SINN-CLARK: Service members deserve better than we are giving them

I do not know this family. In fact, I don’t directly know any military families. Some of my kids’ high school friends are in the military, many serving or having served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. My kids graduated from Winder-Barrow High School in 2000 and 2001, so in a way, to some, this past 10 years of war has defined their generation. It has also defined the struggles of so many soldiers and their families, soldiers of both sexes and all ages, some deployed over and over again as these wars waged on.

I do not support these wars, but I wholeheartedly support the men and women in our military who have fought and are still fighting them. I also support their families and I stand in awe of the sacrifices they have made and continue to make.

Perhaps because I look at the world of military service from the outside, I am fascinated by it in a “How do they do it?” kind of a way. I cannot imagine doing what these soldiers and their families do. I don’t know if I have it in me to make the sacrifices they make. For this reason, news about soldiers and military families always grabs my attention.

As I’ve said before, I’m a big NPR fan and recently NPR has had a string of stories that have disturbed and saddened me about how some of our military families are faring. There was a story about how the cycle of deployment strains military marriages. There was another story on how hard the repeated deployment of one or both parents is on the 700,000 kids since 2001 whose parents have been deployed overseas.

One story talked about how traumatic brain injury is the “signature injury” of soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. According to the Pentagon, nearly 50,000 soldiers have suffered severe brain injuries since those wars began. Military figures also indicate that over 155,000 have suffered concussions; non-military research indicates the number may be twice that.

Other stories talk about how 20 percent of the soldiers returning from these wars have suffered mild brain injuries. Of those, as many as 50 percent suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other brain-related problems such as anxiety, depression and short-term memory loss. Because of all this, the Army is facing a critical shortage of neurologists and failure to accurately diagnose, treat and document these injuries results in tens of thousands of soldiers falling through the cracks.

Particularly disturbing are the stories about how suicide among U.S. troops is escalating at an unprecedented rate. A piece I heard recently indicated that, on average, one soldier has committed suicide every day this year. There were 154 suicides among active-duty troops in the first 155 days of the year. That is an 18 percent increase since last year and up 25 percent from 2010. Soldier suicides have consistently out-paced the number of troops killed in action in Afghanistan during the same period.

There are also stories about how hard it is for returning soldiers to find work, especially those in national guard units who have repeatedly been deployed. There is so much wrong with this big picture.

I went to the farewell ceremony for our local guard unit, before their last deployment. I remember photographing a young mother (she looked younger than my daughter) with her four-year-old son, in front of the helicopter she was a crew member on. They were wearing matching camouflage uniforms and they stood tall and proud. Nothing in their smiles indicated the danger that brave young mother/soldier would be flying into. Nothing in their demeanor indicated this goodbye might be their last. ”How can they do that?” I thought once again, as I hid the tears welling up in my eyes behind my camera.

The men and women in our armed forces deserve better than they are getting, in terms of medical treatment, employment, support services and post-service opportunities. They also deserve our prayers, respect and heart-felt thanks for all they’ve done and for all they face on the road ahead.

Lorin Sinn-Clark is a writer for the Barrow Journal. She can be reached at lorin@barrowjournal.com.