Testimony provided by MFSO Member Stacy Bannerman to
House Appropriations Sub-Committee on
Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs

March 1st, 2006

Statement of Stacy Bannerman
Advisory Board Member
Military Families Speak Out
Testimony provided to:
House Appropriations Sub-Committee on
Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs.
March 1, 2006

I am the wife of a National Guard soldier who served twelve months in Iraq.  I am also a member of Military Families Speak Out, an organization of more than 3,000 military families opposed to the war in Iraq.  I am joined by Tia Steele, Gold Star Families Speak Out, Liz Frederick, Military Families Speak Out, and Garett Reppenhagen, Iraq Veterans Against the War.  We are the military families and personnel who pay the price of war.

This is the medal given to family members of Iraq War veterans.  National Guard Specialist John West took a very long time making it to the Freedom Salute stage to pick it up.  Sixteen months earlier, he’d been hit by an IED that broke his back, and bones in his foot and leg.  It tore out a few pounds of his flesh, and ruptured multiple internal organs. SPC West gets around now with the help of a walker.  He still struggles with post-traumatic stress, depression, and flashbacks of fellow soldiers being killed in front of him.  West was granted a ten percent disability.

First-hand accounts from military family members and personnel working at Fort Madigan Medical Center reveal a pattern of Reservists being granted lower benefits than active-duty for comparable injuries.

The United States Government has known for at least a decade that citizen soldiers have significantly higher rates of combat-related PTSD than their active duty counterparts.[1][1]  But you’ve done nothing about it.  That failure of duty is costing military families their homes, marriages, jobs, and lives.

For the 56,000 Army marriages that have ended since the war on terror began, a Freedom Salute medal doesn’t mean much.  It isn’t particularly valuable for this father, whose son returned from Iraq.  He wrote:

"I need your help. My son’s body showed up at my house for Christmas but [my wife] and I did not know the person who claimed to be [our son]. He was severely drunk every day for the whole week, belligerent, and generally just someone that nobody wanted anything to do with. He has nightmares every night of the murdered innocent children and civilian Iraqis.  The Army has abandoned him as far as giving him help. They will go out of their way to help him re-enlist though. "

A Freedom Salute medal isn’t going to make things better for Pat Gunn, who got this response from the Army after she contacted a member of Congress when her son was redeployed to Iraq following a diagnosis of PTSD: 

"SPC Gunn…was wounded in the leg…during an attack on his HUMVEE.  The soldier behind him was literally torn in half.  After returning from convalescent leave [Gunn] was informed he would be redeployed.  [He] indicated he would not go back to Iraq…[and] was sent to Heidelberg Hospital for evaluation.  They concluded he was suffering some post traumatic stress from seeing his comrade killed so violently.  They recommended he be retained…and treated at Heidelberg, [which] was contacted by medical authorities from Iraq.  After discussion of his case it was determined [that SPC Gunn be] …treat[ed] downrange [as it] may be in his best interest mentally to overcome his fear by facing it…[SPC Gunn was] cleared for redeployment."

The Freedom Salute medal is just tin on a ribbon for the families of Marine Reservist Jeffrey Lucey, National Guardsman Doug Barber, and the dozens of other Iraq Veterans who have committed suicide after the Veterans Administration refused to treat them.  Last year, the V. A. denied requests for care from over a quarter of a million veterans.  Congress has tried to cut funding for veterans, and has grossly underestimated the needs of the soldiers returning from Iraq.  You want to take care of our veterans? Quit making new ones.

The 1.2 million soldiers and their families who have paid for this war with their lives and limbs and loved ones don’t need medals.

We need leaders. 

We need leaders who will honor the Constitution, not shred it.  We need leaders that hold accountable an administration that promotes a policy of torture but penalizes the foot soldiers that are expected to carry it out.  We need leaders that don’t bankrupt a nation in the interests of bankrolling their personal political agendas.  We need moral leaders who are champions of truth and justice, not lapdogs to private interests and war profiteers.  We need leaders willing to reclaim democracy from the iron fist of imperialistic power and greed.  

We need leaders who will give America back to Americans, the overwhelming majority of whom want the troops home.  We need leaders that care more about the lives of our soldiers and the material and spiritual health of this nation than the next election.  Congress gave the Bush administration a blank check for a war based on lies.  Stop payment.  Immediately.  Not one more dime, not one more life.  You took an oath of office, and declared yourself a leader.  Be one.

Brings the troops home now.  Take care of them when they get here. And never again send our soldiers to fight in a war based on lies.

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