I want to begin today by thanking Chairman Michaud and Ranking Member Miller for permitting me to join you today to discuss a matter that is near and dear to my heart – the mental health of our veterans. 

I have worked on the issue of our veterans’ mental health since I was a Member of this esteemed Committee during the 1980s. I applaud your leadership in holding a hearing on this subject, which were few and far between during my tenure on the Veterans Affairs Committee. 

Throughout my career, our Ohio office has been ably staffed by a Vietnam veteran, Dan Foote, who handles an enormous veteran’s caseload among many other issues.

Dan shared this story with me, and I want to share it with you:

It is not unusual to have 5-8 phone messages on his voice mail at least once a week.  One constituent, Tom, a Vietnam veteran who was a mechanic and a door gunner, medicates himself with alcohol starting around 7 or 8 p.m. and will drink well into the night.

Tom’s first call usually is a thank you call for assisting him in obtaining his air medals from his 12-month service in Vietnam in the late 60’s.  As the night wears on, Tom’s phone messages become garbled and unclear and around 3:00 a.m., his calls are incoherent.  Tom finally sleeps and the messages end until next time.

Tom is one of many Vietnam Vets treating their PTSD with alcohol.  The trauma of war was so severe they use alcohol to numb the feelings in order to get through the day or night.  Tom has told my staff, ‘When you lay down at night the demons come.’  Alcohol chases away the demons if only for a few hours or a night.

In 1967, Tom, arrived in Vietnam.  As a helicopter mechanic he was assigned to an Aviation Unit.  Tom’s first challenge was to learn to fire the 60 mm machine guns mounted in the cargo doors of the Bell Huey chopper.  A crew took him over the South China Sea to practice shooting and on their way back inland to their base the pilot spotted five Vietnamese running on the beach and into the jungle. 

The pilot ordered the newest crew member to open fire on the Vietnamese assuming they were Viet Cong (Communist Guerillas).  The ship landed to search for weapons and intelligence only to find a mother, father and three children dead from the machine gun fire.  This occurred in his first week in Vietnam. 

Tom has never been the easygoing teenage auto mechanic that left Toledo, Ohio, in 1966.  His life can best be described as a soldier who has never come home from Vietnam.

Tom receives VA services to include counseling and psychiatric services, but medical science still must do more.  Tom’s service to his Nation was 42 years ago. His treatment and suffering continue.  

Tom, and every other Veteran in my district and across the country, inspires work we have championed to support research in the understanding and treatment of PTSD and other neuropsychiatric war wound that can onset at any time during or post conflict.  We must give proper care to those who have valiantly served their Nation. I know the Commander of the Ohio Purple Hearts would not mind my sharing with you that he suffers from PTSD and tinnitus for going on 40 years. His best buddy took his own life.

From September 11, 2001, until March 2009, our Nation has asked new generation to American military service men and women to serve including 401,840 Army National Guard Soldiers.  

Dr. Milliken, of Walter Reed Army Hospital, recently reported that of 88,000 soldiers returning from Iraq, 20 percent of the active component and 42 percent of the reserve component had mental health concerns requiring treatment within 6 months of returning from combat. Our men and women are returning with deep scars that are not seen.

Why people develop PTSD is clear–you have to experience a trauma. Why the majority who experience a trauma do not develop PTSD and appear resilient is not understood. In order to reduce the immediate and long-term human and economic costs of this disorder, additional research is essential.  Furthermore, it is essential that neuropsychiatries are included on the VA’s peer review panels that review VA mental health research proposals and that we increase the training and preparation of neuropsychiatric nurses.

Currently, a Congressionally directed, Department of Defense landmark assessment of Ohio Guard veterans and soldiers is underway to detect or prevent neuropsychiatric war wounds associated with modern warfare.  This 10-year prospective follow-up study represents the first ever detailed long-term study of mental health of the same soldiers.

Associated with this research will be the largest epidemiological DNA sampling of our 3,000 veterans and family members known to this field of science.

Studies such as these are vital to the continued care of our Nation’s service men and women and our veterans. We know that science can unlock hidden passages of the brain and nervous system. We must maintain a course of care for those who have borne the battle and pledged their lives to our Republic.

Thank you for your leadership in convening this critical hearing so America can provide the promised care they have so nobly earned.