[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 155 (Monday, October 15, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H11536-H11537]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1945
           HEALTH CARE FOR IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN WAR VETERANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I think it's important for the President of 
the United States to pay attention to the over 100,000 Iraqi and 
Afghani veterans that are coming back to our country, U.S. citizens who 
have been wounded. 100,000.
  This House passed a bill that increases spending in the Department of 
Veterans Affairs by 18 percent, the largest increase in American 
history, which is deserved because we have injured soldiers coming back 
to us who are not being treated. That bill is log jammed in the Senate. 
I invite the President of the United States to call over to the 
leadership in the Senate to say he's going to sign that bill and to 
move that bill this week.
  Yesterday, I was out welcoming in an official ceremony the 983rd 
Combat Engineer Unit Heavy from the State of Ohio. It's a Reserve unit, 
over 1,000 soldiers who have been deployed to the theater in Iraq who 
came home, and this was the official welcome home ceremony to present 
them their warrior citizen flags and medals. It was a moving ceremony 
honoring their valor and their service to our country.
  I had the opportunity at that ceremony to talk to Mrs. Tiffany 
Eckhart, the widow of Andy Eckhart, who lost his life in Iraq. And he 
was on his second deployment to Iraq.
  She said several things to me. She said, Marcy, my husband never 
should have been deployed a second time because he had been injured in 
his first deployment. He had had a head injury, and she said, I want 
you to go back to Washington this week and tell the Congress and tell 
the Secretary of Defense and tell the President of the United States 
that every soldier who has been in combat in Iraq or in Afghanistan if 
they have had a head injury, before they are sent back again, they 
should be examined to make sure that there's nothing wrong, that there 
isn't a problem that affects their vision or in some way affects their 
functioning, which she claims is the reason for his death.
  Now, if we are rotating people through so quickly and we aren't 
paying attention to the soldiers who are in

[[Page H11537]]

theatre, particularly the Guard and Reserve, which never get the 
attention that they should, shame on us. Shame on us.
  The impact of these head injuries on our soldiers is serious, and 
with the explosions that are occurring, we are losing 80 percent of 
those who have lost their lives, 80 percent of our soldiers have died 
from IEDs, which are explosive devices, or from sniper shots to the 
back of the head, 80 percent. So the individual soldier is receiving 
these wounds largely in the head area, or if they have heard the 
explosive devices going off, they have had damage sometimes inside the 
head that you can't see. You can't see. So the Department of Defense 
should have a policy not to redeploy unless that soldier is reexamined.
  It's almost like having shaking baby syndrome is what Mrs. Eckhart 
said to me, where after a baby has been damaged, unless they are really 
examined, sometimes you can't tell that there has been brain damage. 
It's no different for our soldiers. She begged me to change the policy 
of the Department of Defense in this regard.
  In addition to that, I met so many soldiers who had come home because 
the unit returned in 2005, who had other symptoms that are not being 
treated. There is PTSD inside this particular battalion, but are 
doctors easily available to them? No. And are they available locally? 
No. If they are forced to travel somewhere because they are Reserve 
members, they have got to take off work. Guess what. They have to lose 
their pay because they have to go to get taken care of at a hospital 2, 
3, 4 hours away from them. That's wrong. Those services should be 
provided to our soldiers when they are ill, particularly if they have 
something like PTSD, which demands such careful attention from a 
neuropsychiatrist and the distribution of medicines and the kind of 
therapeutic care that is important for them.
  Another soldier came up to me. He had ripped cartilage and tendons in 
his knee. He has been home for over 1\1/2\ years. He said, 
Congresswoman, why didn't the DOD operate on me while I was in theater? 
He said, When I came home, they discharged me. He said, You know what? 
I came home. I am now in the Reserve. For me to get this taken care of, 
I will be off work for week. He said, I can't afford to do that. He 
said, Why didn't they tell me? Why didn't they tell me to take care of 
it while I was under the umbrella of the Department of Defense?
  The PTSD and neurological disorders just in that unit, now that 
people have been home, while we were at the ceremony, several F-16 jets 
which are based near a school overhead, you could just see the reaction 
of the soldiers.
  I would invite the President of the United States to urge the Senate 
of the United States to move that legislation so that we can move the 
resources we need into the Department of Veterans Affairs and take care 
of the veterans of this country, over 100,000 of whom have come home 
now who are injured.

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