Since October 2007, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been dying at a faster rate in at home than in combat, according to government figures.

 

For example, 113 veterans of the two wars died in the U.S. in May 2010, while only six soldiers were killed in Iraq and 34 in Afghanistan during the same month.

 

From September 2001 to June 2010, 5,518 active duty military personnel were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. During the same period, 4,194 veterans died after leaving the military, with more than half perishing within two years of discharge. About 1,200 were receiving disability compensation for a mental health condition, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, and almost 1,000 died before reaching their 25th birthday.

 

In California alone, 1,000 veterans younger than 35 died from 2005 to 2008—three times the number killed in Iraq and Afghanistan during the same period, according to an investigation by The Bay Citizen.

 

Last month the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals harshly criticized the Department of Veteran Affairs for bungling both the care of veterans and the processing of disability benefit claims.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

New Data Reveals High Death Rates for Iraq, Afghanistan Vets (by Aaron Glantz, Bay Citizen)

Deaths at Home Outpace Those on the Battlefield (by Aaron Glantz and Tasneem Raja, Bay Citizen)

Appeals Court Blasts VA for Mental Health “Incompetence” (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Veterans Groups Clash with VA over PTSD Diagnosis (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Multiple Tours of Duty Lead to Post-Traumatic Stress (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)