Connection

emerged as the theme of the day at MOAA’s 2015 Warrior-Family Symposium — connections between DoD and the VA, among public and private entities and initiatives, and ultimately among all Americans, military and civilian.

Cosponsored by the Wounded

Warrior Project, this year’s sympo- sium, titled “Our Nation’s Military: Caring for Our Own,” took place Sept. 9 at the Ronald Reagan Build- ing and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. Three keynote speakers — Sen.

Johnny Isakson, chair of the Sen- ate Veterans’ Aff airs Committee; Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson, deputy chief of staff , Army G-3/5/7 for Operations

and Plans; and VA Secretary Robert McDonald — discussed challenges and successes they’ve seen within their respective spheres in the provision of mental health care to servicemembers and veterans. Additionally, special guest speaker Cami McCormick, a CBS Radio News/Pentagon cor- respondent, told her story of being severely injured in an IED explosion in Afghanistan in August 2009 while embedded with U.S. troops.

Two panels of experts included

speakers from the military and the VA; public and private stakeholders; and servicemembers, veterans, and military family members. Panels cov- ered topics such as mental-behavioral health, suicide, sexual trauma, and substance abuse. Visit www.moaa.org/wfs for post-

event coverage, including videos of the speeches and panels and biogra- phies of the participants.

Sen. Johnny Isakson

Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Isakson opened his morning keynote address with a reference to three 2013 veteran suicides in his home state of Georgia that prompted him to call a field hearing in Atlanta in August of that year. Isakson identified challenges facing the VA, including the “signature in-

juries” of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress among veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as veterans recovering from traumatic injuries that would have been fatal in other wars; gaps in service between DoD and the VA; increasing numbers of female veterans requiring gynecological care; and the over-prescription of opioids and other medica- tions, which he characterized as “far too much therapy through pills, not enough therapy through human beings.”

However, he also suggested the nation has come “light years” during the past two years. He praised the VA’s

Veterans Crisis Line (see “Resources,” page 61) as well as the Veterans Choice program, which he said is an ex- ample of a successful public-private partnership. Isakson cited an ultimate goal of helping wounded veterans transition to a “peaceful, productive, and happy

life” and, to that end, making sure all resources are made available to veterans seeking assistance: “No help is not an option,” he said.

58 MILITARY OFFICER NOVEMBER 2015