American Veterans Research Paper

Are veterans being treated fairly in regards to healthcare? Are veterans being treated fairly in regards to post service employment? Are veterans being treated fairly in regards to housing? “U.S. veterans are dying because of delays in diagnosis and treatment at VA hospitals.” This was the first sentence of a joint cnn investigative report on veterans healthcare titled “veterans dying because of healthcare delays” by reporters Scott Bronstein, Nelli black, and Drew Griffin. “There are an alarming number of unemployed veterans in the United States – nearly 1 million today” this statistic is from an article on the house committee of veteran’s affairs website in support of legislation that would help veterans get jobs. “The U.S. Department …show more content…
It is majorly underfunded; it does not have enough money from the federal budget allocated to it to cover the needs of the large number of veterans in the United States. Also the nonsensical locations of the VA hospitals in some states can be a major inconvenience. For example, an article by author Quil Lawrence states that there are some vets who have to travel many miles just for treatment. An Army veteran named Randy Michaud who lives in a rural area of the United States is required to travel 200-miles to his designated VA hospital all the way by the Canadian border, each time he wants to receive treatment. Mr. Michaud is just one of the millions of veterans living in rural America that have to travel an unreasonable amount of miles just to receive inadequate healthcare. In a quote from the article, Mr. Michaud says "If I get an appointment in the winter, I'll cancel that sucker and I'll live with the pain until spring time." Another veteran, Jimmy Greiner, age 67 who served 3 tours in the brutal Vietnam war, survived 3 strokes and now suffers from severe PTSD had this to say about VA medical care: “When they came knocking on my door and said, 'Jim, you got to go to war,' I was there. I went, no questions asked. Now it's your turn. It's your turn to take care of me.” These two brave veterans secured our future by selflessly protecting the country we live in, now it is time for us as a nation to secure their …show more content…
There are unemployed veterans from almost every era of war in our country. “Veterans Out of Work-Vietnam Era Veterans: 165,000. Cold War Era Veterans: 199,000. Persian Gulf War Era Veterans: 135,000. Iraq and Afghanistan Era Veterans: 211,000.” These statistics taken from an article on the “house committee on veteran’s affairs” website, show that no generation of veterans in this country has been able to avoid unemployment. This is unacceptable and shows a lack of due diligence on the department of veterans affairs part. The VA should be monitoring all of our veteran’s employment status to make sure they are not forgotten. No one that has made such a sacrifice for our country should have to return to a society in which they cannot get a job to take care of their own families after selflessly fighting to protect all of America’s families overseas. “The unemployment rate for veterans who have served since 9/11 stood at 10 percent, with 246,000 out of work”. This quote was taken from a Washington post article titled “The unemployment rate for recent veterans is incredibly high” by author Brad Plumer. In comparison the national unemployment rate for all Americans is 5.8%; this means that regular citizens are having an easier time finding a job then all the veterans that have served our country after 9/11. This is an unacceptable fact and it is further proof of how veterans are being treated unfairly in today’s

Show More