I’ve followed Bernie Sanders in the Senate since I was enlisted in the Air Force as a fuels specialist in the early 2000s. Along with other enlisted personnel I wrote to politicians in order to help troops and veterans get the medical help and benefits they earned, and one of my letters was sent to Senator Sanders. People don’t seem to remember the many indignities and hardships faced by troops who fought in the thick of the Iraq War; a lot of troops and their families had to buy their own body armor, troops were sent out in unarmored Humvees, troops with Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD were routinely mistreated in the most abhorrent ways. The result of this is that veterans account for a disproportionate number of the homeless population in the US:
...on any given day, an estimated 40,056 Veterans experience homelessness in America, according to Point-in-Time counts conducted in January 2017 by communities across the country. Of that estimated number, two-thirds (24,690) were staying in shelters or transitional housing programs, while the other one-third(15,366) were unsheltered, living in cars, in encampments, or on the streets. And while there are Veterans experiencing homelessness in every state, nearly one-third reside in just two states, California (24.5%) and Florida(7.4%), according to PIT estimates.
During the Iraq War the military did all it could to discourage a diagnosis of PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury. Because if the troops were given these diagnoses the military the VA would have a higher number of cases along with responsibility to care for these troops, the Department of Defense either did not want to treat them or didn't know how:
In 2013, the Department of Defense began an approximately six-year review of 159 mental health programs, many of which were launched after the U.S. invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. According to preliminary DoD records obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the DoD found “a large proportion" of these programs did not track spending and were “unable to document evidence of program outcomes."
This problem impacts every community in the United States because when troops do not receive the proper diagnosis and help they will get worse and it will be much harder for them to receive any benefits from the Veterans Administration. So what happens is soldiers’ families and communities across the US are left with trying to cope with these problems and it costs them a lot of resources. So we sent troops overseas to fight a war that neither made this country or the world any safer while our communities and families are left to pick up the pieces of shattered minds and lives. Another layer of difficulty for troops and their families is the bias in the military and VA against claims of non-combat PTSD that is brought on by sexual assault and sexualized hazing. It wasn’t until 2010 that the VA began to treat non-combat PTSD with any degree of seriousness, unfortunately it was too late to help a lot of veterans who died on the streets of this country.
I know Bernie Sanders understands these problems because he talks about it in his speeches and I have watched him as he provided leadership to the Senate Committee on Veteran’s Affairs. Bernie Sanders was very helpful and responsive to our requests in the 2000s and I saw him provide leadership in resolving the Walter Reed scandal of 2007:
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal refers to a series of allegations of unsatisfactory conditions, treatment of patients, and management at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) in Washington, D.C. culminating in two articles published by The Washington Post in February 2007. Several cases of patient neglect and shoddy living conditions were reported as early as 2004. "Soldiers suffering from traumatic brain injuries or stress disorders, others with amputated limbs, have languished for weeks and months on end in vermin-infested quarters waiting for a decision on their military status and a ruling on the level of benefits they will receive if they are discharged and transferred to the civilian-run Veterans Administration (VA) healthcare system."[1] When the scandal broke, soldiers were pressured to keep quiet and punished with daily inspections for speaking to the press.[2] Significant public and media attention was generated, which in turn prompted a number of congressional and executive actions, including resignations of several high-ranking officers.[3]
It infuriates me to think back on the poor treatment our troops received while Republicans and many Democrats were lying about caring for the troops and getting them the best equipment. It is an absolute outrage that the US still has a presence in Iraq after we likely killed more than a million people through sanctions and outright warfare, and that country still can’t defend or govern itself. The Afghan government is a joke that would fall in a month without international support and it has never controlled more than 60% of Afghanistan. No community or family in this country should accept the Department of Defense dumping veterans onto the street and downplaying their serious medical problems. Trump says that soldiers with Traumatic Brain Injury are merely suffering ‘headaches’; Trump’s Department of Defense was recently sued by veterans for withholding information from veterans with PTSD and TBI that they need to upgrade their discharge in order to get help.
After he was contacted and made aware of the problems at Walter Reed, Bernie Sanders helped lead an effort with Barack Obama and Claire McCaskill to sponsor the Wounded Warriors Act in 2007:
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Washington DC--Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) today joined Senator Barack Obama and Senator Claire McCaskill in sponsoring the Dignity for Wounded Warriors Act, legislation which would help to ensure that service members at Walter Reed and elsewhere receive the treatment, care, and services they deserve. The bill requires immediate improvements to the Walter Reed Medical Center and directs the DOD to slash red tape and reduce the logistical, financial and emotional burdens the current system places on recovering service members and their families. Sanders visited the Walter Reed facility, including Building 18, yesterday and met with soldiers, families, and officials. Sanders, a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs said, "The conditions brought to light in the recent Washington Post series on the residential facilities are appalling and absolutely unacceptable. The brave men and women who have served this country deserve the best medical and mental health care available and this legislation will help ensure that they receive the treatment and services they deserve.
Enlisted men and women are the working class of the armed forces and I can say with confidence that Bernie Sanders was with us when we needed him. Bush’s propaganda at the time had a lot of people thinking that the troops were being given excellent care and Bush frequently made trips to Walter Reed to visit troops where he would do his best Abe Lincoln impression. The media would ask him about his visits to Walter Reed and newspapers wrote articles about how Bush was bravely confronting the consequences of his decision by visiting Walter Reed. But Bush only visited a few troops in an area of the hospital that was prepared for his visit, and I guess it never occurred to Bush or his team to inquire about the conditions in the rest of the hospital, or how other troops were being treated. Bush was making visits to Walter Reed for at least three years to fawning press coverage while soldiers were in that same hospital living in filth and being mistreated.
I’m doing all I can to elect Mr. Sanders to the presidency because he has demonstrated courage, leadership, and compassion throughout his career and I know he stands with people like me. I know that he won’t use troops as a PR stunt the way Bush did, and I know that (unlike Trump) he will try to get veterans and soldiers the help they need. He understands that when the military and VA fail to care for troops that families and local communities are on the hook to care for veterans with serious medical and mental health problems. I know that when Bernie says that he will fight for workers and the poor he means it because he kept his word to soldiers and veterans who contacted him for help during the Iraq War and he fought for us.