A recent YouTube video entitled “To Veterans With Invisible Wounds” begins at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Syracuse. The sign out front of the hospital says, “The Price of Freedom can be Seen Here.” A voice with subtitles explains, “But sometimes, the price you paid for our freedom can’t be seen. It’s invisible.”

The video goes on: “If one of your buddies was lying wounded on the battlefield, you’d carry him to safety at all costs, right? Well this time, the veteran who is wounded in his soul, may be the one in the mirror. And it’s your duty to take this one last veteran for help. This vet’s hurting for being a human being who’s gone through an inhuman experience.”

“Your buddies who didn’t make it back home would want one last wish. For at least one of you to make it home, namely, you. All the way home, which means healing, getting better. Your victory is saving that one last veteran in the mirror, helping him or her to forgive themselves for being only human.”

The video ends with a shot of the logo of Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families.

Recent Watertown Times articles state that a U.S. military veteran commits suicide every 18 minutes, and that the U.S. military is currently losing more active duty personnel to suicide than to combat.

The video, based on words 400 families living with post-traumatic stress disorder in Nebraska found comforting last year, is aimed at motivating our “heroes” to seek help.

We need to remember these heroes are mere mortals. After killing 200 Germans, Audie Murphy, our most decorated soldier, suffered from PTSD the rest of his life, and advocated for treatment for others.

Please view and share the video message. Hundreds are currently either viewing it, sharing it by email and Facebook, sending to other veterans, VA or DAV staff, their fellow Army Behavioral Health co-workers, etc.

The Syracuse Veterans Institute and graduates of the Naval School of Health Sciences are praising and sharing this message.

Unless you’re part of the solution for this catastrophe, you’re part of the problem, and you could help us save a veteran’s life.

North Country Veterans for Peace members demand we birng out troops home alive now, every week in front of the Potsdam Post Office.

Roland Van Deusen

Clayton

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