In 2008, before he became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen said, “I am convinced that America’s great sea of good will can be, in fact, a rising tide … a tide that could lift every veteran and every family of our wounded and fallen.”
All but 9,800 of the 2.6 million troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan will be home by the end of the year. Unlike the vets of some generations before, they will be celebrated and thanked — and that is exactly as it should be.
But as a Vietnamese orphan rescued and adopted by an American serviceman, and someone whose daily life is focused on addressing the needs of vets, I fear we are pushing aside our older veterans — especially those from Vietnam — in favor of the post-9/11 generation.
Take, for example, the disproportionate number of veterans from the pre-Sept. 11 era who commit suicide. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that nearly 70 percent of veterans who commit suicide are age 50 or older — double the suicide rate for the same age group of non-veterans. Using the VA’s figure of 22 veteran suicides per day, that translates to 5,540 older veterans committing suicide annually.
We ignore this community at their peril.
The challenges older veterans face do not end there. A VA study of Vietnam vets 20 years after the conflict found that a quarter of vets who served in Vietnam still had full or partial post-traumatic stress disorder. In fact, nearly half of new PTSD cases at the VA come from pre-9/11 conflicts. Veterans’ needs do not disappear when they come home — they evolve.
The situation is just as grim on the housing front. A National Coalition for Homeless Veterans research brief finds that, compared with younger veterans, older veterans have less social support, greater employment challenges, more significant healthcare needs, and less motivation to change. As a result, more than 15 percent of homeless veterans are 51 years of age and older, and the number of homeless veterans over the age of 65 is expected to double by 2050.
It is laudable that the VA Caregiver Program provides a monthly stipend, respite care and mental health services for caregivers of post-9/11 veterans who were injured in the line of duty. But of the 5.5 million military caregivers in the United States, 4.4 million care for veterans from pre-9/11 wars, according to a recent Rand report. Why not make this valuable program’s new iteration available to veterans of all wars, not just a few?
The veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf are slipping through the cracks at a time when a stampede of well-meaning people rush — with good reason — to champion younger veterans. The struggles of those who came before Iraq and Afghanistan are no less, yet they do not have access to all of the benefits and services offered to post-Sept. 11 veterans. Shouldn’t what is good for one generation be good for all?
We must vow to change the conversation about veterans and military families — of all generations — to highlight their potential and create life-changing opportunities. I’ve watched how, as every war recedes from the minds of the American public, we begin to forget about veterans and military families.
We cannot allow that to happen today to our older veterans — nor tomorrow to our young veterans, who will someday be in their shoes.
Kimberly Mitchell is a board member for the Infinite Hero Foundation. She served in the U.S. Navy for 17 years, including with the Joint Chiefs of Staff as deputy director for the Office of Warrior and Family Support. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions for editorials, available at this link.
