Helping Vets the Right Way: Organizations pick the wrong war

By Juwon Nichols. Read it in DT News.

One of my favorite things about living in Los Angeles is that no other city in the world works so hard to understand how mind, body and soul work together. Every day, we can find the best professionals who can help bring us into balance. If one theme cuts across all my experience in the military, as a lecturer at USC, a fitness trainer, and a wounded healer helping other veterans find wholeness, it’s this: Connecting people to the right team is the only effective way to overcome obstacles and achieve their highest goals.

Any misunderstandings I had about being a lone ranger disappeared during basic training, which I began right after 9/11. The military fused a group of individuals into a well-oiled machine, each person looking out for everyone else. That is also where I saw the principle of brotherhood violated, when a higher-ranking service member from another branch, an EMT transporting me to the emergency room, subjected me to sustained racist and homophobic abuse that contributed to my PTSD.

When I returned home, I tried to help my brothers by coordinating healthcare resource sharing between the Defense Department and the VA, a role where I saw brotherhood broken repeatedly. Benefits claims from veterans suffering from brain injuries or spinal conditions disappeared into the vast VA system. And the problem hasn’t gone away. Mental health evaluations remain scandalously delayed. One VA location kept its appointments only by limiting counseling sessions to 16 minutes. And every day, our wars’ casualty count ticks up by 17 veteran suicides.

Ex-service members often turn to veterans service organizations (VSOs) like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled American Veterans to overcome bureaucratic hurdles. But VSOs are regularly understaffed by volunteers who can’t complete the bureaucratic mission. In my case, my tinnitus claim had already been approved when I asked DAV for help with other claims related to my PTSD. If DAV helped me, I haven’t seen it. After years of fighting and refiling claims, and months of waiting on the latest round, I recently learned that those claims had been denied.

This is where private companies can genuinely help veterans in need. They provide clear tailored advice when preparing for a veteran to submit a claim. Most of these professional services tell you about free options, provide a fee cap for their services, and charge you only once your claim is accepted and complete. That’s safe, sound, and professional help when no single veteran’s experience is the same.

Last year, the VFW led an initiative to ban all outside claims help from supporting veterans here in California. This Prohibition-style legislation is only going to keep the veterans who need the help on the outside looking in. The VFW presents itself under the guise of helping veterans, when in reality it is just playing political games, spending money on lobbying to protect its bottom line.

Currently, a few VSOs are embroiling their members in needless political fights. The VFW authorized its logo on a t-shirt showing veterans getting executed by firing squad, a shirt congressional leaders of both parties denounced. I get that these groups feel passionate about defending veterans, but we won’t make progress by offending and antagonizing exactly the lawmakers whose support we need to push necessary reforms at the VA. Honestly, we’d be better off just getting the care we need.

Healing from my military experience taught me lessons everyone who wants to help a veteran should take to heart. Leaning on others isn’t a sign of weakness. Resilience does not mean refusing to ask for help. Recovery depends on teamwork. And those who willingly shoulder terrible burdens to defend our country should be able to rely on that same country to make good on its promises.

When I moved to LA almost 10 years ago, I thought my years of war were behind me. But once again, members of VSOs have been enlisted to fight in wars we didn’t choose, possibly against politicians and private claims professionals who could help us. And we know better than anyone that nothing hurts veterans more than an unnecessary war.

Juwon Nichols is a former lecturer at the University of Southern California’s Dornsife College. He was previously a program manager for the U.S. Department of Defense and a member of the Air Force National Guard.