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New vets face a burdened system

Nov-11-2004 » Filed Under: General Military

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MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

Sgt. 1st Class Roger Dakari said his dad sat him down for a talk before he headed to Iraq last fall with the Army’s first Stryker brigade from Fort Lewis.

Dakari’s father, Joseph Johnson, was an infantryman in Vietnam. Long after Johnson returned home to Mississippi, he struggled with the emotional stresses of combat, and he wanted his son to know what to expect:

Anxiety, nervousness, trouble sleeping. In many cases, worse.

“Dad was 100 percent right,” Dakari said Tuesday. “It changes you.”

Dakari was one of many who waited in line at a Fort Lewis processing center, where troops fresh out of Iraq are briefed on homecoming issues. They also answer questions about their physical and mental health.

This Veterans Day, government and private-sector officials are promising they’ll do what it takes to see that a new generation of war veterans gets the medical, employment and other benefits they’ve earned.

But there are questions about whether an already overburdened veterans care system – one that faces facilities closures and further budget cuts – can keep up with demand.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has a backlog of more than 300,000 claims, including some 10,000 filed by new veterans of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Clearly you could say that the system today is maxed out,” said John Lee, a Vietnam veteran and deputy director of the Washington state Department of Veterans Affairs. “But if we identify the need, this state is ready to provide the resources.”

Thousands of new veterans have returned home to the Puget Sound area after combat tours in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere since the U.S. war on terror started in October 2001.

In the past month, about 5,000 soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division returned to Fort Lewis after a year in Iraq. Another 3,500 are due home in the spring with the Washington National Guard’s 81st Brigade Combat Team.

In anticipation of the 81st’s return, state, federal and local private-sector officials last week announced an agreement to serve new veterans. The parties said it was the first pact of its kind.


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