Mark Wright’s Blog

As a former member of the United States Navy, I am very proud of my military service.  However, I am not very proud of the treatment our country gives to war veterans.  Increasingly, I see or hear stories about soldiers coming back from battle and being unable to cope with life.  I’m sure a lot of this stems from what they have seen or had to do in the name of war.  According to estimates by the Veteran’s Administration, more than 6500 veterans take their lives every year.

I cannot imagine some of the horrors our service members have to face.  The stories that have been told to me by friends serving haunt me and I wasn’t even a party to it.  My job in the Navy was much like my job now.  I write most of the time and work from a computer.  The only real difference is that I get to pick the uniform I wear to work and don’t have to be at sea for six months. Ok there are other differences as well but you get the point.

We send our soldiers to different parts of the world and many times tell them to kill the enemy.  Once their tours are over, we send them back stateside and expect everything to be fine.  When you have seen people blown apart by bombs and bullets, had friends maimed and killed or been injured yourself, you can’t walk away from that without scars.  If we are going to ask men and women to defend our country, our government has to be willing to do more for them when they return. 

There are programs available through the Veteran’s Administration that provides services for veterans but they are grossly underfunded.  I once had to go to the VA after an adverse reaction to a typhoid shot I received while in the Naval Reserve.  It took me about five hours before someone could see me.  Once they did see me, their treatment was pretty good.  I didn’t fault them for the amount of time.  They were understaffed and overworked.  They have also developed a suicide hotline which veterans can call.  To say that they have been busy is an understatement.  I am very proud to be an American.  In this day and time, that seems to be an unpopular sentiment.  That being said, I know that we face a bunch of problems.  I feel as a country, we need to do a better job of taking care of the veterans who have taken care of us.