional and psychological tidal wave of wounded warriors. Five years later we are only now trying to enlist the professional personnel required to meet the needs of a new generation of veterans.

While we are here today to honor those who gave their lives in service to our nation, we must affirm a commitment to those who returned wounded in body and spirit. Today in America there are 25 million veterans from all wars. Each month 1000 veterans (out of the 5.6 million seen by the Veterans Administration) attempt to take their own lives and over 6500 each year succeed, 18 every day, one in five of all suicides in America.

We have 1.6 million veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 300,000 of those veterans have the symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome. Only half of them have sought help, and the help given has been minimal due to an acute shortage of qualified personnel and accessible programs.

In 1974, I was touring Luxembourg and early one morning decided to visit the American military cemetery of those killed in action in Europe. An elderly man with bucket and scrub bush was moving from tombstone to tombstone washing away grass stains and bird droppings. He was kneeling before the graves of those heroic Americans of another generation. I thought to myself that if an elderly man, a foreigner, can pay such respect and honor to our men, then we as a nation owe our veterans so much more.

If we are going to ask young men and women from the corn fields of Iowa to the big cities of the coasts to put their lives in service to our country, then we as Americans must affirm our commitment to provide them with the best care America has to offer.

CH(COL) John Vigilanti, USAR
Senior Chaplain Clinician
Tripler Army Medical Center
Honolulu, Hawaii