![]() That’s reflected in a summary of the influx of calls to the VA Department’s crisis hotline that was sent to McDonough on August 16. IAVA is the largest veterans group representing the post-9/11 generation, with more than 425,000 members who served in the wars in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. ![]() “I haven’t talked to anybody who isn’t angry or disappointed in how this was carried out,” Tom Porter, executive vice president of government affairs with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), said of the administration’s handling of the troop drawdown in Afghanistan. So far it’s done little to allay the exasperation and anguish among veterans. White House senior adviser Cedric Richmond, along with Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, held a video call with dozens of veterans organizations last week and McDonough has personally called the heads of numerous veterans organizations since the fall of Kabul. It came a day after first lady Jill Biden visited a Marine Corps Base in North Carolina. The latest overture: Biden’s surprise visit to wounded warriors at Walter Reed Hospital on Thursday evening. “We should monitor suicides and see if we see an uptick,” Bradsher wrote on Aug. And some in the Biden administration were sounding the alarms. The emotional toll, particularly for the more than 700,000 veterans who served in Afghanistan at some point during the 20-year war, was readily apparent - even before 13 service members were killed in a terrorist attack outside the Kabul airport on Aug. Veterans and active military service members were taken aback not only by the speed with which the Taliban swept through the nation but by what that meant for the scores of allies, including interpreters, still in the country and now at risk of getting left behind. “Can we highlight in our comms channels that VA has resources available? I am thinking of the vet centers in particular but open to all resources. 15 email, which was obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request and shared with POLITICO. “My veteran network is reeling and I am sure yours are as well,” Bradsher wrote in the Aug. The day Kabul fell, veterans’ mental health crisis hotlines lit up.Īs Taliban militia members streamed into Afghanistan’s capital, Veterans Affairs chief of staff Tanya Bradsher blasted out an email to the department’s senior staff.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |