This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
The care of America’s heroes and mental health go hand in hand — but the help that’s being offered today is reportedly not enough.
John Byrnes, deputy director of Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), spoke to Fox News Digital about the urgent need for better mental health care for veterans, coinciding with Mental Health Awareness Month and Military Appreciation Month.
Based in Oak Island, North Carolina, Byrnes has experienced multiple losses firsthand during his many years of military service, he said.
John Byrnes (far left) of Concerned Veterans for America is pictured here with his team in Iraq in 2004. CVA advocates for the prosperity and well-being of veterans and military families. (John Byrnes)
A year later, he served at Ground Zero following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, supporting the NYPD (New York Police Department) and the FDNY (Fire Department of the City of New York).
In the next decade, Byrnes was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Byrnes, pictured here, was deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2008. (John Byrnes)
“I’ve seen loss going back to my deployment to Somalia in the ’90s,” he said. “I lost friends in direct combat in Iraq … Lost other friends who served at Ground Zero in Iraq … Lost friends in my unit in Afghanistan.”
More lost by suicide than in combat
Some 8,000 military service members have died in active combat since 2001, Byrnes said.
However, in that same timeframe, more than 30,000 military veterans have died by suicide.
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The night before he left for Fort Fisher in North Carolina, Byrnes received a phone call from a friend who told him that another friend they had served with in Iraq had committed suicide 11 years after deployment.
“Horrible news,” he said. “Every post he had on Facebook was him with his kids. He looked happy … He [had] found a great work-life balance [with the National Guard] and yet something wasn’t right.”
Living with trauma of war
As someone who has suffered from a “major depressive bout,” Byrnes said veterans who struggle with their mental health tend to relive the trauma of war.
“If there are ghosts that haunt you from war, if there are things that you’ve seen, things that you’ve done, friends you’ve lost — all my friends suffered from some combination of this,” he said.
“One’s tight; the other’s just so tight, you can’t imagine it.”
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The high rate of suicide within the military community also has much to do with how veterans are reintegrated into civilian life, Byrnes suggested.
“Every year, there’s a story of a veteran who takes [their] own life on a VA facilities property,” he said. “And we could just do better as a society.”
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He went on, “Americans really need to let the VA, this administration and their representatives know that veterans’ mental health is an issue that shouldn’t be a political football.”
Veteran suicide rates decreased in 2019 and 2020 — the most recent years with available data, the VA said.
Recently, the VA announced additional efforts as part of the Biden-Harris administration’s plan to “reduce military and veteran suicide,” according to the statement.
“In January, VA announced veterans in acute suicidal crisis can go to any VA or non-VA health care facility for emergent suicide care including inpatient or crisis residential care for up to 30 days and outpatient care for up to 90 days,” the statement noted.
“Just last week, VA announced that it is now working with more than 1,000 community-based coalitions to help prevent Veteran suicide in local communities.”
The agency also awarded $20 million through Mission Daybreak, which develops innovations to reduce veteran suicide, as well as granted more than $52 million to 80 community-based organizations through the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program.
The VA also recently conducted an “ongoing public outreach effort” on firearm suicide prevention and lethal means safety and launched a national veteran suicide awareness campaign, “Don’t Wait. Reach Out.”
“Mental health care is something that our government is responsible for,” he said. “And they need to do it [to achieve] the best outcomes for the veterans who are suffering.”
Remembering those who died
Byrnes emphasized that Memorial Day isn’t just for remembering those who died in combat.
He said it’s also for veterans who “perished from the conflict later.”
He mentioned how Memorial Day grew out of the Civil War and became a unified national holiday following both world wars. But the day of remembrance has turned “formulaic” since then, Byrnes said; he believes it’s strayed from the idea of memorializing the legacy of the soldiers who have lost their lives.
John Byrnes, pictured here, served in the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army, with deployments in Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan. (John Byrnes)
“It’s more than just putting a yellow sticker on the back of your car or saying, ‘Thank you for your service,’” he said. “We’re strong people, but we’ve been through experiences that we just can’t explain.”
To fellow military veterans who may be struggling with their own mental well-being, Byrnes said, “We’ve got your six.”