Facing PTSD - Support Our Troops

by: Thurman Hart

Mon Jun 25, 2007 at 03:13:42 PM EDT

He came from a time and place where men didn't talk about their feelings.  If it came out at all, it was when he was drunk and in emotional crisis - when something hurt so badly that he had to get it out before it crushed his spirit.  I firmly believe that Vietnam killed him - it just took seventeen years of drinking and smoking to do it.  From his days on the USS Forrestal, when the worst shipboard fire in history killed 132 men, to his special forces deployments into Laos and Cambodia, he certainly experienced enough to give a man a lifetime of memories he never wanted.

So I'm very proud of my boss, Congressman Steve Rothman, who has written a strong defense of the new defense appropriations bill - a bill that includes millions of dollars specifically dedicated to helping men like my father - and those who suffer much, much greater injuries - readjust to civilian life.

President Bush has promised to veto any spending bill that exceeds his requests - this includes requests that take care of the veterans his budget would ignore.  Mr. Rothman ends his post with this question:

All told, this spending bill provides for the largest single increase in funding in the 77 year history of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Every major veterans? service organization enthusiastically endorses it. One such group, the Disabled American Veterans, describes the bill as ?keeping faith with America?s veterans.? I call it ?supporting our troops.?

Now, I ask you - my fellow New Jerseyans - how would you describe this bill?