"Thank You For Your Service".
How many times have I heard that phrase, making me feel uneasy because I was just doing my job. Some people mean it, some people just say it because they think it's the right thing to say, others simply don't have a clue what to say to a Veteran.
"Thank You For Your Service" is a good flick, portraying Iraq Vets returning to Fort Riley, Kansas and the 1st ID (The Big Red One) after an exceptionally rough deployment. It depicts Veterans, PTSD, and the f***ed-up DoD and VA systems me and by brethren have been forced to come home to fairly accurately.
I lived at Fort Riley for two months back in 2012, working as a Licensed Professional Counselor and Military Family Life Consultant (MFLC), screening and counseling soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This movie is based on a true story and should be watched if you truly care about Veterans.
22 Veterans kill themselves every day and THAT IS NOT OK. Maybe movies like this can help to alleviate the stigma associated with mental health treatment in the military and at the VA, allowing more military men and women and Veterans to get the treatment they so desperately deserve.
Here's the movie trailer:
For more details, you can also read my article, "The Stigma Killing American Heroes" published in De Oppresso Liber magazine in January 2013:
PTSD is an invisible wound.
