SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER |
NATIONAL GUARD PROGRAM
Our work with National Guard members and families
VFA’S MILITARY REPORTS
MORE REPORTS
STOP LOSS
WOUNDED WARRIOR OUTREACH PROGRAM
About the Wounded Warrior Outreach Program
VFA’S WOUNDED WARRIOR REGISTRY
Tell us Your Story
OUR SURVIVAL GUIDE
For American Veterans, Servicemembers, and their families
Watch the video full screen
Download our National Guard Report
The Latest Download: VFA Military Reports
Initial Findings Released:
Alaska’s National Guard Has Reached a Crisis Point, Veterans for America Finds
The post-deployment challenges facing Alaska’s Army National Guard are more daunting and widespread than any seen by Veterans for America (VFA).
VFA’s National Guard Program just completed a week in the state reviewing the needs of Alaska’s citizen-Soldiers and the resources in place to meet them. The needs of Alaska’s Guard members and their families far outstrip the available help.
Many of the Alaska’s Guard members have been deployed, and redeployed, despite the shortage of care and treatment available upon their return. With more than one-quarter of Alaska’s Guard members living 60 miles or more from a Veterans Affairs facility, many rarely if ever get treatment they need. Travel to Anchorage alone can cost more than $1,500 for each Guard member - an upfront cost too burdensome for many to shoulder, even if they are eventually reimbursed. With the economy worsening, the costs to Guard families for their own healthcare will mount and even fewer will receive treatment.
We owe our citizen-Soldiers better than this.
VFA looks forward to continuing our work with the leaders in Alaska, and in Washington, D.C., to ensure that the members of the Alaska National Guard and their families receive the support their sacrifice merits.
*For more information or interviews, please contact Adrienne Willis, Director of Communications at 202-557-7509 or by email at awillis@veteransforamerica.org
VFA News Analysis: October 6, 2008
The Montana National Guard learns to recognize and treat combat-related mental injuries. The effort traces back to last year, when a Guard member just returned from Iraq shot himself. “Our society is really working to address these things with our veterans, because it’s very clear that we have a duty to address them.” Sometimes the wounds seem to big to heal. And, too often, vets simply fall through the cracks and receive no help at all. Post-traumatic stress disorder robs veterans’ of their well-being. Traumatic brain injury cages veterans in a fog of war even after they return home.
It is simply time to “improve care of veterans.” The “next president needs to act to make sure promise is kept.” One “betrayed” veteran makes it clear that there are wrongs that need to be righted by our leaders.
The more we deploy our National Guard — right now more than half of the troops coming back from Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom are Guard members — the less protected we will be at home. It’s axiomatic. Just ask the mayor of Utica, NY, who is coping with a shortage of Guard members in New York just as he is fighting a war on arson.
A Military Times poll finds Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, leading Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL, for the votes of those in uniform. Although the non-scientific presidential preference poll is not representative of the military as a whole, and skews both more senior and less ethnically diverse than the whole military, the longtime assumption that the military tends to vote more Republican may hold this November. While McCain seems to be leading among older and retired military voters, Obama may be leading among troops who are deployed. No matter how they vote, however, military families view this year’s presidential election as crucial to the future of the country and the military.
Concern is ripening over a potentially new civil war in Iraq. The volatile mix of militias and uncertainty in Iraq may have gotten a bit busier with the addition of new Christian militias — whose source of funding is uncertain. The presidential candidates differ on Iraq.
It’s not just our military that is suffering from an “explosion” of mental illness — so are the British.
Read Previous News AnalysesVFA in the Media
VFA Blog
Initial Findings Released:
Alaska’s National Guard Has Reached a Crisis Point, Veterans for America Finds
The post-deployment challenges facing Alaska’s Army National Guard are more daunting and widespread than any seen by Veterans for America (VFA).
VFA’s National Guard Program just completed a week in the state reviewing the needs of Alaska’s citizen-Soldiers and the resources…
MORE BLOG POSTS
