Supporting Iowa’s Troops and Veterans
There is a difference between supporting a particular war effort and supporting the troops who actually fight the war. I oppose the war in Iraq, and believe that we should redeploy our Armed Forces to wage a smarter, more focused fight against the terrorists who threaten us. But, as a veteran myself, I wholeheartedly support our troops in the field as well as their families back home. We owe them the very best, including the best training, equipment, and health care. On that score, as our troops enter their seventh year of operations in Afghanistan and their sixth year in Iraq, I am disturbed that their civilian leadership in Washington is not doing enough to ensure troop readiness, to support families back home, or to address the physical and mental health needs of our returning troops.
Iowa has paid a heavy price in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. As of early 2008, 65 Iowans have been killed in combat - six in Afghanistan, the remainder in Iraq. But the human cost of this war is much broader. More than 330 Iowans have suffered physical wounds, and countless more have suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Based in part on my conversations with Iowa soldiers and veterans, I have authored or cosponsored new laws designed to make sure our troops are properly trained, equipped, and rested, and that their health care needs are fully met. I have also authored legislation to provide appropriate support to the families of our Reserve and Guard soldiers.
Getting Iowa’s Active Duty and National Guard Troops What They Need
Balancing Combat Deployments with Time to Recoup and Retrain
Thousands of Iowans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past seven years, including more than 9,000 members of the Iowa National Guard. This is a huge contribution by a state of two million people, and it highlights the strains that the Army and National Guard currently face. Almost 1.6 million service members have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, with nearly one-thirds of those troops having served multiple tours of duty. Deployments have now been extended from 12 to 15 months. I do not believe that the current tempo of repeated and extended troop deployments can be sustained without "breaking" the force, as the Army Chief of Staff put it. That is why I joined with Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, a fellow veteran, in sponsoring the Dwell Time Amendment, which would require that active-duty troops receive as much time at home, recuperating and retraining, as they spend deployed in combat. Guard and Reserve soldiers would be entitled to three years between deployments. By establishing responsible deployment cycles, the measure would support our troops and their families; it would relieve the enormous stress on our ground forces; and it would mitigate rising recruiting and retention challenges within our military. I was deeply disappointed that our amendment was filibustered in the Senate, because I believe strongly that this change is necessary for the safety and wellbeing of our troops. Senator Webb and I will seek alternative legislative vehicles for writing this provision into law.
The Coming Together for National Guard and Reserve Families Act
The National Guard and the Reserves are shouldering a huge share of the combat burden in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus a stepped-up role in homeland security. More than four times as many Guard members have been killed in Iraq as during the entire Vietnam War. With many Guard and Reserve members on their third or even fourth deployment, the stresses on their families are acute. Their children are at greater risk for depression, behavioral disorders, or academic problems. And long family separations often result in financial difficulties and troubled marriages.
To address this quiet crisis, last year I introduced the Coming Together for Guard and Reserve Families Act. The legislation was inspired by the families of the 1st Battalion of the 133rd Infantry of Iowa’s National Guard. While the Battalion bravely served one of the longest continuous deployments of the Iraq war, their families who stayed behind faced enormous strains. As I received countless letters from these families, I realized that National Guard and Reserve families have health and support needs that must be addressed, just like the families of active duty soldiers.
I was pleased that several provisions of my bill were incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was signed into law earlier this year. Under the NDAA, the Department of Defense is authorized to develop outreach programs to assist Guard and Reserve family members. The outreach efforts assist family members to prepare and update family care plans, provide information on health care and mental health services and benefits, as well as financial counseling for families and support services for children.
In addition, the NDAA directs DoD to conduct a study to determine how to enhance and improve existing support systems for Guard and Reserve families, as called for in my bill. Specifically, DoD has been ordered to study the types of services available to the families of deployed personnel; the impact of multiple and extended deployments on children and families; best practices for helping children cope with the strain of extended deployments; and the effectiveness of programs designed to help returning soldiers and their families with the transition to civilian life, among other items. Based on the results of this study, I will work to ensure that we make the necessary changes at DoD to ensure that our Guard and Reserve families are not left to cope in isolation with the stress of extended deployments.
Preventing Suicides among Our Returning Warriors
The rate of suicide among our men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is truly shocking. The VA estimates that more than 5,000 veterans take their lives each year, and suicide rates are 35 percent higher for Iraq veterans than for the general population. This problem was brought home to me by the death of Joshua Omvig of Grundy Center, Iowa. Josh was a member of the United States Army Reserve 339th MP Company. He served our nation with honor, but when he returned from his 11-month deployment in Iraq, he brought the traumas of war with him. He committed suicide a few days before Christmas in 2005 at the age of 22. Josh’s parents, Ellen and Randy Omvig, were determined that what happened to their son should not happen to other veterans. Inspired by their courage, I worked with Congressman Leonard Boswell to pass the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act.
This new law directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to integrate mental health services into veterans’ primary care, and to step up screening, counseling and other mental health services for returning war veterans. It also requires the VA to work to reduce the stigma associated with seeking treatment for mental health problems, and ensure VA staff are trained in suicide prevention; and help family members understand and recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness and risk factors for suicide.
Building on the passage of the Omvig legislation, I have also introduced a companion bill, the Armed Forces Suicide Prevention Act, to create a comprehensive suicide prevention program within the Defense Department for active duty personnel. The Army last year reported the highest rate of suicide since 1990, with 85 soldiers committing suicide, including 27 in Iraq and four in Afghanistan.
Experts tell us that peer support can be enormously helpful in easing the transition between deployment and civilian life. For that reason, I am proud to be the lead cosponsor of the Heroes Helping Heroes Act, legislation designed to expand peer-support programs to help returning soldiers to talk to other veterans who have had similar experiences.
Getting Our Troops the Equipment They Need
Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan currently face shortages of critical pieces of equipment, including up-armored vehicles, advanced communications gear, the latest electronic jammers used to detonate roadside bombs, and heavy machine guns. As a result, troops are sometimes forced to delay operations while they wait for appropriate equipment to become available. National Guard Bureau Chief, General Steven Blum, stated in 2007 that Guard equipment had fallen to an all-time low.
I have repeatedly taken the Pentagon and the Administration to task for failing to properly prioritize and fund life-saving equipment. In the past two years, to address acute equipment shortages, Congress has provided the Guard almost $2 billion in funding that was not requested by the Pentagon. Congress also acted to accelerate production of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles -- vehicles designed to reduce road-side bomb casualties by two-thirds; this ensured that 2,000 more MRAPs were in the field by the end of 2007 than would have been the case under the Pentagon’s original schedule. Not until mid-2007 did Defense Secretary Gates assert that MRAP production should be a priority, stating that "every month we delay, scores of young Americans are going to die." It is shameful to send our troops into combat without the equipment they need to protect themselves.
Improving Veterans and Military Health Care
Our government has a profound moral contract with the men and women who have fought for our country. Taking care of our troops and veterans is a continuing cost of national defense, and we need to make sure we don’t abandon them once they return home. I think most Americans would be surprised to learn that, for all our rhetoric, veterans do not receive universal healthcare but are instead prioritized and rationed, based on the type of injury and income level balanced against the amount of funds appropriated.
To end this discriminatory approach, I am cosponsoring the Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act, which would make funding for veterans’ health care programs mandatory, rather than subject to the whim of the President and the Congress. Even with the growing number of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, it was necessary for Congress to increase veterans funding by $4 billion above the amount requested by the President in each of the last two years in order not to shortchange our veterans. Congress also overrode the Administration’s attempt to impose new fees and higher co-pays on veterans seeking healthcare.
Following revelations about the substandard treatment and bureaucratic indifference faced by our most seriously wounded warriors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, I cosponsored the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act. The bill seeks to improve military medical facilities, with special attention to improving treatment for traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder, two conditions that are disturbingly common among Iraq war veterans. I am also working to pass the Veterans Traumatic Brain Injury Act that would enhance intervention, rehabilitative treatment, and services for veterans with this increasingly common combat injury.
Obtaining Justice for Iowa’s Cold War Heroes
Only when Bob Anderson of Burlington first wrote to me in 1997 about his work at a nuclear weapons plant in Burlington did I (or most other Iowans) have any idea that some of the most critical nuclear weapons assembly of the Cold War took place in a secret section of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (IAAP), and that Iowa is home to some of our most unheralded heroes, civilian veterans of the Cold War. The names of the weapons - Titan, Polaris, Minuteman, Pershing - may be familiar, but the names of the workers are not. They received no medals, no special pay, no laudatory speeches. Instead, they paid a terrible price. The levels and types of cancer that have afflicted this workforce are shocking. And along with illnesses have come financial hardships and, in too many cases, premature death.
After a seven-year fight, in 2005, I succeeded in getting hundreds of workers and their families the compensation they are entitled to, along with medical benefits for their ongoing treatment. Thanks to the skill and dedication of the Public Health team at the University of Iowa, the IAAP workers were the first former nuclear workers in the U.S. to qualify for this compensation and benefits. Former workers from the Ames Laboratory at Iowa State University were added in 2006. I will continue to fight for openness, compensation, health care, and environmental cleanup until I am sure we have truly repaid our debt to our cold war veterans and to the city of Burlington.
Saluting Iowa’s Native American Warrior Heroes
Iowa is also home to another group of unsung military heroes. During World War II, the Armed Forces drew on American Indian languages to develop military codes that were never successfully deciphered by German or Japanese forces. Thanks to these codes and the courageous actions of Native American soldiers, countless lives were saved. It took 51 years for the government to begin recognizing the contributions of these heroic "code talkers."
In 2001, congressional medals were belatedly awarded to the original Navajo Code Talkers. However, the contributions of the Sac and Fox Tribe of Tama County, Iowa, traditionally known as the Meskwaki, were still not officially recognized. I have introduced legislation, the Code Talkers Recognition Act, that would award the Congressional Medal of Honor to all the code talkers, including at least eight members of the Meskwaki tribe. I look forward to passing this resolution to recognize the unique contributions of some of Iowa’s less-heralded warrior heroes.
