veteran. That era we still had a draft, and people came in, some of the training, but after that, when it was not
they got processed through the meat grinder, they came visitation hours, I was no longer welcomed [and] our
out the other end or they didn’t, and if they did, they had children were not welcomed.
survived, [and we said] good luck to them. I survived. Or So a week into it, I left my husband with a severe
they ended up being warehoused in a VA hospital. traumatic brain injury, who was disconcerted by the fact
And there wasn’t a great deal of concern given to that he was without a team, alone, in a hospital where he
that. Now, there is. We recognize that we have an obliga- thought he was going to die.
tion toward that. … This is all very new to us, and we’re Now, … the VA is now recognizing caregivers as part of
beginning to try to learn how to do it, to learn what the that care team. They’re allowed to be in the rooms. There’s
implications are of dealing with the sort of people [who] more of a cooperative input, which I’m grateful for. …
are coming back [with] broken bodies — and these are
the ones we recognize. These are the ones we know how Kammerdiener: … [My son and I] didn’t have a lot of
to deal with. We don’t know how to deal with the ones good things, and I would say the only thing ... that kept
[who] have [TBI] or PTSD. me going this whole time is my federal recovery coordi-
We’ve got problems [associated with TBI and PTSD] nator, [Mary, who has gone] over and above and done so
coming to us 20 or 30 years down the road from the much more for me than anybody else has ever even con-
problems that we’re creating for ourselves today. … Our sidered to do. …
metrics in the military and within the government gen-
erally, DoD, [the] VA, are simply not sufficient to tell us Guice: … Through this whole process, what support was
that we’re doing the right things and that we should be missing? … Were there key things that were just sort of
doing more of them and less of something else. … When missing that should have been there and that weren’t?
[servicemembers] volunteered to defend our country,
[the country] inherited certain obligations toward them. Maxwell: Probably the biggest gap that I have found is,
We haven’t met those obligations yet, but we are continu- and the biggest stressor that I found, is once you get past
ing to work on [them]. … the crisis phase, is facing the retirement, separations, PEB
[physical evaluation board] process. There is not enough
Maxwell: Two things worked well for [my husband and concrete, competent information about that whole process.
me]. [First,] the Marine Corps worked well throughout … There needs to be knowledgeable people who are
— by far the strongest thing that worked well. Secondly, explaining that situation, and there needs to be a coun-
I think what worked well is the changes that I have seen seling session prior to the PEB, prior to those benefits, so
[and] the strides that I have seen in the VA rehab hospitals. that the families are educated. …
When Tim was initially wounded, and we were So if there can be an interim place, more counseling
there in 2004, you went from the military treatment in that beginning phase prior to entering the retirement
facility where the caregiver was genuinely treated as phase, I think it will take a lot of stress off families, and
part of the care team to a place where the caregiver they’ll have a better picture of how they’re going to sur-
was almost ostracized. I had one week to spend with vive [and] how they’re going to live and support their
my husband. I was allowed to accompany him through family after active duty.
event Sponsors
MOAA thanks all those who participated in the fourth annual MOAA/U.S. Naval Institute Defense Forum Wash-
ington Sept. 16, 2009. A special thanks goes to the event’s corporate sponsors, without whom the conference
would not have been possible. For a complete list, visit
www.moaa.org/dfw.
Sponsors for this year’s defense forum included: Affiliated business Arrangements (champion), Merck
& co. (champion), Ware-Pak (champion), TriWest Healthcare Alliance (patron), cAcI International
(patron), Hospital corp. of America Inc. (patron), Humana Inc. (corporate), Lockheed Martin corp.
(corporate), American Physical Therapy Association (breakfast), Fisher House Foundation (registra-
tion), United Services Automobile Association (lunch), and Association of the United States Army
(on-scene report).
deceM ber 2009 M I l ITAry OFFICEr 73
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symposium.indd 73 11/3/09 1:05 PM
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