Chances are if you went out on the street and asked every passerby if they believed our government should support our troops, they would say, “Of course!” If you had the opportunity to go into Congress and poll every representative and senator if they support the troops, they would fall over themselves to proclaim they do to the utmost degree. Why then, did a federal court, (a much maligned branch of our government) have to rule that veterans have a due process right to mental health care? That happened on May 11th, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals took a stand for veterans that has been shameful years in coming. It ruled that the Veterans Administration has been violating the due process rights of veterans in denying them meaningful access to critically needed mental health care.

If the Obama Administration cares about the members of our armed forces and our veterans as it claims it does, why has it chosen to appeal the court’s opinion? Administration lawyers said the court had “wrested control of the V.A. from the politically accountable branches of government that are best-positioned to identify the needs of veterans and allocate scarce resources.” If we have the resources to fight these astronomically expensive wars that have put our country into unprecedented debt, how can we morally now claim we have to “allocate scarce resources” when it is time to heal the participants of those wars?

The court placed at the heart of its decision the outrageous number of suicides among veterans. “On an average day, eighteen veterans of our nation’s armed forces take their own lives. Of those, roughly one quarter are enrolled with the V.A. health care system. Among all veterans enrolled in the VA system, an additional 1000 attempt suicide each month. Although the V.A. is obligated to provide veterans mental health services, many veterans with depression or post traumatic stress disorder are forced to wait weeks for mental health referrals and are given no opportunity to request or demonstrate their need for expedited care. For those who commit suicide in the interim, care does not come soon enough.” The court went on “The V.A.’s unchecked incompetence has gone on long enough. No more veterans should be compelled to agonize or perish while the government fails to perform its obligations.”

The Administration’s response? That the V.A. operates under “pervasive congressional oversight” and has established a suicide-prevention hotline and other measures to provide immediate treatment to those who need it. Find three veterans suffering from PTSD, and I’d bet my last dollar that two of them have experienced tremendous difficulty obtaining the treatment they need. Stories have become all too common of veterans being denied disability after a twenty minute interview, being given pills rather than meaningful treatment, having to wait months to be assigned a therapist, having disability benefits arbitrarily terminated.

The suit was brought in 2007 by an Austin based veterans’ organization, Veterans for Common Sense, headed by Paul Sullivan, a veteran of the Gulf War, and the California-based Veterans United for Truth. The nonprofit groups asserted that the department was not addressing the flood of psychologically troubled or physically injured troops returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, had inadequate services at veterans clinics and had allowed a huge backlog of compensation applications. 
One of the lawyers, Sidney Wolinsky of Disability Rights Advocates, said on Tuesday that the government has refused to negotiate and is simply stonewalling.
“Instead of actually serving veterans, the V.A. and the Obama administration have callously decided to prolong the proceedings.”

The author of the decision, Judge Stephen Reinhardt, wrote that he regretted that political inaction had forced the court to intervene in what the “political branches” should have addressed and were given more than enough time to address. “We would have preferred Congress or the President to have remedied the V.A.’s egregious problems without our intervention when evidence of the Department’s harmful shortcomings and its failure to to properly address the needs of our veterans first came to light years ago.”

Perhaps the First Lady, who along with Jill Biden, created “Joining Forces” to encourage Americans to take action to serve our military families should have a talk with her husband. Because no military family will thrive or even function when a parent, sibling, or child is suffering from war’s trauma and is unable to obtain meaningful mental health care.

combat veteran, Tommy, and war resister, Michael

This came to me today from Dr. Ed Tick of Soldier’s Heart, the organization created by Kate Dahlstedt and Ed, author of War and the Soul. Soldier’s Heart helps communities support veterans with their emotional, moral, and spiritual needs as well as helping veterans transition to being home.

“For 27 years, Robert Bly and other men’s movement leaders have been conducting the annual summer Minnesota Men’s Conference. Men of all ages have been gathering for intensive retreat together in order to address and heal our shared wounds and nurture each other into strength, meaning and leadership.

“This year I am very pleased to announce that the Men’s Conference has invited me to serve as one of the teachers. Together we have declared that one principle goal of this year’s conference, and for the men’s movement in general, is to create a real homecoming for our veterans and troops of every age and area of service.

“One of the ways many men have been nurturing each other’s growth is through the study and practice of spiritual warriorhood. Those who have served in the military or survived violent trauma know the dark and challenging dimensions of warriorhood through their service, often in the combat zone. Some of us have studied warriorhood while others have had to practice it in the most challenging ways. We need each other and the wisdom and experience every one of us has gained in order to bring hope, healing and maturity to men and leadership to our country and world.

“I call all men in our Soldier’s Heart community and beyond to join us this year at the Minnesota Men’s Conference as we address the invisible and unhealed wounds of past and current wars that our veterans and all of us carry. At this year’s conference, we will work together to create a genuine homecoming for our troops and veterans, provide rites of passage for all men no matter what our histories, and achieve reconciliation between veteran and non-veteran men. It is important that we have a strong showing at this conference and that the men’s movement be mobilized to support veterans’ homecoming and join with vets in addressing the wounds that inevitably come from war.

“The conference is outside Minneapolis, MN from Tuesday Sept. 13 – Sunday Sept. 18. You can get further information about it at www.hiddenwine.com. Military and veterans are especially welcome for a reduced fee, scholarships are available, and much programming will focus on veteran healing, homecoming and reconciliation. Our dear friend, Iraq combat vet and songwriter Jason Moon will be there as well, providing a concert and song-writing workshop for and about vets.

“I urge you to consider joining Jason and me and attending this breakthrough conference. If you cannot attend or are of the other gender, please forward this note and recommend attendance to anyone you think might be interested. Reconciliation and activism with the men’s movement can help grow our legions of spiritual warriors needed for healing our veterans and for the greater mission of war healing itself.”

Two weeks ago, Nat Futterman received some news. The French government is bestowing upon him its highest honor: its Legion of Honor award. Nat served with the 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division which fought through France and Belgium. At the Battle of the Bulge, he suffered severe burns which still cause him discomfort today.

The French government honors one hundred veterans every year.

Nat’s reaction: amazement, tremendous surprise, and profound satisfaction . “When I got the letter from the Washington embassy, I was completely floored. I can hardly believe I deserve France’s highest military honor for the minuscule part I played in the liberation of France but was completely thrilled that I had been selected out of the many vets who had applied. I will be proud to wear it for whatever time I have left.”

Nat first experienced the enduring gratitude of European countries to members of the Allied Forces six years ago when he and his wife Harriet traveled to Belgium at the invitation of the Belgian government. There they and other WWII veterans who fought on European soil were wined, dined, and celebrated by both representatives of the government and ordinary citizens, many of whom were not even yet alive in 1944.

“Our trip to Belgium and Luxembourg for the 60th anniversary of the Bulge was one of the most emotional experiences of my life. The attitude and warmth of the people of those countries towards us was nothing short of extraordinary. Adults and children lined the streets to welcome us and show enormous gratitude, something that does not happen here in the U.S. We members of the VFW try to organize and march for Memorial Day and Veterans Day and find that only a pitiful few people come out to observe. This is very frustrating and trying. We did our duty, but it seems that does not matter very much now.”

As we celebrate the independence of the United States from England two hundred and thirty-five years ago, let us all remember our veterans who helped others regain their independence. Let us commit ourselves to showing them through words and behavior that it does very much matter, that we remember and will always be grateful.

This website has introduced me to many wonderful people who have shared their journeys of healing from either their own trauma from combat or from their parent’s trauma. One such person is Richard Lawrence, a United States Marine Corps combat veteran of the Vietnam War from 1967-1970 . While suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder during the 1980′s, he began drawing and painting expressive observations of the war. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Vietnam Veterans’s Art Museum in Chicago, Illinois.

The painting below is “We Still Remember.”

You can see his work on his website: www.richardglawrence.net 

Here is what Richard emailed me:

“I now have my Vietnam pieces in boxes in my basement and only get them out if students want to see them and have me talk about my experiences in Nam. I’ve spoken several times and took some of my work to area colleges around Lancaster. My eye balls usually sweat when I talk about my memories.

“My Father, who is still living, was a combat Marine and wounded three times. My brother was also a Marine but not in combat. My son enlisted in the Air-force and I thank God for that.

“All my three children suffer with some form of PTSD. They were all little when I was in the VA hospital for many years but they remember how I was  then. It still hurts when they talk about the things I did.  We have grown closer because I now try to tell them everything about the WAR.

“After my divorce many years ago, I remarried.  My wife is older and understands more, and we treasure each moment.”
 
Richard’s work is inspiring. He presents us all with the possibility of finding relief and even healing through art.

Post traumatic stress disorder has become a household term, especially in the context of combat. Every day some media outlet in the country talks about the PTSD of our veterans and troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the number now estimated to be 95% rather than the 20% previously reported. But what we aren’t talking about as a country is the long term consequences of that trauma. Michelle Obama and Jill Biden have created “Joining Forces” to help the families of our service men and women, the program’s concerns being “employment, education, wellness and public awareness.” Ms. Obama gave as an example of the outcomes she’d like to see “better career opportunities for veterans and their spouses.” Though a good job is essential, the prerequisite to one is a veteran’s physical and mental wellness. That wellness is also essential for a family’s most critical concern: their children’s prosperity.

Our children’s prosperity demands that we talk about their vulnerability to their parents’ invisible wounds. In a terrible and cruel irony, when a member of the service returns home from combat, what they most want to achieve– safety and sustenance for their children– becomes elusive. The trauma of combat not only persists in tormenting the veteran, but the ghosts it creates haunt the entire household, infecting the children with the veteran’s melancholy, the depression, the anger and unresolved grief.

Can we be taking care of our veterans if we don’t acknowledge this vulnerability of children to their parents’ trauma and extend care to them as well?

My generation of babyboomers provide a concrete example of how this dynamic between veteran parent and child plays itself out over the child’s lifetime. Over four million of the Americans who enlisted or were drafted to fight in WWII saw combat. And we, their children, grew up in homes haunted by the ghosts of that war. My posts for Huffington Post and the talks I have given in the past four months about the multigenerational consequences of war have received passionate responses. The topic resonates deeply with children of veterans of WWII, the Korean War, and the Viet Nam war. Time and again I hear back from many of these people about how my words caused them to see their families in an entirely new light and to realize that what they had suffered from– their fathers’ silence, distance, and anger– had been manifestations of unhealed trauma.

Last week a Huffington Post blogger reposted a recent piece of mine that quickly began a multi-day long conversation among many people. Some of the comments are significant indicators of the fall out of war for the children of veterans.

“My dad only told us about his time under Gen. Patton after he came out of a coma, the result of his fifth heart attack,” one woman wrote. “He had previously only told us a couple of stories like how they were given their uniforms, guns, boots and walked across Europe, stole food to survive – many Germans were very kind to them and gave them food. That was the only time my father ever talked to us our whole lives! My father drank for many, many years. Then at one point he just stopped. I blamed him for so much until I finally understood. Now I want to retrace his steps during the war. He was in the Battle of the Bulge, took me to see the movie when I was a kid. That was so strange: both my father taking me to a movie and the fact it was a war movie.”

Another person told us: “I only learned my father liberated Dachau a few years before he drank himself to death. It was during a trauma at the end of his life. He was a sensitive man who taught the romantic poets at Dartmouth. A therapist told me that as a child tried really hard to carry my father’s pain for him! Her insight overwhelmed me. I always just thought I was the observer.”

“My Dad didn’t drink,” someone else said, “but he was the loneliest soul. He worked hard and hid within himself. My family members hated him for not being the great American family man. I was the only one who connected with him on a soul level in the last six months of his life. And they distrusted me for it– for being Dad’s girl.”

One woman shared how her grandfather was a veteran of WWI and suffered survivor’s guilt. “And my poor father, who served in WWII, had learned to mimic a father who suffered from PTSD.”

The words of one participant expressed for all of us the fundamental dynamic of our families, seemingly different on their face, but underneath suffering the same pain. “The not talking about it held us pretty much in emotional hostage…all of us frozen in silence, not feeling, not supposed to feel it, until not feeling and not talking and just doing became normalized. Frozen from our humanity, not aware of our needs or even our right to need connection, respect, and safety to be who we are.”

As a group we agreed how critical it is to have this conversation, to realize that our families were not some bizarre anomaly but a piece of a huge pattern of passive aggression and disfigured emotions. If we are committed to healing our veterans, we must first be honest about the fall out from war within our own families. Then we will recognize how much is at stake in helping our veterans. Otherwise, our blindness will allow the wake of trauma to swallow another generation.

The Multigenerational Ripple of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD

This is the letter Dr. Ed Tick sent today:

Dear Friends of Soldier’s Heart,

I write to you on this Memorial Day weekend from Greece, where Kate and I are leading a healing pilgrimage for warriors and therapists.
We have taken our group to many of the most sacred and influential warrior sites. We have visited Marathon, Thermopylae and Sparta, among others. Our veterans declare that they know the spirits of the men who fought there. They say they wish they had been like those warriors — people who were utterly sure of the righteousness and necessity of their cause and sacrifice, people for whom there truly was no other choice but to defend, people who were fully united with those they defended and who were fully supported and honored in their sacrifices. There is a warriors’ code and our veterans sought to fulfill it against the leaders and conditions that betrayed the code and them. That is one key source of traumatic wounding. Here, at these old battles, there were no doubts or moral questions. They did what they had to do, they suffered what they must suffer, they were honored.
Please imagine what we have seen and done. See our own American combat veterans standing before the grave of the 300 Spartans that still guards the steep and narrow mountain pass at Thermopylae. Here us reciting the epitaph on the grave written by the poet Simonides, “Go tell my people, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie.” Obedience to their laws did not mean following orders and rules and legal precepts. It meant serving and surrendering to the ultimate necessity of the warrior code to give all, unto life itself, when the lives and freedom of their own people were truly and immediately threatened and all else had failed.
Feel our veterans’ anguish in their wish to have been as sure in their service to the US as the Spartans were in their service to Greece. See our veterans standing at attention as they did here, as so many will all over the US on this holiday. See our American veterans saluting the fallen of 2,500 years ago as their true brothers. Feel the love that never dies and the wish that our sacrifices ring true to the heart and soul, so true that though we “pass through the valley of the shadow” we are not poisoned by the poisons there.
On this Memorial Day we salute and grieve the fallen of our and all wars. We contemplate true spiritual warriorhood. We try to bring it back to our own and all wounded warriors. We seek clarity of vision and purpose and swear that only out of ultimate and unquestioning necessity will we ever resort to force. And even if we must, we do so with honor, respect and reverence and forswear violence against the soul of another.
No death, no killing should ever be celebrated. We grieve all fallen. As Chaplain Lt. Chris Antal does as he sends our troops off to Afghanistan, we warn our troops to feel remorse to protect their own souls. We support our veterans in their grief this day and always. We salute the fallen, not as a patriotic act, but as a spiritual and moral act that can elevate our souls and teach us what true warriors know, that the greatest wisdom is gained only through suffering and that those who have suffered so much in our names must be honored, not with parades and slogans, but by walking with them through the darkness so that their wisdom finally becomes ours.
Prayers, blessings, tears and thanksgiving to all of you and to all our troops, veterans and fallen on this Memorial Day and always,
Ed

Sue Diaz is the author of the excellent Minefields of the Heart that details how her son Roman’s enlisting in the Infantry and going off to Iraq altered their lives. She turns to the words of poet William Stafford: “I have woven a parachute of everything broken. My scars are my shield.”

Now she has created two videos that capture the spirit of her book.

War changes the lives of everyone it touches.

A Soldier’s Call

Words for a Soldier Home from War