Resources for Veterans

A soldier can leave the battlefield, but coming home doesn't mean the war is over. Men and women in the military are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan only to face a new set of struggles, as they carry physical and psychological wounds into a society that doesn't fully understand their experience or their sacrifice. To help them through the challenges of reintegration, the public needs to hear their stories, told with effective, ethical and sensitive reporting.

The deadliest soldier-on-soldier incident among U.S. servicemembers since the beginning of the Iraq war occurred yesterday. Sgt. John M. Russell has been charged with five counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault after opening fire upon staff at a combat stress clinic at Camp Liberty, Iraq.

Six journalism grad students working with ABC’s 20/20 spent the summer investigating the stories of soldiers who abuse drugs. In their TV report, soldiers speak to the students of going into war drug-free, but turning to cocaine, amphetamines, and prescription drugs to deal with their traumatic experiences.

One in four homeless people in the United States are veterans. Nearly half of those homeless veterans have a diagnosable mental illness.

Last week, Alysa Landry at the Daily Times in Farmington, New Mexico penned a moving three-part series on veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Part one, Combat that Never Ends, tells the stories of Vietnam veterans who have wrestled with PTSD for decades, but only recently been diagnosed or treated.

In the Hartford Courant, Matthew Kauffman and Lisa Chedekel report that, despite the Pentagon’s promises to the contrary, the military continues to refer a far smaller proportion of troops to mental-health professionals than actually have mental-health problems.

Judy Holland of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer carefully documents sexual assault within the military. Statistics and victims’ stories provide context for proposed legislation that would require an investigation into the handling of these cases and provide support for female veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The results from the Department of Veterans Affairs' latest study of suicide among veterans were released this week.