Texan Mosaic

by CALEB BROWN//Staff Writer

I think that American veterans need more attention in the media.

Studies show that roughly 20 vets die each day from suicide, and most of them are older than 50. Not many are talking about it because I think everyone, especially the government, is too ashamed of its failure. By that, I mean the United States has been at war for decades, sending young Americans across the world to fight, only to come back to country that doesn’t even appreciate their sacrifice.

We need more programs to help vets adapt and become productive members of society. Some of those soldiers joined the military or were drafted after high school. So they don’t have very many job skills. All they have is a basic grade-school education, and what they learned in the military.

I’m not saying this is true of all vets, because some actually come back and become quite successful as engineers and even doctors. That’s why you see a lot of vets as cops, because it’s something they can really do. They feel that it gives them a sense of purpose like they had overseas.

We need government funds going toward our nation’s vets. We send billions to Israel for its defense, and spend even more our on military. We need to stop spending money on going to war and start taking better care of our soldiers back home.  
We need more government-funded agencies dedicated to helping vets, with the only qualification being you have to be a vet. The agency should help vets who need help finding a job and getting a job that actually suits them, or a job that they actually like, because I’m tired of seeing homeless vets. I just don’t get it. They fight for our freedom and sacrifice, only to come back to be homeless. It’s ridiculous that one single fighter jet can cost up to $1 billion, and we have hundreds of them. I think our military is fine the way it is.

We need to stop building up our military and focus more on the men and women serving in our Armed Forces, instead of just sending them to fight and come back unappreciated. Another major issue that people hate to talk about is PTSD, especially the soldiers who have seen or been in combat. Some of those soldiers have actually killed. So the transition back home can be very difficult.

PTSD is one of the main causes of suicide among vets today. It’s a very touchy subject, because some vets don’t know how to deal with it. Others try to hide it from people, thinking they can handle it on their own. But they can’t, and it only makes it worse.

There’s some cases where vets had severe PTSD and ended up killing their own family members, because they just blackout and lose control of their brain. They bounce back, but it’s too late. They’ve already committed a crime or did something extremely regretful.

I think all of that could be avoided with the proper counseling and therapy. I think that American citizens and the U.S. Government should do more to help our veterans.