How We Treat Our Returning & Deployed Warriors...

I just read an article in The Boston Herald on National Guardsmen fighting a new battle for their old jobs in this hard economy - http://bit.ly/69sM22.

This article got to me.

It made me understand that we need to start taking better care of our returning veterans! Stories such as this and others about our service men and woman coming home after deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan only to find that they no longer have a job, or that their benefits have been cut or are no longer available, or that their family has been forced to move in with relatives or go on welfare to make ends meet just sicken me.

We treat our military heroes, our warriors and their families like garbage and it just is NOT RIGHT!

These folks - and their families! - dedicate precious time and some their lives to protect us, our nation, and our way of life. And in return, what do they get? It's just so sad.

Many time our federal and state governments do little to nothing to protect and insulate military personnel and their families from losing their jobs, homes, even their children in custody cases due to overseas deployment! And, it MUST stop!

When I heard that a member of my extended family was sent to Iraq to fight WITHOUT a bullet-proof vest and other necessities of modern warfare, that he was told by his commanding officer that his family should buy the equipment for him as a gift, I couldn't believe it! That's just NUTS! When I heard that the Humvee my extended family member was riding in, as well as most Humvees at that time in Iraq and Afghanistan were much like a Humvee right off the lot here in the States, without armor or other necessary equipment for warfare, I was OUTRAGED!

As a nation and government, if we can't afford to outfit our military men and woman effectively to protect them above all else before they go into battle - and this includes personnel and vehicle armor - then DON'T SEND THEM!

I'm still in disbelief that many military families or families of deployed reservists and National Guard members need to file for welfare because of the difference between the wage made in peace time jobs vs. military pay; or that military members are losing child custody battles due to overseas deployments and their duration!


I ask you what sort of nation sends its citizens - be they full-time military, reservists, or National Guard - into war, then doesn't ensure their safety with the appropriate equipment funded and supplied by the government, or provides all necessary supports for their families, or ensures their peace time jobs will be there upon their return (or it not ensures their income), or ensures sufficient medical care for life especially for the wounded warrior, upon their homecoming?

Please tell me, because it can't be the same America that I was born and raised in...

I'm off my soapbox...for now...