hey Sue,,,,You can call me by my real name Dawn. I thought everyone knew that was my name but I guess not...anyway feel free to call me Dawn okay?
A vet is a vet is a vet...i do not care if their trauma was caused by a training accident or the worst combat known to man. No one can ever say that someone's else's pain is not as 'real" as another persons. That is just rubbish and I am so sorry sue that your hubby is going through that kind of crap. That just makes me so angry and frustrated to know that now there are people and doctors who try to quantify someone else's suffering. E If a person is suffering they are suffering. Pain is pain and that is the bottom line.
You are so right about the groups that you hear about not really getting much of the money they raise to the actual soldiers that need the help. I know there are Iraq Veterans groups across the USA who I see commercials for on TV and all that but I do not know of a single one of us who has actually recieved any real help from them. You might call the 800 number and they will give you a few resourcees to check out but I do not know of a single veteran who has recieved financial help from any of them and I know there are alot of recent veterans who despersately need the help. especially since we had a sort of monkey President in the White House from 2000-2008 who allowed giant corporations to run this country in to the ground financially....BUUUT that is a whole other thread I could get started I guess and I do not want everyone hating me because of my political views.
I am glad you at least are getting help with a palce to live and all. I remember when I was recovering at Tripelr Army Medical center in Hawaii, I read an article in the paper there that said that on any given night just on the Island I was on (Oahu), there were about 8,000 homeless people, and I hav e a suspicion that that figure was drastically underestimated. What was even more sad is that they estimated that about 60% of those 8,000 people were veterans of the US Military. I think it is absolutely criminal that someone can put their life on the line for their country and then wind up coming home and not having a roof over their head. It is like that in a whole lot of major cities in the USA though....even right here in West Virginia there is a disproportionate number of veterans who make up the homeless population in the bigger urban areas like Charleston and Beckley. I live in a very rural area deep in the mountains and so we do not have a homeless problem here...there are only 200 people in the little town I live in...but in the USA there is an obscene homeless problem and it is only getting worrse and worse. so I am glad that there is at least a program in the UK where they will help you out with a place to live.
I always thought, especially in the mid-to late 1990's after they closed a buinch of the US military bases down that they should take the housing on those old shut down posts and tranform it in to housing for disabled veterans....they tried it in Hawaii with one of the old Air Force Bases but they were putting four men in a barracks room together with no kitchen and they had to share a bathroom just like the ones in the military and then the so-called "non-profit" group that was running it was still charging each guy something like 400 bucks a month to live in a tiny arse room with three other guys. Non-profit my rear end....they were figuring out that when each of these guys would qulaify for welfare and be able to get off the street if they were single they were making something like 411 dollars a month...and they were charging them an amount of rent that was just barely under that amount. I remember hearing about that while I was out there and thinking yet again that it was nothing more than a criminal , not to mention profit making, enterprise.
I was so fortunate because my medical retirement was pushed through by a very wonderful guy who was from the Disabled American veterans and so I got my medical retirement started before I got out of the hospital. I did just over 17 years in the military anyway and I was fairly banged up so there was not much they could deny about my situation. However if this guy from the DAV had not helped me out so much the VA could have let my medical retirement claim sit there for years without doing anything about it. He really stayed on top of them on my behalf though and I will never be able to repay that guy for making sure that my stuff got put through and did not just sit on someone's desk. I know veterans who are Vietnam vets who are still waiting to get claims for disability approved. The VA if you just allow them to handle it...they will let the paperwork sit there forever if you allow it to happen or if you do not have someone to be an advocate for you. Like I said I was very fortunate in that I had a great representative from the DAv who helped me as soon as I got back to the USA.
I hear too all the time here about the "Wounded Warriors" campaign and I know a lot of people who have given them money and yet again I will say honestly I do not know a single veteran from the war in Iraq or in Afghanistan who has received any type of help from them. But they do have great commercials on the TV beggin people to donate money though. Ahhh Humbug I say.
I think that is what I was trying to convey in the earlier post.....Back in the 60's if the right people knew about what was going on then there would be marches on Washington DC and people would not just be sitting down and taking it. However for some reason people...I dont know if they are saturated with these wars or what it is but they almost act like nothing is going on at all. Sure I get a few thank yous when people hear that I was over there and all taht but for the most part people are not questioning why the suicide rate among returning veterans is so high or why the suicide rate aong active duty military members has skyrocketed over the last 8-10 years. Sure the government started a groovy suicide hitline but I called there once a couple of months ago just to talk to someone because I could not sleep for several nights and I guess what I was going through was a bit of anniversary grief since it was around the time I got hit by the IED back, now, two and a half years ago. Anyway, I called the line and they said, "oh we do not really have time just to talk to you but we can refer you to your local VA mental health clinic and I am sure they will get right back to you as sooon as they can on Monday...this was on a saturday night. I mean all I wanted was someone to talk to for a few minutes or so, you know but they were not into that kind of help I guess.
Again I really hope your husband finally gets some help Sue. Both of you really deserve it and it sounds like you all, as well as I am sure countless others, have suffered long enough and languished without any real help. So I sincerely do hope that he gets it and I hope that maybe you can get some counseling with him as well.
I might come to the UK one day as my Father was originally from Edinburgh Scotland (He came to the USA with his parents when he was five years old....he is also a Vietnam Veteran). I still have some family over there and I have never met them face to face but i have been invited to come there any time. Once I get my last leg surgery and I get a better handle on my own PTSD I might just close up the house here for a while and come there to live for a few months or so. I do not know how long I can legally stay there on a visa but I am planning on maybe doing something like that eventually. A part of me wants to get up and scram right now thinking that a change of scenery will make everything better but the facilitator of the PTSD group I go to at the VA here in the USA says that changing my location will not change the fact I have PTSD. So I have committed to stay and work on some things before making any drastic changes. See I think I have mentioned this but I myself was only officially diaagnosed a little more than four months ago as having PTSD. However I now think I had it long before I even got injured in Iraq.
As far as whether I have helped anyone on this site I do not know about all that. I appreciate that some of you think i have but I know I have spent alot of time talking about my own problems a lot and I do not know how that really helps anyone at all except maybe for me. I know this forum has become a big part of my life over the last week or so and I feel real comfortable here among other veterans and I know I am going to owe alot of people on here for helping me out so much and just for listening to me and reading my story. I will never be able to repay that kind of help. However, if I ever meet any of you..whether in the UK or the US, the bbreakfast is definitely on me, okay....whether it isa traditional English Breakfast or from Mickey D's!!!!!
If I come to Scotland though then one of you UK types has to tell me where I can get the best Haggis. I have never had it but I am pretty adventurous, even with regards to trying to different foods, and I do not think i will ever be able to honeslty lay claim to my scottish heritage until I try it!!!! After all I ate deep fried scorpions and grubs when I was in Thailand for the Cobra Gold Exercise in 1997 so it cannot be much worse than that right!
Take care you all!
