To the editor:
Nearly 100 veterans and family members gathered for three days to network and compare notes at IslandWood Center on Bainbridge Island in early August for the 2014 Military Families and Veterans Action Summit. Those gathered for this event were representing a new generation of veterans and family members dedicated to making sure that today’s veterans had the support they need when returning from war.
We discussed common goals to come up with recommendations to submit to lawmakers on issues such as spousal employment, transitions for military families, and the session that I joined in; the mental and physical benefits of outdoor recreation and therapy.
First I’d like to thank Sen. Patty Murray for attending the IslandWood event and providing her experience of veterans returning from the Vietnam War.
What really stood out for me was when she recalled the times she volunteered during her college senior year in the psychiatric ward of the Seattle VA hospital during that war.
She said, “I can remember the faces of those veterans, many younger than me, who were being told that they were just suffering from shell shock. I can also remember the lack of answers during that period, the feeling that we were not a nation firmly at the back of those who had served, that as a nation we were quickly turning the page on that war and those who fought it.”
More than 27 percent of active duty military personnel have reported depression when they’ve come home, and Murray noted “the country is facing a critical ‘pivot point’ for post-9/11 veterans coming home after a decade of repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.”
When I talked to my fellow war veterans during our breakout session, they told me how they have used the outdoors for their recovery from the wounds of war, I heard them describe how much peace they find when they spend time in the outdoors, either alone or with their families.
New research reveals that outdoor activity improves the mental and social health resilience of service members prior to deployment and helps reduce post-deployment stress related physical disabilities, post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, depression and other social reintegration challenges.
Increasing the number of opportunities for service members, veterans and their families to explore the great outdoors is a strategy to decrease rates in suicides, divorce, and mental health issues which are all on the rise in the military community.
Our public lands and waters are particularly valuable. I, and one of my friends that I served with in the Iraq war, kayaked last year in the waters of what is now San Juan Island National Monument, a part of our beautiful state preserved for future citizens to enjoy thanks to our own Sen. Patty Murray’s leadership.
We also need the president to use his power under the Antiquities Act to designate more monuments on our public lands across the West, so that we have more areas protected from development and available for outdoor recreation opportunities. Veterans need those special places to recover from the wounds of war and to bring them closer to the families they had to leave.
As a member of the Vet Voice Foundation, I have been asked why veterans like me are concerned about protecting public lands.
I merely reply that when we say we fight for our country, what is the “our country” mean? Isn’t the most tangible thing to point to the public lands we all share?
There has always been a connection between man and the outdoors and as our society has moved further away from nature, we have lost a great medicine for the soul.
I finally want to thank IslandWood for providing such a warm reception to us and hosting this great event in such a beautiful venue. We found common ground that getting outdoors is so important to veterans and military families.
RICK HEGDAHL
Bellevue
