Veteran Out-Reach Could Save Lives

In that picture is me with 21 fellow veterans. We called ourselves the Regulator-Outsider Coalition.The R.O.C. for short. We were a tight group of people. We went to Iraq together in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom. We even had our very own patches made. There is 22 of us. Now, when I selected that picture I had zero idea there was 22 people in this photo. The reason why 22 is such an important number is because that is the amount of veteran commit suicide every day.

One would assume that when veterans come home they are have easy access to all the benefits they have earned through their service to our country right? Well, that isn't always the case. Most times veterans don't know where to start or who to ask for help. In fact, even the act of asking for help, to most veterans is hard due to years of being conditioned by the military that asking for help is a sign of weakness.

As you can see in the video above, one the issues stated in the video is the Veterans Affairs being overloaded and veterans being made to wait for help. A possible solution to the overload and wait times is the creation of veteran out reach to where as soon as a veteran is sepaarated from service. Veteran outreach would put veterans into the system and give them the health care insurance and care they often times don't know they earned through their service. Putting veterans in the system with their symptoms of mental illness and other ailments would reduce wait times with doctors and hasten treatment and help curb veteran suicides.

"When the rucksack get heavy we help each other out. But you have to reach out." that is one of the text Andrew Marckensano sent to one his friends whom he served with in the United State Army. As stated in the video above, Andrew is one of 22 veteran who committed suicide on July 6th of 2020. Andrew served 12 combat missions overseas between Iraq and Afghanistan. As someone who has served just one tour overseas, I can, without a doubt, say that 12 combat tours is too much for even the most hardened war fighter to go through without experience major mental and physical. Along with veteran outreach, setting a limit on how many tours our service member can serve would go a long way to lessening the epidemic of veterans ending their lives due to physical and mental pain.

Veteran outreach is not the cure all to veteran suicides. However, all the marches, push ups challenges, YouTube videos, are for nothing if they don't spur actual change. I have been in the position of a veteran coming home and not knowing where to starts. It is a frustrating and lonely place to be. If we can afford to send veterans overseas in foreign land to get blown up and fight enemies who know the region better and hide behind civilians, then we can definitely afford to to better their care when they come home. If we don't, we will far more cases like Andrew Marckensano.