Rachel talks with IAVA direc­tor Paul Rieck­hoff about the need to push for ade­quate vet­er­ans’ ben­e­fits. Recent reports have high­lighted the alarm­ingly high sui­cide sta­tis­tics amongst active duty mil­i­tary per­son­nel and I have reported in the past that one in four home­less once served their country.

Salon has a mov­ing series of arti­cles enti­tled Com­ing Home telling the sto­ries of dif­fer­ent sol­diers some sui­ci­dal some homicidal.

The day before Hal­loween 2008, Army Pvt. Adam Lieber­man swal­lowed hand­fuls of pre­scrip­tion pain pills and psy­chotropic drugs. Then he picked up a can of black paint and smeared onto the wall of his room in the Fort Car­son bar­racks what he thought would be his last words to the world.

“I FACED THE ENEMY AND LIVED!” Lieber­man painted on the wall in big, black let­ters. “IT WAS THE DEATH DEALERS THAT TOOK MY LIFE!”

Rieck­hoff asks for the Amer­i­can peo­ple to please con­tact their rep­re­sen­ta­tives and insist they fund the Vet­er­ans Admin­is­tra­tion and pro­vide men­tal health ser­vices to the men and women that have sac­ri­ficed so much.