Veterans for America calls for adequate dwell time and care for our troops going to Afghanistan

Expressing reluctant support for President Obama’s plan to escalate war in SouthWest Asia, Veterans for America (VFA) has ask readers to join them in demanding that any and all future troops deployed to Afghanistan be required to have adequate dwell (rest) time between deployments and taken care of both medically and psychologically BEFORE being allowed to deploy. Though our military family opposes any escalation of the Global War on Terror to Afghanistan without the full and unquestioned support and shared national sacrifice of American voters, if the President and his left over Bush Pentagon is adamant about making this mistake, we support Veterans for America (VFA) in minimizing and aggravating the damagealready done to our ground troops.

ROBERT L. HANAFIN

Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired

Military Families Speak Out – Ohio

Veterans for America (VFA) has spent years tracking the strain our troops are suffering as a result of repeated deployments with too little rest, or dwell time, in between. The strains are piling up. New deployments to Afghanistan are only likely to exacerbate the problems now making headlines: soaring military suicide rates and post-combat trauma in the ranks. Too many troops are returning to battle still hobbled by the wounds of their previous deployments. Our military’s own system for determining who is fit for deployment is apparently broken. Without concerted action by our leaders, our troops will continue to suffer long after their tours have ended, as will their families and their communities.

Major Hanafin’s comment: Legislation has been repeatedly introduced and defeated in Congress, with wontant indifference to troop support, abandon and heartless concern for this failure to support our troops and impact not only on our troops but for their families, especially the children. Senator Jim Webb’s bills on adequate dwell time comes to mind,

President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy, which he announced last week, includes 4,000 additional troops in addition to the 17,000 which he ordered shortly after he took office. It is likely that this deployment will include troops from the 10th Mountain Division and the 82nd Airborne Division who will be on their fifth deployment, and will be facing dwell time ratios of less than one-to-one. That means they’ve spent more time in combat than they have at home with their families. (Would you want to gamble your families life and future on those odds. How many other first responders including law enforcement are willing to accept such a gamble to do it better than their previous leader?)

VFA demands that our nation’s military leadership (beginning with the Commander-In-Chief):

• Ensures every Soldier and Marine deployed receives adequate dwell time before shipping back to war. Active-duty soldiers who have had a dwell time ratio of less than 1:1 should be given more time before redeployment.

• Guarantees that every member of our all-volunteer military receives top-flight psychological and neurological care before they are redeployed.

• Conducts full mental health screenings on our returning troops so any psychological or neurological conditions can be treated early and effectively and military families can be made whole again.

Our contract with the members of our military is a sacred one which obliges us to honor their willingness to sacrifice and serve. Giving our troops adequate dwell time and the best medical care before sending them away is part of that obligation.

Please send a short letter to President Obama and Secretary Gates asking for sufficient dwell time and care for our troops.

Many Thanks,

Veterans for America

Robert L. Hanafin

Readers are more than welcome to use the articles I’ve posted on Veterans Today, I’ve had to take a break from VT as Veterans Issues and Peace Activism Editor and staff writer due to personal medical reasons in our military family that take away too much time needed to properly express future stories or respond to readers in a timely manner.

My association with VT since its founding in 2004 has been a very rewarding experience for me.

Retired from both the Air Force and Civil Service. Went in the regular Army at 17 during Vietnam (1968), stayed in the Army Reserve to complete my eight year commitment in 1976. Served in Air Defense Artillery, and a Mechanized Infantry Division (4MID) at Fort Carson, Co. Used the GI Bill to go to college, worked full time at the VA, and non-scholarship Air Force 2-Year ROTC program for prior service military. Commissioned in the Air Force in 1977. Served as a Military Intelligence Officer from 1977 to 1994. Upon retirement I entered retail drugstore management training with Safeway Drugs Stores in California. Retail Sales Management was not my cup of tea, so I applied my former U.S. Civil Service status with the VA to get my foot in the door at the Justice Department, and later Department of the Navy retiring with disability from the Civil Service in 2000.

I’ve been with Veterans Today since the site originated. I’m now on the Editorial Board. I was also on the Editorial Board of Our Troops News Ladder another progressive leaning Veterans and Military Family news clearing house.

I remain married for over 45 years. I am both a Vietnam Era and Gulf War Veteran. I served on Okinawa and Fort Carson, Colorado during Vietnam and in the Office of the Air Force Inspector General at Norton AFB, CA during Desert Storm. I retired from the Air Force in 1994 having worked on the Air Staff and Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon.