This country’s treatment of its veterans is abhorrent. Their treatment should be the best money can buy AND paid for before the first dime goes to any defense suppliers for either of the wars we fought.
While on active duty, Georgia National Guard Spc. Stephen Akins had been tested for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and as scans of his brain showed scars, he had a documented history of seizures, combat blast exposure and suicide attempts. If there was any dispute, this young man should have been treated for PTSD. These factors should have been enough, but it wasn’t.
A two-star general,with no medical background, concluded Akins’ behavior had nothing to do with traumatic brain injury or emotional problems and kicked him out of the Army with a less-than-honorable discharge.
This is beyond tragic that a two-star general does not care about a young man who served in the Army, and throws him out basically sentencing him to death. If we can’t take care of our vets any better than this we shouldn’t wage war. Oh, and that general should be thrown out as well.
On July 2, six months after he was expelled, Chrystal Akins found her son dead in the basement bedroom of her home in Austell, Ga., just west of Atlanta. He was a victim of an apparent suicide by overdose, according to police.
“It totally blew me away,” she said about prying open his bedroom door and finding his body on his bed. “I’ll live with this the rest of my life.”
This problem is perpetuated due to the political climate in the U.S. Military. The politically-minded commanders (which is most of them) don’t want any problem children and feel no loyalty to the troops, so they just sweep them under the rug and out the door as quickly as possible with never a second thought…they are too busy looking for that next promotion to actually care about anything else, especially some soldier with brain damage that is causing problems.
Need to keep everything clean and pretty for that promotion board. I absolutely detest and despise such commanders…if only there was a way for the troops to identify and get rid of such lousy commanders…
Check out the video report:
What do you think of this tragedy? Why hasn’t the military been able to get this right? This could have been avoided, but this General thought he knew better. Share your thoughts below in our comment section and add this story to your Facebook/Twitter timeline for discussion.
