[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 101 (Thursday, July 1, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1266-E1268]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     COMING HOME: TRANSITION FROM MILITARY SERVICE TO CIVILIAN LIFE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CORRINE BROWN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, July 1, 2010

  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise on this 4th of 
July Independence Day Weekend to congratulate and thank Congressmen 
Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. and Charles B. Rangel for joining me last year 
in convening a powerful national dialogue at the 21st Anniversary of 
the Congressional Black Caucus Veterans Braintrust during the 
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 39th Annual Legislative 
Conference (ALC) held in Washington, DC. Our September 25, 2009 forum 
titled: Coming Home: Transitioning from Military Service to Civilian 
Life, brought together members of the Obama administration, federal 
agencies, distinguished scholars and professionals, and two of today's 
highest ranking black military officers to discuss the important 
challenges and obstacles facing thousands of returning soldiers and 
veterans who struggle to negotiate family life, jobs, education and 
health care after honorable discharge from the U.S. military.
  As is our tradition, the morning session began with Dr. Zachery Tims, 
Jr., Senior Pastor, New Destiny Christian Center (NDCC) giving the 
invocation to bless the occasion, and inspiring international singer 
Brenda Jackson singing our national anthem, and a stirring rendition of 
`Lift Every Voice and Sing,' the Negro National Anthem by Paul Lawrence 
Dunbar before a standing-room-only crowd of 400 people.
  Rep. Charles B. Rangel provided the framework for the forum using his 
own experience as a Korean War soldier who had experienced the 
difficulty of transitioning to the real world after a tour of combat. 
He opened the morning saying, ``I went from being a respected and 
decorated Army staff sergeant to being viewed as nothing more than a 
high school drop-out.'' He was able to navigate his way using the GI 
Bill from underemployed in the garment district of New York City to 
obtaining his undergraduate and law degrees. But not everyone is as 
fortunate.
  ``Although we have a very effective Department of Veterans Affairs, 
thousands of today's veterans are falling through the cracks. Most of 
those who flounder are simply not aware of the assistance available 
from the VA and other service organizations,'' Rangel said. ``Our 
vision was that any veteran who walked into this session lost or 
disillusioned about the future--after hearing our speakers--would walk 
out feeling that the VA was there for him or her.''
  Our keynote speaker was Secretary Eric K. Shinseki, of the Department 
of Veterans Affairs, the first Asian American Four Star General in 
American military history, a real `Soldier's Soldier.' He was joined by 
two other distinguished military officers, Rear Admiral Michelle 
Howard, the first female graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy to command 
a U.S. naval vessel, and Four Star General William ``Kip'' Ward.
  Adm. Howard made history as the commander of the USS Rushmore that 
led the successful rescue effort of Captain Richard Phillips and his 
crew of the Mearsk Alabama captured by Somali pirates during April 
2009. Gen. Ward is a Morgan State University graduate and the highest 
ranking African American in the U.S. military. He spoke eloquently 
about his military career. He serves as the first-ever commander of the 
newly formed U.S. AFRICOM, one of six geographical commands within the 
Department of Defense, tasked with training African soldiers and 
delivering aid and resources to the continent's residents. Also in 
attendance were retired Generals Julius Becton, George Price, and 
Robert Cocroft.

[[Page E1267]]

  Other federal agency representatives and distinguished scholars 
included Assistant Secretary Ray Jefferson of the Department of Labor's 
Veterans Employment and Training Services (VETS), Deputy Assistant 
Secretary Mark Johnston of the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development (HUD), Corporate Liaison Officer Chuck Southern, Center for 
Veterans Enterprise, Department of Veterans Affairs, Chairman James 
Bombard, Veterans Advisory Committee on Education, Department of 
Veterans Affairs, and Drs. Shirley Marks, Chief, Mental Health Service, 
West Texas VA Health Care System, and Kristen Lester, Clinical 
Psychologist and VA Researcher, Women's Health Sciences Division, 
National Center for PTSD.
  Thus, the forum sought to present the latest up-to-date and vital 
information to take home to veterans, their families and communities, 
particularly communities of color across the Nation. Secretary 
Shinseki's remarks focused on three specific areas: access to services 
and benefits, the VA disability backlog, and homelessness. He also 
described the VA footprint and new community health care delivery 
services such as telehealth, as well as a list of issues confronting 
the VA: homelessness (approximately 50 percent African American), 
depression, suicide, joblessness, substance abuse, PTSD, and TBI 
stigma. Secretary Shinseki, as well as others also graciously 
acknowledged FY 2010 funding levels as a congressionally enhanced 
budget, but more importantly, a special `debt of honor.' He continued, 
``we intend to end homelessness among veterans as opposed to witnessing 
their downward spiral into hopelessness through education, jobs, mental 
health and housing as an investment in America's future.'' Coupled with 
announcing new VA initiatives such as increasing SBA to 15 percent, 
$500 million going toward homeless veterans programs, along with 20,000 
HUD VASH vouchers for housing support--the Obama administration and he 
will transform the VA into a 21st century organization. Lastly, he 
promised that 40 years after Vietnam, and 20 years after the first Gulf 
war, he will seek satisfactory answers to two nagging issues: (1) Agent 
Orange and its host of illnesses, and (2) Gulf War illness.
  The afternoon session consisted of the Veterans Stakeholders 
Roundtable Discussion, Part II. The roundtable was moderated by Mr. 
Leonard Dunston, MSW, President Emeritus of the National Association of 
Black Social Workers (NABSW) and featured the following subject matter 
experts as discussants: Dr. William Lawson, MD, Ph.D., Chairman, 
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Health, Howard University, Dr. 
Jay Chunn, Director, National Center for Health Behavioral Change, 
Urban Medical Institute, Morgan State University; Dr. Cedric Bright, 
MD, VA Staff Physician, Dr. Reginald Wilson, Ph.D., Tuskegee Airman & 
Senior Scholar Emeritus, American Council on Education (ACE), Dr. 
Jerome Brandon, Ph.D., Professor of Exercise Physiology, Department of 
Kinesiology & Health, Georgia State University, Dr. Vincent Patton, 
Ill, Ed.D., Director of Community Outreach for Military.com, Dr. Donna 
Holland Barnes, Ph.D., Suicidologist, Howard University, Dr. Kristen 
Lester, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, Women's Health Sciences Division 
of the National Center for PTSD & member, American Psychological 
Association and commentary by Dr. Tom Berger, Ph.D., Senior Advisor at 
Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), Peter Dougherty, Director of VA 
Homeless Programs, Fredette West, former Chief of Staff for the Hon. 
Louis Stokes (D-OH), Retired, and Dr. James Woodard, Ed.D., JD, former 
Senior Staff Member for the late Hon. Joseph Moakley (D-MA), and 
original Braintrust member.
  The mission of the roundtable discussion was to complement the 
morning session with greater details and re-analyses related to 
veterans transitional difficulties involving behavioral health, PTSD, 
TBI, suicide, depression and other mental illnesses with both a 
professional service provider and an interdisciplinary perspective--
emphasizing that no one comes home from war unchanged, and 
unfortunately many emotionally and psychologically wounded troops fall 
through the cracks.

  For example, veterans make up only 13 percent of the population, but 
account for 20 percent of the suicides. Dr. Barnes indicated veterans 
with PTSD are more than 3X as likely to die by suicide as their 
civilian counterpart. White college educated veterans living in rural 
areas are at the highest risk. Yet, African Americans may be the second 
highest especially those between the age 18-44. This concurring with 
Dr. Mark's earlier presentation, that veterans in the general US 
population are at an increased risk of suicide, with a projected rise 
in the incidence of functional impairment and psychiatric morbidity 
among veterans of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Consequently, 
more clinical and community interventions that are directed towards 
veterans in both VA and non-VA healthcare facilities are needed. Dr. 
Chunn spoke about physical assault and attempted murder rates being 
more than 3X higher among Iraq and Afghanistan returnees, alluding to a 
direct correlation between homicide and suicide echoed by a number of 
mental health professionals. Even more so, that the VA is seeing only 
40 percent of the behavioral health problems as opposed to the 60 
percent in the general population. Dr. Berger pointed out that of the 
eight VA recommendations concerning suicide, there are no action plans, 
despite the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS) and 
the RAND Study of 2008. Correspondingly, risk factors such as multiple 
deployments, military sexual trauma, TBI linked to PTSD all appear to 
be disconnected. This is compounded by the fact that close to 50 
percent of the National Guard troops come from rural areas of the 
country, strongly suggesting that the VA and military health systems 
are not working, because there is no connectivity!
  VA researcher Dr. Lester responded that the VA is not a perfect 
system by any means. Additionally, that there are not a lot of studies 
comparing ethnic minorities and white PTSD treatment; other research 
problems stemming from too small sample sizes, and the need for more 
research targeting issues of relevance to OEF/OIF women service 
members. Furthermore, she indicated that women's exposure to combat 
results in increased dual risk, decreased social support, increased 
parental stress, unsupportive homecoming reception and barriers to 
health care. Therefore the need for evidence-based treatment and 
training is essential. Dr. Brandon added a systems reevaluation 
perspective, more specifically aimed at VA moving from a sick care 
system to a health care system which includes more individual 
responsibility and healthy thinking, or healthy lifestyle choices. He 
also refocused us on the triangulation of expectations such as 
knowledge, practices and programs, and outcomes. Lastly, with respect 
to practices, he questioned effectiveness. Moreover, Dr. Lawson, 
reiterated, the VA is not culturally competent so mental disorders and 
traumatic brain injury are not recognized by professionals, nor 
appreciated as stigmatizing for veterans. Furthermore, the complexities 
of mental health issues are such that veterans are simply non-
responsive to treatment, because they do not get state of the art 
treatment. With respect to trauma, he said, we know about self-
medication and incarceration (the majority of which are non-violent 
drug abusers) and the revolving door cycle. For depression, he 
recommended, early screening, culturally relevant education and 
referral. Like other African Americans, he said, veterans have less 
access to services, poor recognition of mental disorder, and lack 
access to state-of-the-art care. Although better than civilians still 
there exist disparities in services and care!
  In terms of the new GI Bill Dr. Wilson stated, today 30 percent of 
the modern military is black, versus high rates of unemployment 
plaguing black communities across the nation. Consequently, blacks are 
more inclined to reenlist, more are married, and have a couple of kids, 
thus ruling out college! Further, since the new GI Bill has only been 
in effect for a few months there are no statistics available. However, 
a recent higher education review reveals: 57 percent of higher 
education institutions have some kind of program, or service for 
veterans; 46 percent of private colleges have no program, or service; 
22 percent provide special enrollment, and 75 percent provide credit 
for military occupational training. Yet, focus groups reveal that there 
is little provision for veterans with families and children, and online 
education is not recognized.
  Also raised was the issue of the impact of non-veterans on veterans 
in the clinical setting, such as whether or not the peer to peer 
approach is best (i.e. comfort levels). However, no data currently 
exist to answer this question. VA staff physician Dr. Bright, a non-
veteran talked about the importance of listening and stressed the need 
for Blacks to participate in clinical research and be informed, while 
encouraging community-based participatory research to tailor products 
to local needs, and stressed health equity. Tincie Lynch, a member of 
the new VA Community Advocates Program based in South Carolina, Alabama 
and Georgia commented on serving as a life coach to get veterans to the 
next level, and the start of a new Georgia Veterans Treatment Court. 
Still others insisted that domestic violence is related to PTSD, but 
suggested we are not looking at emergency room (ER) data. At the Howard 
University Hospital PTSD Symposium presenters pointed out that domestic 
violence is not necessarily included in the national dialogue about 
returning soldiers, or veterans, families and PTSD. Also widespread 
usage of new technology such as websites, cell phones, twitter, 
facebook, etc. by family members raised the issue of how do we 
capitalize on the worldwide phenomenon known as social networking to 
better serve veterans. Equally important, Dr. Lawson emphasized 
`electronic medical records must be able to talk to one another.' There 
also seemed to be consensus about quality time with VA physicians and 
that 15 minute interactions are problematic. Consequently, unanimous 
agreement was voiced for `changing reimbursement for primary care 
providers.' Other

[[Page E1268]]

comments consistently reinforced `we have a broken system,' and `can't 
just anyone engage no veteran!'
  Furthermore, Ms. West, Mr. Dougherty and Dr. Woodard's commentaries 
provided a well-rounded critique of veterans' substantive issues, along 
with accurate assessment and reasonable recommendations through the 
prism of their own policy experience. West's critique highlighted that 
the military tradition runs in the family; also, families have PTSD. 
Thus, we need to look at a minority health bill now, and health care 
reform must include military, veterans and family coverage. Dougherty's 
commentary indicated 20 percent of people who called the VA suicide 
prevention hotline are homeless. He also emphasized that coordination 
of services and benefits are crucial, along with building relationships 
and new partnerships with others. Moreover, the VA is moving to a 
proactive stance in terms of criminal justice and justice outreach, 
court diversion, the GI Bill, expedited VA claims and planning, as well 
as plan redesign. Dr. Woodard's commentary, on the other hand, posed a 
more difficult set of questions: `what is the nexus of sick care to 
health care transition, individual responsibility (vs. governmental 
obligation) and VA access and treatment issues?'
  All told, the outcomes of the Congressional Black Caucus Veterans 
Braintrust `Coming Home' forum (including the Howard University PTSD 
Symposium) can be measured in terms of: (1) three summary reports (a) 
Resulting Trauma: Identifying the Signs, Symptoms & Impact of 
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in African Americans; (b) Coming Home: 
Transitioning from Military Service to Civilian Life & Veterans 
Stakeholders Roundtable Discussion, Part II; and (c) Affirming Life: 
Suicide Prevention & Intervention in Communities of Color; (2) 
potential enhancements for Representative Charles Rangel's legislation 
(H.R. 1963) and recommendations for CBC Chairwoman Barbara Lee's (D-
CA), Task Force on Veterans; (3) an outline of questions for future GAO 
research in the following three critical areas: (a) veterans' 
homelessness, (b) women veterans, particularly those single parents 
with children, and (c) mental health, especially PTSD, TBI, depression, 
suicide, and mental illness stigma; (4) the successful launching of a 
new round of issues education outreach workshops based on content and 
information from September 25th's Veterans Braintrust (2010 New 
Abstracts: Meeting the Needs of African American Homeless Veterans; 
U.S. Military Personnel: Women & Veterans of African Descent; & The 
Veterans Braintrust as a Strategic Intervention); (5) uncovered or 
identified at least four clearly relevant, but essentially unanswered 
questions with implications for veterans policy in the future: (a) why 
are Iraq and Afghanistan combat returnees not using the system, or VA 
services?, (b) why are African American veterans disproportionately 
represented among the homeless?, (c) why are only one-third of the 
entire veterans population enrolled in the VA?, and (d) what is the 
most effective method for advocating the VA system's needed 21st 
century transformation, especially, with respect to cultural competence 
and cultural diversity, or racial, ethnic, and gender differences based 
on veteran's health equity? Last, but not least, several 
recommendations for legislative consideration or action in the future.

  The evening's gala reception, ``Saluting Veterans & Their Support 
Organizations'' and ``African Americans in Transportation,'' featuring 
special musical guest Chuck Brown, the `Godfather of Go-Go', was 
sponsored by the Association of American Railroads and the A. Philip 
Randolph Institute and recognized me for my work as Chairwoman of the 
Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials. The U.S. 
Army's Freedom Team Salute awardees included Lt. Col. William Calbert, 
USA, Ret., William Dabney, Herculano Dias, Sgt. Maj. Yolanda Glover, 
USA, Ret., Col Kathaleen Harris, USA, Ret., Stanley Murphy, Capt., USA, 
Vietnam, MSgt. Edwards Posey, USA, Ret., Dovey Johnson Roundtree, USA, 
WWII, Horace Taylor, USA, WWII, and Dr. James Woodard, Ed.D., JD, 
Capt., USA, Vietnam. Emile Milne, Legislative Director for the Hon. 
Charles Rangel (D-NY) was presented the Citizens Beneficiary Award by 
the Mike Handy Foundation & Fund for his unique contribution to our 
Nation's veterans, along with 2009 Veterans Braintrust awardees, 
including: Dr. E. Curtis Alexander, Leroy Archible, Lt. Gen. Julius 
Becton, Jr., USA, Ret., Aseneth (Mays) Blackwell, Maj. Gen. Joseph 
Carter, Dr. Darlene Collins, Roy Foster, C.R. Gibbs, Brig. Gen. Stayce 
Harris, Wanda Ruth Lee, BGen. Allyson Solomon, Barbara Ward, Maj. Gen. 
(Ret.) Enoch Williams, Joe Wilson, Jr., Eddie Beard Veterans Home, 9th 
Ordinance Training Battalion Alumni Association, The Units K-West & B-
East (US) Reunion Booster Club, The Friends of Charlton Gardens, Sister 
Soldiers Project, African American Veterans Project of Lancaster 
County, Dayton African American Legacy Institute, The Legacy Museum of 
African American History--Much in Demand Exhibit, Tangipahoa African 
American Heritage Museum & Black Veterans Archives.
  Furthermore, in trying to capture the mood of the moment during the 
festive 2009 awards ceremony honoring veterans, their families, and 
friends the word that best describes the long, rich legacy of African 
American military contributions is ``Service'', not money. They 
admirably and nobly performed service to God and country despite the 
challenges of race and discrimination. And, no less important, their 
``Service'' to family and friends constituted the essential building 
block of community.
  Finally, as a member of the Veterans Braintrust leadership I want to 
extend my heartfelt thanks to speakers, panelists, authors, and 
attendees, but particularly Dr. Frank Smith, Jr., Dr. William Lawson, 
Dr. Donna Holland Barnes, Guileine Kraft, Jason Young, Jean Davis, 
Constance Burns, Dr. Clarence Willie, Edna Wells Handy, Dr. Diane 
Elmore, Lucretia McClenney, Ralph Cooper, Robert Blackwell, Ervin 
Russell and T. Michael Sullivan, as well as congressional staff members 
Roshan Hodge, Lee Footer, Emile Milne, Robin Peguero, Kristen Rice-
Jones, Holly Biglow, and Jonathan Halpern for what can only be 
described as, the best ever Veterans Braintrust.'
  I want to once again thank the presenters at the forums and awardees 
for their long, rich legacy of service, both in the military abroad and 
in the fight for equal rights at home.

                          ____________________