Dear Future President,

Although I don’t have anyone in my family in the service, I plan on going myself. Before I do though, I wanted to know some of the effects of serving multiple tours, or deployments, and I found out that they weren’t very attractive. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that affects the mind, and it is generally caused by something very stressful that is still affecting someone. PTSD is nothing uncommon in soldiers today that serve at least one tour in the service. We should try to find something more effective to help soldiers with PTSD because it can potentially result in the soldiers committing suicide. This type of action reminds us that war is no joke and we should lend our help to those soldiers who need it.

These soldiers suffer a lack of motivation to do much of anything with anyone because of all of the things they’ve seen overseas in combat. Some of these soldiers had to see their friends laying there dead, and they can’t do anything about it, but remember it. 15% of soldiers are less likely to commit suicide when they are serving multiple tours and are out in combat than they are when they get back home. These soldiers’ families are suffering as well. They can’t help their husband, wife, mother, father, son, etc. These families are feeling torn because they can’t help, but they want to.

Some causes of this issue are, the things these soldiers have seen or done in combat overseas. These people have had to go through seeing their friends being killed. These soldiers have also gone through being hunted and having to kill people, and take those people from their families. As I cannot speak for these soldiers because I am not old enough to be in the service, I can say that those things would follow me around everywhere I go. About 30% of people who suffer from PTSD end up developing a chronic form of the anxiety. Some of those soldiers who are called war heroes are reminded every time he walks past someone who knows of that title, of what he did to those families. 

There isn’t much helping these soldiers right now other than the few of these soldiers that are offered therapy to help them, but even then they can’t just forget the things that happened in combat. Those memories will follow them around everywhere they go, with everything they do. Only 23 to 40 percent of soldiers received mental health care last year, when only 38 to 45 percent were actually interested in receiving help. Some of these soldiers also gain a sense of relief by helping other veterans that are wounded from combat. One of these soldiers that gained the relief from helping out other soldiers was the beloved Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL Team 3 Sniper.

So, Next President, what are you going to do? Are you going to let these heroes suffer with their burden of war, or are you going to find a new way to help them? Will these soldiers’ families continue to suffer? Or will you help them out and help out those who have been taking care of us for years? These soldiers, and their families, deserve to be treated with our highest level of respect. They have been through things that no man, or woman, should ever have to go through, to take care of us. Don’t you think that these men and women deserve help?

Sincerely,

Khiah G.