“How do we right the wrongs of the past toward our Veterans”, is a question I have been asked many times. My answer is always the same, “We first start by identifying the issues facing our Veterans and their Families, today.” “We The People…” willingly go along with many misconceptions about the “rights” given to our Veterans. We need to share with every citizen of this country that all is not well and that we leave too many Veterans and family members unprotected from the aftermath of War, separation, sacrifices, and illnesses’, yes even illnesses’.
Project “We Remember” is not here to point fingers at individuals, only at problems. Some of the problems we face today have been in existence for decades and yet “We The People…” have, in most cases, unknowingly let these problems stand and some have even turned into larger issues. Allow me to share just one problem of today’s Veteran that dates back many decades:
1. A soldier returns home from war with a severe disability, is married with two children. This soldier is entitled to treatment from the VA Hospital for his wounds and a disability check from the VA (which is established by a somewhat arbitrary % rating of disability determined by the VA through a series of filed papers, and examinations.) This process can take months to years to be completed. Until the soldier receives a determination from both the VA Hospital on treatment, and the VA on some amount of disability compensation, the soldier and family must just wait patiently for assistance. I believe that most of you have no idea that this was the process applied to our brave and patriotic soldiers. I hope that each of you agree that this is wrong! Yet you ask yourself what can I do? Great question, simple answer. Join Project “We Remember” and other organizations like ours who are trying to apply “bandages” to these real life problems and help us create enough noise, that collectively, we can change this rule for future generations of soldiers who help us maintain our Constitutional Rights and Freedoms.
Let me personalize this with one soldier’s story. K.I. was a medic in Iraq, he was on patrol with a squad from his company when they spotted an individual running from what appeared to be a freshly place IED (Improvised Explosive Device). The Squad jumped from their vehicle to chase the individual on foot and left K.I. and another squad member to follow in the vehicle. As they began to follow, the vehicle set off an IED that threw the vehicle and its’ occupants into the air and it landed on its side. K.I. had been thrown from the vehicle and was injured from the blast. He awoke and noticed his buddy was pinned in the vehicle, wounded and under small arms fire he crawled to the vehicle, extracted his buddy and applied a tourniquet to his buddies wounds and then laid on top of him to protect him from incoming small arms fire. During the fire fight K.I. would lapse into an unconscious state and then return to consciousness, check on his buddy’s condition, tighten the tourniquet, and then lapse back into an unconscious state. Eventually, he and his buddy were evacuated from the area and to a long series of hospital stays for treatment. During one session it was determined that K.I. suffered from TBI (traumatic brain injury) and was medically discharged as unfit for duty.
His odyssey with the system now begins and Project “We Remembers” involvement begins. I was made aware of K.I. by his “case worker” at the VA Hospital with a request for our help to find him a temporary place to live until he would begin to receive his disability payments from the VA. There was no way, according to the rules, that the VA or VA Hospital could help and if we didn’t help he would become homeless, living on the street, and there was no way to determine how long it would take the VA to begin making disability payments. We placed K.I. into one of our leased apartments, eventually he began to receive his disability payments (at 100%), and during this time he found a job and was able to start supporting himself.
There is a saying by combat soldiers, “no man left behind” and yet the rules that are established by our government for decades almost threw this brave, young, warrior, into a heap of homeless veterans. A cycle that once entered is hard to break; this young man who fought and saved lives was falling between the “cracks” of the rules.
I am asking each of you who have read this long Blog to help us by coming together, in one voice and say, “this has to stop, we must honor all the K.I.’s who fight for us, and we must insist that the VA change this rule, as well as others that I will be bring to your attention in future blogs”. This is our responsibility, these are our sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, and neighbors who are fighting for you and me, “We The People…”.
The time to act is NOW, if you have any questions or comments please send me an email at vbagley@projectweremember.org.