Al's Morning Meeting

RELATED RESOURCES

Like Al's ideas? Hear more in our broadcast and online seminars. Sign up to receive Al's Morning Meeting by e-mail: * Click here (sent Monday-Friday at 7 a.m.) Buy Al's book, "Aim for the Heart" (Poynter receives a small cut as an Amazon affiliate).

Military.com points out:

During a recent U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing, it was announced that 20- to 24-year-old veterans now have an unemployment rate of [more than] 15 percent -- nearly twice the rate of their non-veteran peers.

U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs

Not long ago, WCCO-TV (Minneapolis) reporter Jeanette Trompeter took viewers inside the gritty story of how difficult it is for Iraq and Afghanistan vets to return to civilian life. She found that one out of every three vets returning from Iraq duty has trouble after returning home from Iraq. That's why returning soldiers and families must undergo mandatory reintegration to help them get back to civilian life. You can watch her story online.

We've covered similar topics on Al's Morning Meeting, too: hearing loss in military returnees, vets helping vets transition back to civilian life, homeless veterans, VA claims and more.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reported a grim study that puts the happy reunions that we often see in some context. These vets have been through a lot. The report, from 2004, says:

• Ninety-four percent of soldiers in Iraq reported receiving small-arms fire.
• In addition, 86 percent of soldiers in Iraq reported knowing someone who was seriously injured or killed.
• Sixty-eight percent reported seeing dead or seriously injured Americans.
• Fifty-one percent reported handling or uncovering human remains.
• The majority, 77 percent, of soldiers deployed to Iraq reported shooting or directing fire at the enemy.
• Forty-eight percent reported being responsible for the death of an enemy combatant.
• Twenty-eight percent reported being responsible for the death of a noncombatant.

An additional set of unique stressors stems from the fact that much of the conflict in Iraq, particularly since the end of formal combat operations, has involved guerilla warfare and terrorist actions from ambiguous and unknown civilian threats. In this context, there is no safe place and no safe role. Soldiers are required to maintain an unprecedented degree of vigilance and to respond cautiously to threats. There is great concern that soldiers will mistakenly think civilians who mean them no harm are actually combatants. Soldiers also need to be careful about possibly causing collateral damage to civilians in urban environments. 

Boise (Idaho) Weekly included this detailed summary:

According to a May 17, 2005, report by the Department of Veterans Affairs, almost 28 percent of combat veterans who have returned from operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (nearly 24,000 troops) have already been diagnosed with mental disorders, a number on par with the number diseases of the musculosketal/connective system (36.9), digestive system (28.3) and diseases of the sense organs and nervous system (25.1). [...]

 

A total of 1,389 of all returning vets have been categorized with alcohol dependence, and 601 with drug dependence problems since returning.

 

The report notes that "a higher percentage of separated active-duty troops (29 percent) have sought VA health care than separated Reservist/National Guard troops (20 percent)," although the statistical differences appear minimal. Yet these figures do not account for any possible overlaps between illnesses, and only represent those vets who have actually contacted the VA for treatment.  

In the past five years, the number of veterans receiving compensation for the disorder commonly called PTSD has grown nearly seven times as fast as the number receiving benefits for disabilities in general, according to a report this year by the inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs. A total of 215,871 veterans received PTSD benefit payments last year at a cost of $4.3 billion, up from $1.7 billion in 1999 -- a jump of more than 150 percent.

How Did Our Children Get So Big?

The Indianapolis Star looks at why and how 13 percent of our of children nationwide -- nearly 10 million of them -- are obese.

America's Worst Bottlenecks

The U.S. Department of Transportation lists the worst two-dozen highway bottlenecks in America. In doing so, the report says there is no question that traffic congestion is getting worse. And, the report says, forget about rush "hour." The average amount of time that people spend stuck in traffic per year has grown from 16 hours in 1982 to 47 hours in 2003.In many cities, the window in which commuters might encounter congestion has stretched from 4.7 to 7.1 hours a day! Check out the Department of Transportation's table below to see how your nearest metro area compares.