[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 55 (Thursday, March 29, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4135-S4137]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REINTEGRATION OF RETURNING TROOPS
Mr. COLEMAN. Madam President, I rise to speak about an issue that is
very dear to me and my home State of Minnesota: the reintegration of
our returning soldiers into their families and their communities.
I begin my remarks by citing a letter to the editor published in the
St. Paul Pioneer Press last Saturday by Army National Guard Chaplain
MAJ John Morris. The letter is titled, ``It Takes Communities To Bring
Soldiers All The Way Home.'' I ask unanimous consent to have the letter
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
It Takes Communities To Bring Soldiers All the Way Home
(By John Morris)
[From the TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press, Mar. 17, 2007]
I am watching the growing furor over the shortcomings in
the Veterans Administration system and the fallout from
Walter Reed Army Hospital with growing alarm. I am concerned
that we are going to fix the crisis and forget the problem.
The problem is how to help warriors, and their families,
successfully reintegrate back into our communities, and their
homes, after combat. A portion of that problem is health care
related. For a majority of combat vets, however, only a small
part of their reintegration challenge has to do with health
care for physical injuries. Behavioral and mental health are
bigger issues. And for most, the biggest challenge is
relational: rebuilding marriages, reconnecting with children,
rejoining friends, rejoining the global economy, getting back
to the communities of faith we left, etc.
The problem with focusing on the VA is we may well fix the
VA only to convince ourselves that the reintegration of our
combat veterans is a government program, not a community
process. If we expect the government to take care of
everything, we will have failed our combat veterans and their
families as well as ourselves.
We have sent our precious men and women to war. The VA
can't bring them home. Only we can. We have a moral
obligation to insure that all of our combat veterans come all
the way home to their families, their jobs, their schools and
their communities.
A government program can't do that. A community can.
That means each of us needs to roll up our sleeves and do
more than castigate the VA. It means the following:
If you are a health care provider in Minnesota, do the
right thing: Become a Tricare provider. Tricare is the
insurance the government issues to mobilized reservists and
guardsmen.
Two-thirds of Minnesota health care providers are not
Tricare providers. The result: We do not have an in-patient
chemical dependency treatment center in Minnesota that is a
Tricare provider. We have a dire shortage of behavioral
mental health providers who are Tricare providers. The VA
can't fix this we can.
If you are an educator, sign up for an Operation Military
Kids workshop and learn about the daunting challenges our
7,000 Minnesota military kids face when their parent marches
off to war, and when they return. Help our children while we
are at war. Parent educators, we need you to offer classes in
every school district in Minnesota, for military families. We
need your help in learning how to parent our children again.
If you are a member of the clergy, learn all you can about
the toll combat takes on marriages, families, mothers and
fathers of military personnel. You don't have to support the
foreign policy to pray for us while we are in harm's way and
to visit our parents, our spouses and our children while we
are gone. When we come home, we need your help in putting our
marriages, families and lives back together.
If you are an employer, please give my spouse some grace.
She or he is juggling a job, a family, a home and a huge
heartache. There are no laws to protect them while we are at
war, as there are to protect my job when I come back. They
struggle mightily and may need some special attention and
some extra time off. Do the right thing--help them.
If you are a social service provider, learn all you can
about combat operational stress,
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the challenges of reintegration for combat veterans and the
impact of war on the family system. You are our ``first call
for help;'' don't fail us because you choose not to invest in
your professional development.
If you are a politician, don't politicize the shortfalls in
the VA or the military medical system. We aren't pawns in an
election cycle; we are your constituents, and we are counting
on you to fix the problems. Energize the community on our
behalf to do right by us. We're not asking for showy
programs. We are asking for tangible signs of support in
terms of services offered.
If you are our neighbors, and you are, don't ``victimize''
us. Most combat veterans come home without PTSD, mental
disorders, physical wounds or destroyed lives. We generally
readjust well and go on to live productive lives. Expect
great contributions to society from us. We won't disappoint
you. Challenge us to greatness; we know how to serve.
Watch over our families while we are gone. Extend a warm
welcome home when we return. Walk with us through the months
of readjustment, and make a place for us in the community.
If we are among the tragic few who come home physically or
mentally wounded, help us by connecting us to local, county,
state and federal resources.
Certainly, address the problems with the VA, the military
medical system and other systemic issues that face us.
But, above all bring us all the way home.
A program can't do that. You can.
Mr. COLEMAN. Major Morris is a member of the Minnesota Army National
Guard. There are currently 2,600 members of the Minnesota National
Guard serving in Iraq as members of the 134th Brigade Combat Team. They
were deployed to Iraq last March after spending 6 months at Camp
Shelby, MN. When I visited them in December in Fallujah, Taqqadum, and
Tallil, Iraq they were all very excited to return home this month to
see their families--some of them returning home for the first time
since September of 2005.
But they didn't get to come home this month. On January 10 of this
year it was announced the 134th would be extended 125 days, hopefully
returning home sometime later this summer. With this additional
deployment time, the deployment of the 134th in Iraq will be 35 days
longer than that of any other unit that has served in Iraq. That is a
long time.
It is interesting to talk to our National Guard folks. They are not
complaining. They are doing their duty. But I know it weighs heavily on
my fellow Minnesotans, on their families, and those of us who get to
represent them in the Congress.
When the extension was announced, I shared the great frustration over
the fact that our young men and women would not be coming home as
scheduled, and we had deep concerns about the way it was noticed. I
think the families heard about it before the folks in Iraq heard about
it, and heard about it watching a press conference. The Army
apologized. Certainly we have to do better when issues such as this
come up. I struggled to find the best way forward as the troops I had
visited weeks earlier would not be coming home until much later than
they had planned. I struggled to find ways to ease the hurt.
But now the initial shock and frustration of the extension has
subsided, and it is time to address the challenges they and their
families have faced since their deployment and the challenges they will
face when they return home.
In the last few weeks, many of my colleagues have taken to the floor
and to the airwaves to speak about the commitment we must make to our
returning heroes. There aren't many things we can agree on here in this
body, but I think all 100 of us agree we need to support our troops
when they come home just as much as we support them when they are
defending our Nation and our freedom abroad. We need to support our
troops and their families before, during, and after their deployments.
So the question is not if we should maintain this strong commitment
to our returning warriors but, rather, how. How do we provide the
highest level of medical care to our soldiers, our veterans? How do we
assist military families that are readjusting to their loved one
returning home--a difficult readjustment. How do we streamline the
bureaucratic challenges our soldiers face? How do we sustain our
support over the long haul? As these young men and women are returning
home, some of them are badly wounded. How do we sustain our support
over the long haul? As Chaplain Morris states in his letter:
If you are a politician, don't politicize the shortfalls in
the VA or the military medical system. We aren't pawns in an
election cycle; we are your constituents and we are counting
on you to fix the problems. Energize the community on our
behalf to do right by us. We're not asking for showy
programs. We are asking for tangible signs of support in
terms of services offered.
The challenges our returning heroes face are not going to be solved
simply by throwing more money at the problem. They aren't going to be
solved by finger pointing and playing the blame game. They are going to
be solved with thoughtful and concentrated efforts aimed at fixing the
problems we face one at a time.
I have been seeking answers to these challenges and others by
reaching out to leaders in my State on this issue and the leadership of
those involved in the VA health care system. I have had long
conversations with directors of VA hospitals in Minneapolis, St. Cloud,
and Fargo, ND to see if there is anything we can do to help deliver the
highest level of care. One of the good things that came out of the
horrible stories we heard about what was happening in one of the
outpatient buildings at Walter Reed is in my State and the Chair's
State, folks went back and they did a room-by-room review to find the
failings and the things that needed to be fixed. How can we improve the
quality of our care? I can tell you in Minnesota, folks have a high
degree of confidence in the care at our VA facilities in Minneapolis
and in St. Cloud, and we count Fargo as ours because it services so
many Minnesotans.
I met with veterans organizations, including the VFW, the Minnesota
American Legion, and the Minnesota Paralyzed Veterans, to hear their
questions and concerns. Most importantly, I spent some time over the
last few weeks touring my State to meet with military families, to talk
to active-duty soldiers, National Guard members, and veterans. Many of
them have a loved one stationed overseas, while others have a loved one
who has just returned. There are tremendous support groups in our State
for those who have a lot of pressures. Many families didn't know each
other beforehand and they have united now with a special bond. A lot of
them were saying they and their husbands didn't know each other before
the deployment, but now we are friends. So they have now a new kind of
almost extended family. I wish to say that the good Lord gave us all
two ears and one mouth and it is amazing what can happen when we use
them in that fashion.
I wish to take some time to talk about some of the many concerns I
hear from folks across my State and how we can better address them.
More than anything else, one thing has been made clear by our military
families: Education benefits for our soldiers continue to be of
paramount importance.
Unfortunately, the National Guard and Army Reserve are still
operating under an antiquated system of education benefits that does
not reflect the additional and critical role they are playing in the
global war on terror. Under current policy, our National Guard and
Reserve soldiers have to use their education benefits while they are
actually in the National Guard and Reserve. I had the mother of a
National Guard soldier visit my office in Washington and tell my staff
about her son's particular situation. Her son had been in the National
Guard for almost 6 years. His 6-year investment ends in September of
this year. In 6 years he has been deployed to Bosnia and now Iraq with
substantial ``uptraining'' time spent away from home within the United
States.
Because of his extension, he will not be able to finish school before
his enlistment ends, and because National Guard troops cannot use their
education benefits after separating from the service, we will leave him
on his own to find a way to pay for the remainder of his studies and
his graduate school, should he choose that path; all this after serving
extended time on active duty defending our country.
There is a bill in the Senate to correct this discrepancy. It is my
honor to join Senator Lincoln on her Total Force Education Assistance
Enhancement and Integration Act. That is a mouthful, but it is
important. This bill would allow National Guard and Reserve troops to
use their education benefits up to 10 years from the time they separate
from their service. It also increases their benefits commensurate with
their time on active duty. This is
[[Page S4137]]
a good start to adjusting education benefits in a changing environment.
Another concern I heard during this listening session was about the
difficulty our troops are having applying for college when they are
overseas. Many of our troops want to begin their education, but going
through the college application process is hard enough if you are
working on your home computer in your living room. It is even harder if
you are stationed 7,000 miles away from home with limited access to
phone, e-mail, or free time for that matter.
We need to find a way to help our deployed soldiers utilize their
education benefits by helping them through the difficult application
process. Not only will this improve participation in the program, it
will improve our soldiers' morale and their ability to reintegrate when
returning home. One of the good things I heard is that some of the
colleges are getting this. Some in the State system and now even the
private college system in Minnesota are understanding these challenges
and are becoming more flexible on the public side, and I applaud this
kind of public-private partnership.
A final note on education is the lack of benefit structure or program
for spouses--for spouses of those who are now in the Armed Forces.
With over 2,600 Minnesotans currently stationed in Iraq, we have
hundreds of military spouses working to keep their families together
while their loved one is overseas. Many of them, by the way, were going
to school, but now their husband or wife is overseas and they have to
take a job and give up their education. They have less income, but they
have to take care of their families. One spouse told me at one of our
listening sessions she had been both a single mom and a military wife
while trying to go to school, and being a single mom was much easier.
We need to look at ways to extend benefits to military spouses who
are working at home to keep their families together while they try to
continue their education. We all know the importance of investment in
education. Why should we deny benefits to military spouses who have
sacrificed so much?
Another critical issue I continue to hear about is health care for
our returning soldiers and veterans. Again, we were all shocked to see
the conditions revealed at Walter Reed Hospital at the end of February,
and I am pleased those who are responsible are being held to account.
While the conditions at the outpatient facility at Walter Reed are
being fixed, it is a good time to revisit the overall structure of
health care for our troops and our veterans. I share the concern
Chaplain Morris states in his letter to the Pioneer Press that we will:
``Fix the crisis and forget the problems'' in regard to health care and
what I hope can be done to fix them.
I continue to hear about the difficulties associated with Tricare. On
my visits around the State, I learned that only 40 percent of
healthcare providers in Minnesota are Tricare providers. Though this is
an improvement from the past, it is still unacceptable. From our
healthcare providers, we hear that the program is painful and
cumbersome to work with, and it costs them significant amounts in staff
time and energy to navigate the paperwork. For our military families,
especially those in rural areas, traveling to a provider that will take
Tricare is often a lengthy process that is simply not possible.
We need to look at ways to streamline the Tricare system, and, if
necessary, further incentivize providers to accept Trice.
Another problem I heard from my visits around the State is the
inability of returning troops to have marriage counseling covered by
their benefit plans. Under current regulations, Tricare does not cover
the counseling that is often necessary when our warriors return to
their homes and families. Many of our troops have been deployed for
extended periods of time, and when they return home, it is difficult to
readjust into life with their families.
If a returning soldier wanted to receive marriage counseling, for
instance, they must go to their family doctor and get a referral for
mental health issues caused by marriage. Then, after substantial effort
and delay, it becomes possible for a soldier to act on the referral for
stress and mental health concerns and see a marriage and family
therapist. We have to do better than this for our returning warriors.
Another major issue we confront with Tricare is the lack of Tricare-
certified Chemical Dependency Treatment Centers. Because of the
burdensome certification process for these centers, we have 257
Chemical Dependency Treatment Centers that are certified by the State
of Minnesota but not a single one of them is certified by Tricare. So
if any of our returning heroes comes home and develops a problem with
substance abuse, there is not a single place in Minnesota they can go
for help. This is a critical oversight which needs to be corrected.
Another issue we need to be prepared to handle is post traumatic
stress disorder, PTSD. We all know PTSD is going to be an issue we will
face for years to come as more of our soldiers return from abroad. And
if we are committed to dealing with it, we need to be committed to the
facilities and the people who will be working to cure the disorder on a
daily basis.
One way we can do this is to incentivize mental health care
professionals to join our veterans and military hospital system. I have
learned in my outreach across the State that it is difficult to recruit
these professionals, especially qualified psychiatrists, to VA and
military hospitals in rural areas. I have always said that the quality
of your healthcare should not depend on your ZIP Code, and this is
especially true for our veterans and military families.
We also need to make sure we have adequate facilities for the influx
of participation in veterans' programs for the next few years. While
most of the veterans I have spoken with over the past months have told
me that the care they receive at the facilities in Minnesota is nothing
short of excellent, we need to plan for the strain an increasing number
of veterans will have on our facilities that are operating near
capacity .
Finally, I would like to address the importance of a comprehensive
strategy for reintegrating our returning heroes into society. Quite
frankly, this is bigger than any one single issue confronting our
veterans and military families, but it encompasses everything I have
talked about so far today.
In my home State of Minnesota, the National Guard has developed an
innovative program known as Beyond the Yellow Ribbon to conduct
reintegration academies for the families and their loved ones who are
returning from Iraq. We have watched with great pleasure as this
program has helped countless families deal with the everyday challenges
that are not touched by Washington rhetoric. Through this program, we
have been able to engage our families, our communities, and most
importantly, our returning heroes, to ensure that they are comfortably
shifting back to life out of the combat zone.
I will continue to work with our Minnesota National Guard and the
families, communities, and veterans across our State so that we can
continue this program and use the experience we gain from it to benefit
our Nation as a whole.
Inscribed on the base of the Korean War Memorial is the following:
``Our nation honors her sons and daughters who answered the call to
defend a country they never knew and a people they never met.'' These
words ring true today as so many of our service men and women are
fighting overseas in the war on terror.
We need to make sure the sacrifice they make is met by a commitment
here to do all we can to ease their reentry and take care of their
concerns as they return.
We need to provide support for these soldiers. We need to provide
support for their families. And we need to do it before, during, and
after they return from abroad. It is not about rhetoric, and it is not
about politics. It is about a commitment to listen and a commitment to
get things done. I look forward to working with my colleagues to this
end during the coming months and years.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio is recognized.
____________________