Panelist Biographies
Maj. Gen. James A. Adkins, ARNG, adjutant general, Maryland National Guard
Nicole M. Keesee, licensed clini- cal social worker, team leader, Vet Center, Little Rock, Ark., office
Former Marine Corps Reserve Staff Sgt. Todd Bowers, Iraq War veteran
Lt. Col. Rodney Lewis, USAF, Join- ing Forces, The White House, Office of the First Lady
Dr. David Brown, clinical psycholo- gist and clinical subject-matter ex- pert for suicide prevention, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Readiness
Tech. Sgt. Tom Marcum, USAF- Ret., and April Marcum, veteran and caregiver
Kathleen Troia “K.T.” McFarland: … The panel this morn- ing is going to take a look at the issues of community integration, the challenges our veterans and their fami- lies face, and especially our wounded warriors and their particular needs. I’m of the Vietnam War generation. … After the Viet-
nam War, we treated our veterans shamefully. It was an unpopular war. … Instead of blaming ourselves, we blamed the military.
When they came home in the 1970s, we did not honor them for their service. We did not adequately care for their families, and we did not give them the support and medi- cal attention they needed. It was a war we wanted to for- get, and so we forgot about them as well. We promised ourselves as a nation we would never let that happen again. So here we are today, and we’ve got returning veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq, many of whom have seen three and four and five tours of duty. We have been at war for 10 years, and many of our return- ing warriors have serious injuries and disabilities. They’ll need help not only integrating into society, but they will need significant medical care for the rest of their lives. So I’d like to [ask] General Adkins to talk about the pro-
grams he’s in charge of in Maryland. … Maj. Gen. James A. Adkins, ARNG: … We’ve been at war for a decade. We’re using the Guard and Reserve at a level not seen since World War II. … I [recently] heard an Army four-star make the comment that we are operating
68 MILITARY OFFICER DECEMBER 2011 PHOTOS: SEAN SHANAHAN
now on that World War II system, and [over the past 10 years] we’ve been trying to build a system like working on a car, building a car, maintaining a car, and repairing a car as it goes down the road at 65 miles an hour. … Our focus is that the war is not over as it was in
World War I, [when] they got discharged [and] were given $30 and a train ticket to go home. The war is not over until those individuals are fully integrated back at home with their families, with their friends and their communities, back at work or on the college campuses. McFarland: I’d like to turn now to Todd Bowers.
Kathleen Troia “K.T.” McFarland, far left, na- tional security analyst and host of DEFCON 3, FOX News, moderates the panel “Community Reintegra- tion: The Challenges Back Home.”
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