I Cogitate
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There are female veterans too
The following is an excellent article on not only how the medical and psychological services for female veterans have improved since the 1970s but that many of these vets are suffering from the same illnesses as their male counterparts, but even more. The larger tragedy is that Iraq was a war of choice, a war of subterfuge. Resolve yourself to make sure that the Veterans Administration, congressional members and whoever is occupying the office of the presidency never shortchange these men and women. That is the very least we can do.
A woman's fightTo read the entire article, go here.
As the fastest growing population of veterans, women often return from war with different problems and less support
By RAQUEL RUTLEDGE
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Aug. 12, 2006
Susan Sonnheim has thrown away her shorts. It doesn't matter that it's a searing hot summer in Milwaukee. It's pants only from now on, a full-body wet suit when she goes to the beach. The former National Guard member from Franklin keeps her legs covered.
"They're ugly," she said.
Blown up in Baghdad at the beginning of the war by a roadside bomb, Sonnheim's body was peppered with shrapnel. Hundreds of pieces remain lodged in her legs and throughout much of her body. Her left eye is fully blind. She has shrapnel lodged in her "good" eye, and her hearing is dulled. She underwent multiple reconstructive surgeries on her face and ear during a 19-month stay at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Sonnheim, 47, is home now, but she's hardly comforted. She and many other women returning from war often are finding difficulty in the transition from warrior to wife, mom, student or simply civilian.
More than 1,500 women have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan and sought some type of help from veterans hospitals in Wisconsin, northern Illinois and Iron Mountain, Mich., ranking the region third-highest in the country. Milwaukee's Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center alone has seen more than 200 women since March 2003.
"Women are the fastest growing veteran population in the nation," said Gundel Metz, coordinator for female veterans' issues with the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs.
Some deal with problems that parallel those of their male counterparts. They've lost limbs, eyesight and hearing. They have digestive disorders, nightmares, anger and relationship problems.
But female veterans returning from war face ailments and traumas of other sorts:
• More than 400 military women working in Iraq, Afghanistan and the region have reported they were victims of sexual assault from 2003 through May, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
• More female soldiers report mental health concerns than their male comrades: 24% compared with 19%, according to a Pentagon study released in March.
• Roughly 40% have musculoskeletal problems that doctors say likely are linked to lugging too-heavy and ill-fitted equipment.
• A considerable number - 28% - return with genital and urinary system infections.
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