Truth Be Told
SGT. KEVIN BENDERMAN
AMERICA'S NEW GENERATION OF LEADERSHIP
AMERICA'S VETERANS
TRUTH BE TOLD
BY SGT. KEVIN BENDERMAN
Veterans of the various wars this country has engaged in are not always treated with the same amount of honor and integrity they displayed during their term of service.
I have to ask, "Why is someone who is willing to put his or her life on the line for an ideal supposedly encouraged by the people of this country, treated like less than a valuable member of society upon their return from combat?" We expect our veterans to perform honorably under some of the most inhumane conditions during a war, and yet we believe they are less than honorable when they display the emotional and physical distress that comes from carrying out acts that are required under those difficult conditions. This current war is no different from others in that respect.
At Ft. Stewart, Georgia, I was contacted by the mother of a young soldier who was destined to be released from the service due to a medical condition that caused neurological deafness. He held a medical report that labeled him as non-deployable, and was scheduled to face a hearing to be medically discharged. Rather than be placed in Rear Detachment to await this release, his First Sergeant and another soldier entered his barracks room in the night, and ordered him to report for deployment to Iraq with his unit, or face 11 years in prison for desertion. This young soldier, not knowing that he had another option, is now serving in Iraq - hearing impaired.
Another soldier's family notified me that their loved one had been scheduled to be released from the service due to a partial paralysis in both arms. He had bone spurs on his cervical vertebrae pressing on his spinal cord, that caused this condition which was aggravated when he put on his Kevlar helmet. Even though he stood in formation, unable to raise his arms, and with his equipment on unable to use his trigger finger due to the paralysis, this soldier's platoon sergeant threatened him with jail time for malingering, pretending injury to avoid serving his duty, and ordered him to deploy to Iraq.
Another young man from Ft. Stewart, this soldier from the unit that I was in, attempted suicide as a result of severe PTSD, coming from his service during Operation Iraqi Freedom. This young soldier ingested 32 percoset tablets in an attempted suicide, was admitted to the Liberty County Medical Center, and when our company commander and battalion commander found out, had him moved to the Army hospital at Ft. Stewart where, upon his arrival the company commander accused him of malingering, and said he would stay in a hospital gown until 5 days later, when he would be deployed in handcuffs. The commanding officer restrained the soldier's wife from visiting him in the psych unit of the Army hospital, and berated her for assisting her husband. This soldier was ultimately ordered to deploy, and receive his counseling treatment in a combat zone.
I ask you, "Is this the type of treatment soldiers deserve, especially from people who are in commanding positions in an organization for which they took an oath to protect their soldiers no matter what?"
I could list numerous other incidents such as these, that I have witnessed in my ten years of service, but I believe you can get the jist of what I would like you to know just by hearing these 3 stories.
Veterans deserve better than this, regardless of what war they have had to fight. Veterans from past wars are now in danger of losing benefits, of being given less than honorable treatment for their service, and are being left forgotten while taxpayers' hard-earned money is going to finance an equally difficult war, that is creating thousands of new veterans.
It is not about politics, it is not about ideologies. This battle for peace, in which I am now engaged, is about people, and sadly, the men and women who have put the most on the line for the people of this country - are the ones being given the least respect by their fellow citizens now.
If Americans do not stand up and demand that they be represented with the integrity they deserve, it is not a country that will suffer - it is the people who make up this country that will lose.
Hon. Cynthia McKinney
Contact - Richard Searcy
North DeKalb Mall Ste D-46
Decatur, GA 30033
404-633-0927
