Toward the end of last night’s State of the Union address, President Obama turned toward the issue of gun violence. The President named several victims of gun violence over the past year, including the recent death of Hadiya Pendleton, the high school student in Chicago who was senselessly shot by gang members in a public park. Many members of the audience were seen wearing green ribbons, in honor of those who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
However, one recent gun death was specifically left out of the list mentioned by President Obama, to the ire of many in our nation’s military. His name was Chris Kyle.
Retired Chief Petty Officer Chris Kyle served four tours of duty in Iraq as a member of SEAL Team 3 and fought in almost every major battle of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is credited as one of the deadliest snipers in U.S. Military history, with 160 confirmed kills.
He was awarded five Bronze Stars for Valor, two Silver Stars and the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation and Achievement Medals. He was also a New York Times bestselling author of his autobiography, American Sniper, and upon returning from active service founded Craft International, a training firm for military, police and civilian security forces.
Kyle was tragically shot along with a friend, Chad Littlefield, at a gun range while helping troubled veteran Eddie Ray Routh cope with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Kyle had helped numerous other veterans in this way without any prior incident, but for reasons yet unknown Routh turned on Kyle and Littlefield, killing them and running from police before finally being arrested and charged with two counts of murder.
The President’s failure to mention Kyle wasn’t the only failure of President Obama’s speech. The President offered nothing substantive regarding how to care for our military and returning veterans.
Yes, the President did make some passing references to the approval for women to enter combat roles and toward improving mental health care and benefits for veterans. He also noted that the upcoming sequester cuts will drastically affect military readiness and that Congress should offer an alternative (for the record, it was Obama’s White House that first suggested the sequester). He also made a big deal about the continued draw-down of troops. However, he offered no specific policy, ideas or proposals for HOW he would do those things.
The state of veterans’ care in this country has been horribly inadequate for decades, but in recent years the increase in returning troops from Iraq and Afghanistan has demonstrated just how poor that situation is. The Veteran’s Administration has seen a considerable increase in the number of people reporting mental health issues, from 927,000 in 2006 to 1.3 million in 2012. And despite filling 1,980 mental health vacancies and hiring an additional 1,280 clinical providers and support staff, veterans seeking care for mental health issues still must wait an average of 50 days before getting treatment. Further, the failure of the VA to work with private providers forces veterans to drive long distances to hospitals, leaving them at a geographic disadvantage when it comes to accessing care.
Putting mental health issues aside, even regular support for veterans has been lackluster at best and apathetic at worst. The abysmal job situation at home leaves the majority of returning veterans unemployed and without financial support. According to the Center for Investigative Reporting, the average wait time for veterans who file for disability claims is over nine months. And any veterans who leave the service early are completely disqualified from receiving their pensions.
Phil Bronstien recently interviewed the SEAL Team 6 member credited with shooting Osama Bin Laden, publishing his interview with “The Shooter” in Esquire Magazine. Despite the success of their mission, he has received virtually no support from the government now that he has retired.
“‘I left SEALs on Friday,’ he said the next time I saw him. It was a little more than thirty-six months before the official retirement requirement of twenty years of service. ‘My health care for me and my family stopped at midnight Friday night. I asked if there was some transition from my Tricare to Blue Cross Blue Shield. They said no. You’re out of the service, your coverage is over. Thanks for your sixteen years. Go f–k yourself.'”
I’d argue that from a philosophical standpoint, what is going on right now with our current veterans is worse than the vitriol faced by those who returned from Vietnam. At least in the case of Vietnam, American soldiers were given the decency of a response even if it was negative. Now, it seems that the majority of the American population simply doesn’t care and the government appears to be reflecting that apathy.
It is especially striking that the President of the United States, for all his rhetoric about caring about our troops, does not even have the courtesy to mention the tragic loss of a legendary American warrior.
David Giffin is a second-year Masters in Theological Studies student at the Candler School of Theology from Charleston, Ill.
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