In my daily diary at Daily Kos I posted The real "face" of Republican "Support the Troops" BS about the wife of a Iraq War veteran dealing with PTSD and the lack of aid to their family and their dealings with the Army and the VA.
Before they leave, someone from Hampshire County's Heritage Days parade calls to see if Troy wants to ride on the veterans float. Troy declines. It's not just the crowds.
"Other people got wounded, and all I got was a mental thing," he says.
Michelle raises an eyebrow. "It's still an injury."
"I think about that doctor down there," Troy says, referring to a psychologist at Fort Stewart who suggested he was faking it. "Plus, the fact that guys are missing arms and have bullet holes and everything else. Ain't a scratch on me."
To remember who Troy used to be, Michelle keeps a photo of him hidden in her camera case. In the picture he is smiling and eager, ruggedly at home in his Army fatigues. Now she looks at the man in the recliner. "It's people like you that made our country," Michelle says. She goes back to filling out forms, and Troy goes back to Nickelodeon.
No, there isn't a scratch on him that is visible, it's the unseen wound of his brain that is leaving this family devastated, something I know quite a bit about, it is the same type of injury I and hundreds of thousands of other disabled veterans deal with daily and have for decades.
Money alone can't fix the problems, but it can help the family deal with day to day life while they deal with the injury, the money will never make Troy or any other disabled veteran whole. But as I have learned without funds being disabled is worse than being disabled with funds.Sphere: Related Content
2 comments:
Money will not change the injury but it sure as hell will give you a little peace of mind knowing that if you need something while you are addressing the needs of the soldier, and livelihood that the finances will be there. Try running a C-PAP machine with no electricity or try cooking when you don't have food to cook, or try driving 87 miles one way with no gas. Lets face it, it takes money to live and when no one is working outside the home and only 1 income coming in and life still goes on, it makes the bad situation a little worse. We just want a normal life just as 99% of the population have. We just want a home and a life and a little understanding.
Annette, I agree none of us disabled vets expect to live on Knob Hill but we do need the finances to pay normal living expenses and that was the "Promise" everyone talks about, if the veterans is disabled or killed the government will "take care of them and or their family" on a reasonable basis and for those totally disabled 2700 a month is not a "kings ransom" is it?
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