The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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August 30, 2007

Kansas: Vietnam vets ask senators to back mental-health funding

The Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. — Ray LaFon knows about the mental problems veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq may face. He has lived with his own for nearly 40 years.

LaFon, a Vietnam veteran with the 101st Airborne Division, couldn’t shake the images of war. His problems cost him a marriage, businesses and countless other relationships.

“My second wife was about to divorce me. I was an absolute wreck, carried a loaded gun around all the time,” he said.

The 59-year-old Basehor resident joined other veterans and clergy in urging Republican Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts to vote for a spending bill in Congress financing mental health programs for veterans and their families.

The veterans spoke of returning from an unpopular war in Vietnam to little support. Because of their experiences, they said, they understand the horrors soldiers face in Iraq, which they called a “quagmire.”

LaFon served in a medical evacuation unit and became used to hosing blood out of helicopters and repairing bullet holes after missions.

But one incident scared him. LaFon was calling in a chopper to pick up a wounded soldier, having been told the landing zone was clear. It wasn’t; a rocket-propelled grenade hit the chopper. Three of his best friends died, and a fourth was severely wounded.

LaFon had no way of knowing that the enemy had moved in, but for years felt responsible for the three deaths.

“They had to watch me for awhile. I carried all that guilt. I did my job. It could have been a matter of seconds,” LaFon said. “The guilt really hurts.”

LaFon said he is doing better, having been diagnosed with a full disability for post traumatic stress disorder. He got help from the Veterans Administration and found a support group of fellow veterans to lean on. His second marriage has recovered, and he is retired.

“I cannot have stress in my life whatsoever, because I have PTSD so severe that any stress might cause me to do something stupid,” he said. “I still have a lot of problems. I relapsed once, but I have the tools now to deal with it. I came back.”

The Senate expects to debate the funding bill after it returns Tuesday from a recess. Calls left with the senators’ offices were not returned.

Veterans said they decided to speak out after a recent Army report found its suicide rate is climbing.

The Army had 99 suicides in 2006, the highest rate since it began tracking the statistic. Thirty were by soldiers in Afghanistan or Iraq and about half were soldiers who hadn’t hit their 25th birthday. Failed marriages and relationships were blamed in up to 80 percent of the cases.

While numerous programs have been put in place in recent months to help soldiers still in uniform, the veterans said more must be done to help those who are now civilians.

Tim Saknit, leader of Pointman Ministries in Leavenworth, struggled for years with his own PTSD. He was in the Army and spent a year in Vietnam, starting in April 1969. Alcoholism and drug abuse caused him to lose contact with friends and family.

His life changed when he went to the PTSD Center at Topeka Veterans Administration hospital, where he met LaFon. Though he said he still has relapses, support from fellow veterans and his ministry helps him get by, Saknit said.

“If you don’t come in and get help with it, it gets worse. Trying to get these young guys to understand that is rough,” Saknit said. “I’ve got my ups and downs. I don’t have to drink anymore. I have my medication, breathing exercises, meditation, reading the Bible.”

Gary Sanford, a retired Army colonel and chaplain and now pastor of Rock of Ages Chapel in Leavenworth, said increased federal funding for mental health programs is critical to help communities serve veterans of all wars.

“We came home from ’Nam and got no support whatsoever. If we turn down and veto this bill, I’m telling you, we’re doing the same thing to our vets now that was done to us 30 some years ago,” said Sanford, who served 30 years in the Army, from Vietnam to Desert Storm.

“Every day we’re asking for money to fight the war, and I support that 100 percent. But we need to put our money where our mouth is supporting those who are coming back.”

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