All veterans’ injuries deserve equal compensation

To the editor:
    We are all familiar with the physical injury problems suffered by veterans at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. and various Veterans Administration hospitals around the country. However, there is an equally disturbing problem receiving far less publicity. Veterans who are victims of mental or emotional problems can be hospitalized and eventually taken care of; however, their path to care is frequently fraught with greater red tape, more bureaucratic hassles, and far too common low need evaluations than do veterans suffering physical wounds. Those with mental or emotional problems caused by military service typically require maddening, time consuming, and expensive appeals, hearings, and delays for veterans and their families.     In addition, mental and emotional injuries do not allow the injured veteran the awarding of a purple heart as a result of his or her injury. The mental and emotional injuries are defined operationally as less worthy than are physical injuries. This is shameful and needs to be changed. All documented injuries should be equally worthy.
    The President, the Secretary of Defense, the head of the American Legion, and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs all need to get focused and active and demand appropriate changes to recognize mental and emotional injuries as equal in status to physical injuries and to straighten out the path for afflicted veterans.
Ken Petress
Presque Isle