Let's hope Congress is listening.

In testimony before the Congressional Committee on Veteran's Affairs, the subject of the disturbing rate of suicide among veterans returning from the Middle East was addressed on December 12, 2007.

To read more: http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/hearing.aspx?NewsID=167

Particularly compelling is the testimony of Mike and Kim Bowman, parents of a young National Guardsman who shot himself to death after returning from Iraq:

"As my family was preparing for our 2005 Thanksgiving meal, our son Timothy was lying on the floor of my shop office, slowly bleeding to death from a self inflicted gun shot wound. His war was now over, his demons were gone. Tim was laid to rest in a combination military, firefighter funeral that was a tribute to the man he was.

"Tim was the life of a party, happy go lucky young man that joined the National Guard in 2003 to earn money for college and get a little structure in his life. On March 19^th of 2005 when Specialist Timothy Noble Bowman got off the bus with the other National Guard soldiers of Foxtrot 202 that were returning from Iraq he was a different man. He had a glaze in his eyes and a 1000 yard stare, always looking for an insurgent."

Read the Bowman's full testimony at http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/Testimony.aspx?TID=11020

The Bowman's conclude with the following heart-felt plea.

"Our veterans should and must not be left behind in the ravished, horrific battlefields of their broken spirits and minds. Our veterans deserve better!!"

We can only hope that our government and our citizenry are listening.

TR/12.16.07