Transcripts For CSPAN War Veterans Adjustment To Civilian Life 20140602

We want to talk in this panel about some of the obstacles our veterans face. Some of the obstacles certainly the wounded face. And the opportunities to empower those veterans. I want to start with general Pete Chiarelli, who i will say i have known since early in the iraq war. We went through a lot together. We have visited the wounded together. And Pete Chiarelli, since retiring as vice chief of staff of the army where he was deeply involved in issues of postTraumatic Stress, traumatic brain injury, i truly think no one cares more than Pete Chiarelli about the future of our wounded veterans and he is now with one mind, where they and he dedicates his time to continue to help those same veterans. General chiarelli, i want you to talk about those obstacles and the health and wellness of our veterans as they go forward into civilian life. Well, martha, this discussion is a double edged sword because we tend to in fact slap a label that anyone who is deployed for any period of time has either postTraumatic Stress or traumatic brain injury and nothing could be further from the truth. According to the president s report, there have been 265,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, marine, coast guard who have come back from these conflicts with traumatic brain injury. There are 3. 4 million americans every single year that suffer some kind of head trauma. You saw the numbers of 2. 5 million, at 20 , that ends up being probably 500,000 folks. If you take those numbers as being gospel with postTraumatic Stress. 8 of our population is expected to have postTraumatic Stress at some time in their life. Its not just caused by combat. Most of the work thats been done to understand postTraumatic Stress has been done on folks, ladies, who have been sexually assaulted. 74 of women who are sexually assaulted develop postTraumatic Stress. Thats why im so happy that president bush dropped the d. I cant even imagine telling a woman who has been sexually assaulted, because she has a reaction to a relationship after that, that she has a disorder. \[applause] but as we talked about this, i started talking about it because i didnt know what they were. I came back and a doc showed me that 37 of those who have an injury are draw mat exbrain injury or postTraumatic Stress disorder. I didnt know what they were. I knew what my football coach told me about con cugs, shake it off and get back in the game. So i began this process of trying to learn about it and i found out even the professionals dont know that much about it. The only way we, in fact, diagnose these two things are with tests. 20 questions for postTraumatic Stress called dsmv and a test for concussion if you bump your head. The numbers are great, yes they affect Service Members, but the large majority of Service Members coming back from iraq and afghanistan dont have postTraumatic Stress and dont have traumatic brain injury that doesnt mean we dont need to highlight it and talk about it because thats how you get people in and get the help they need. For them to talk about it as well. Ken fisher who is chairman and c. E. O. Of the Fisher House Foundation, i think everyone in this room knows what the Fisher House Foundation does for our veterans and especially during that government shutdown, when you were just amazing with the families and supporting those families for those who lost loved ones. I want you, ken fisher, to talk about how important it is for the support of those family the work you do and the support that the families give the veterans in terms of success when they transition. Transition. Veteran d of get the or the service man or woman and their family when their lives have been flipped upside down. Too often the call comes in, the family has to mobilize very quickly. They have to get from point a to point b because thats whats done, thats what neets to be done. Can you imagine being in the hospital and not having your family there . So at fisher house we kind of facilitate getting to the bedside of the loved one through a myriad of our programs and service that is we provide. He families bear burdens and are subject to sacrifices that the average american has no concept of. We average americans dont have any clue as to what happens to these families especially at this time. When you think about whats going on in their lives, the world does not come to a grinding halt. Bills still have to be paid. Mortgages have to be paid. Children have to be raised. Schools. Theres multiple trips back and forth that families have to make. The whole soldier, youve heard that term. That includes the family. So the family plays a very vital role in the rehabbing of the soldier. Of the service man or woman. And even of the veteran. So fisher house plays a role there. We have seen the families, we have seen the impact that is the family has. So we get them very early on. And its always very gratifying to know we played a role when the veteran comes out ultimately and does enter the private sector and does get employment. The ones that dont, we try and play a role there. We try and provide mentoring wherever its possible. I make myself available as much as i can to do that. But then remember that there are other issues, too. If a veteran does have post Traumatic Stress, the family suffers as well. So what we need to do is when we talk about education, we need to also educate the families. We need to make them aware of the signs, of the early signs of post Traumatic Stress so that we dont get into substance abuse, so that we dont get into Domestic Violence and the other issues that have become very, very much a part of the picture. Also with us is wayne robinson. You are a post 9 11 veteran yourself retired command sergeant major, but more importantly for you right now director of student veterans of america. Talk about your work and particularly educating those returning vets. The give bill is amazing. Some of those benefits are amazing and people arent always taking advantage of that. Thanks and thanks for the opportunity to speak about the amazing young people that, as the president and ceo of student veterans of america, that i get to represent. And so to start with a little bit of background on student veterans of america or sva, started six years ago on 20 campuses because when student vets were transitioning they saw that the College Environment or higher ed was not prepared for student vets. We were older, we were much more mature. We had a different world view than just coming out of high school than say the traditional student. And so these vets met in chicago and we started on 20 campuses six years ago and today we are on more than is,000 campuses representing those 1,000 chapters with more than 400,000 student vets being serviced by our policy, our advocacy and the work we do in delivering programs. I was very fortunate to be helped by general pace and katy who is here with wall street war fighters and i had a personal sitdown opportunity with leda but what i realized is that the majority of individuals will not have that. And were about 25 years old and transitioning at least those that we represent and they dont have that transitional point. So there are gaps between where do i and how do you transition that to the workplace. Also joining us is john. Head of Merrill Lynch. I know with you talked a earlier about the private sector but what challenge are you seeing and what are you doing in terms of veterans hiring veterans doing whatever you can thats working . Sure. Thank you. We heard what the challenges are. Theres a lack of preparedness. We know about the stigma. Theres an ongoing stigma. We end up trying to make veterans fit our structure and were trying to recognize that that doesnt work and bend our structure to the way they think and act. It requires, lets take hiring. It requires a different approach. Now, one my example might be internships so if youre going to try to get an internship on a firm like marle lynch or bank of america is very competitive. The way that we go after the most talented folks the veterans is we created a different internship track that allow them the access and the exposure to see what life is like. So they get sort of a norisk free look at what a career might look like. The onboarding process is different as we bring our veterans in to about how theyre going to transition into the workforce and we recognize some of those challenges. We dont have ault answer. This is sort of our attempt to do it. We have unique training for those folks as well. But i think most importantly the answers all lie within our people. We have 6,000 veterans that work for bank of Americamerrill Lynch and theyve formed a military support advisors group. The peer to peer interaction and learnings are probably the best approach that we have to continuing to evolve the process and how we can make sure that we have this be a successful transition. The one thing that wasnt talked about that i think is important is were doing this because this is a Business Opportunity for us as well as doing the right thing. Merrill lynch, for instance, has had a 45year history of hiring veterans very successfully. They transition very well into our roles as advisers for clients with the maturity, the perspective, the leadership that they have. So i look at this as an enormous opportunity. I think the challenge and maybe we talk about it at some point is how do we gather up all the resources to make it more seamless . Ive met four people over the last 24 hours that are going to help me do this a lot more effectively and one is sitting here next to me. That is exactly the point i want to make. Youve got all these people up here, all these great ideas. But connecting those dots and making it work, how do you do that . It seems to me just from the conversation and experience that this all starts while theyre still in the military. They dont really get that transitional help or they get two days of transitional help and maybe nothing more that some people fall through the cracks. So each of you just talk about your ideas, if you will, about how you connect the dots to what youre all concerned about. Do you want to start . Sure. So i will say two things. One, while theyre in the military we have this military support advisory group. We have fulltime staff steams teams assigned to working with the military, working with support organizations to identify that talent thats coming out of their service. And so we have a structure around that. Thats one way to do it. The other way for us is to plug in to waynes organization as we think about these campuses. And i happened to go to Florida State university which has a robust Veterans Center and im proud of what we do. Thats a great opportunity for us to identify talent. So the combination of the structure to attach directly to the military as well as our just ongoing recruiting efforts with the oncollege campuses especially those that have established Veterans Centers give us a big advantage. Lets go down the order. What ill say is as i look at the issue and we talk about the greatest generation, right . And we know that the stats exist. E can talk about the 500,000 scientists and engineers that were that came out of that generation. 14 noble laur yet, three president s. Three Supreme Court justices. But if you peel that back they look just like our vets. They look they were guys from small town america. And so when i look at that picture and i look at the picture of vets, i see connection being the issue. And so were actually redoing our it infrastructure. So what we want to be able to do is have employers that are interested in reaching out to vets and this is something that john and i talked about last night. Interested in connecting with vets, be able to connect with them directly on campus. At the end of the day the recruiters need to be able to directly access those vets at Florida State, purdue university, to be able to have that robust and dynamic conversation. So about four months well have that infrastructure and in place and that way were out of the conversation. They will be able to reach out directly. And then the vet will be able to put a face to the name of the organization. Weve been hearing a lot about the veteran and the transition process into the private sector. Imagine if the veteran is wounded. Imagine what happens to that veteran that service man or womans life. They still now have to overcome their wounds which they do with magnificent grace and dignity and i see it every day. But they have additional challenges. And so do their families. So in my mind, while they are doing their rehabbing, while they are still receiving treatment is to get to them at that point. Mentor, let them know whats available. Make them aware of what they need to do. Because they do have additional challenges now. Its not just walking out of the military and into the private sector. For these men and women, the additional challenges are many. So get to them. We used to say there is still this benefit gap as were all aware. That during the transitional process from the d. O. D. To the v. A. Thats the time i would like to see the mentoring process begin. Let them know whats available, let them know what will be expected of them. Give them an idea as to how they can brand themselves. How to put a resume together. Use that time while theyre improving themselves towards making them competitive, giving them an equal leveling the playing field, if you will, for that particular service man or woman. General, you have seen some very specific things of the transition not only to civilian life but just what ken fisher is talking about, the transition from d. O. D. To v. A. Is not that simple. No, its not. And those are some of the things we need to we need to fix. And you dont know when youre in d. O. D. That the transition to v. A. Is going to be difficult because youve never been in v. A. Before. We have things like drug form lairies that arent the same between d. O. D. And v. A. So a kid has post Traumatic Stress thats treated with an antidepress nt thats 40 years old. Finally gets on the right dosage and the v. A. Has a dint drug form lairie and tells them that cant prescription you that drug. We dont have that drug in stock because our form larry is different. D. O. D. Has a much more expansive than v. A. s. And its got nothing to do with the v. A. Dock thinks one drug is better. Its those are the drugs that they have to provide. So we have disconnects like that. We have disconnects like the great place that arnold and ken fisher have built at Walter Reed National Medical Center at bethesda i will be politically correct how i state that. Nd they do an amazing job at the National Intrepid Center of excellence for the study of traumatic brain injury and post Traumatic Stress of putting together a treatment plan for a young man or woman. And they leave there after four weeks with a treatment plan much of it being experimental or really cuttingedge things, go back to a place like west point where theyre relying on a try care network they go out and that network says we wont cover 50 of that which is on your treatment plan. Now, think of that. We send them to a d. O. D. Facility, they get a treatment plan, they move to the insurance provided by d. O. D. Where doctors arent available to cover them and theyre told im sorry 50 of what you are being prescribed we cannot provide you. So there are some huge bureaucratic issues here if were really going to provide care where we need to do an end to End Assessment, not in d. O. D. , not in v. A. , but a total end to End Assessment from the time you enter the army until the time you are buried. To understand how to ensure that these two huge organizations are together and are totally focused on the service member. Man or woman. Throughout their career. Imagine if you will when if they live in a rural area and they have this prescription and they go to their v. A. Because the plan is to get them home as quickly as possible to aid in their recovery. But imagine if they go back to their v. A. In a rural area and they get the response towards the pharmaceutical treatment, what happens then . They kind of vanish. We kind of lose track of them. I didnt even know this existed when i was vice. I was in charge of Army Medicine in a weird kind of way. I had no idea that this problem existed. But most veterans when theyre faced with that because of the pain they went through in getting the right ant depressant at the right dosage or the right pain medication or the right suite medication they have, walk out of the v. A. , find a civilian provider, get them to write the script and pay for it out of pocket. Thats what they do. Because they dont want to go through that again. I want to touch on also what president bush was talking about in the pee ginning and beginning. Its Media Coverage and it is and i certainly have done this myself. We cover the homecomings and the heroes but we also cover what youre talking about. We cover challenges or we cover things that make all of the people watching think these people are victims. They dont want to be victims. We dont want them to be victims. Im going to remove myself because i think i do understand these issues quite a bit. But how do you convince the country, how do you draw that line that you want people to be aware of pts, you want people to be aware of the wounds, you want people to be aware of the challenges. Yet you dont want to paint people as victims. But we want to raise awareness but dont want to paint them either as just heroes or victims . Well, you start in forums like this, i hope, and you hope that the people who hear this in here will take it out and tell it to their constituent sis but i dont really have the best answer because it is really a difficult question. I really appreciated the first panel because i think it takes somebody from the top to force veterans employment. But when you get to the middle manager, the h. R. Person who is faced with two files and one person is deployed six times and another person who hasnt deployed, and if you dont have a push from the top, i cant help but think that that middle manager h. R. Person is going to float on over to the person who hasnt deployed because they read a story about some veteran that had some problem with his or her brain and theyre afraid. Theyre afraid and they move over. It really does in my opinion take pressure from the top to get down and say no were going to do things differently. How do you talk to your employees about that . How does Merrill Lynch do this . And how do they do away with those stereo toops . Its education. We know that communicating with a lot of people is very hard. I could say happy holidays and not everybody will hear what i say. So its really on this relentless education. One of the things weve identified is a program called unconscious bias which we all carry with us which sounds like this really does fit in this category that we all walk around with news bits that we file away that all of a sudden inform. So youve got to be aware of it, one. So we are taking our Leadership Team through this. This would be in the category of it. But i think its education. And what president bush did for me really helped me because he talked about diabetes. And i think about that. My aunt suffered from it. She went in a lot of comas in front of me. And my assistant had really severe childhood diabetes and one day she went into a coma and i recognized it and we were able to call. And i think about that as a work issue. No one talked about it. She has an incredible leadership career with our organization now. But why is it different . So i think the statistics that you share about head injury and post Traumatic Stress isnt unique to combat. Its unique to life. And i think that education process will be one way we would go at it. When we talk about a bridge from military to civilian life, i know i end up talking to my military friends and i will often say do you have any civilian friends . So what responsibility and im going to ask you this way does the military have to sort of bridge that gap as well . To help you reintegrate, to help you say i am part of this, i had an incredible experience that none of you may be able to understand but i also need to take responsibility for that reintegration . I could actually speak on that for quite a while. When you look at the investment, when you say were going to take americas best sons and daughters and were going to put them through a process and were going to make them the absolute best warriors where they can deploy anywhere around the world, be selfsufficient, hit the ground, and if theyre ten steps only be able to answer one of them and figure out the other nine once they hit the ground, thats Pretty Amazing seeing as how they came in at 18 or at 22 from, as an officer, and then so after that Huge Investment to turn them into this amazing warrior that that is able to support the country fight anywhere around the world and win, thats very important, and then we look at the investment when its time for them to come out. So if you compare the two investments, then obviously theres a lot more that we can do. So how do we as ken spoke earlier, how do we rebrand that 22yearold that we just told nothing was impossible to him or her that we can do all of these things . If i could also address the previous question about conversation. What we want to be able to do is to change the conversation for the veteran in higher education. And we want to do that quantitatively. And we want businesses actually to be selfish when they approach us and ask what is the r. O. I. For hiring a vet . And so when were working with return of investment. Return on investment. I got it. What is the return on investment for hiring a vet. The n we look at organizations we partner with military Family Research institute and bept to prove quantitatively that if you hire a vet this is your return. So if we look at world war ii we know that for every 1 that was invested in a vet, 7 was returned to the economy. So thats the conversation we want to bring to business to reshape how student vets or how vets are viewed. Anecdotally i can tell you that we have a higher success rate with veterans than with nonveterans in our Development Program so we can talk about it later but we have some data. And thats what we want to be able to get out. Theres also the data of unemployment is higher and general can you address that . The unemployment issue . I really i think d. O. D. Is doing its best because it costs them money when people come out of the service and are unemployed for a period of time they have to pick up the Unemployment Benefits for one year. That was about an 800 million i had when i was vice. I think its gone down a little bit now but they are working very hard on the transition assistance plan with v. A. To prepare better. Im very, very pleased when i hear things like that data base and data is being turned over to employees. That is thats huge. I sure couldnt make that happen or i couldnt find the right lawyer to make that happen when i was where i was. So those things are all great steps forward. But i think we need to go further than that. I had a discussion with a friend of mine in here before why dont we require everybody to do a linked in profile . And my good lawyer training said i cant do that because that is a privately owned rganization and if we were see ing favoring anybody we would be in trouble. But we need to make sure that we get them into the hand of the veteran and the hands of that h. R. Person far earlier in the process than we do today. So if you all had to prioritize right now what you should do first to help make this process work better of transition or employing or of reaching out to students to get to veterans who are students to get an education, what would you how do you prioritize . Its hard. Right . To me its weve hired 4,000 veterans over the last 3 years and plan on hiring another 10,000. My priority in achieving that outcome for our business and for those veterans is really to connect better with the organizations that can provide me that talent pool, that can associate us and can point out those skillsets. Because it just saves a ton of time for everybody to do that. So my priority walking out of here is to do a very good job of connecting with some of the people ive heard here, put our team in place to put together a much more efficient approach. I want to eliminate the 20 . Im focused on the minority. Im focused on those who are affected. So im kind of different in that way. I want to understand post Traumatic Stress. I want to be able to tell with certainty that someone has post Traumatic Stress not by asking them 20 questions. And i want demand that we treat todays veterans better than we treated other veterans who we know had post Traumatic Stress and traumatic brain injury from every war we fought in. And were about 40 to 50 years behind in doing the research and connecting the dots that need to be connected to find answers too help that 20 . And if we did that and could really clear up this mystery and it really is a mystery. Its a mystery to everyone, even the professionals. And dont let them tell iotherwise. If we could clear up this mystery we would go a long way in helping veterans unemployment by taking away this aura of uncertainty of people having traumatic brain injury or post Traumatic Stress doing thing that is we dont want them to do. And how much improvement do both of you think there has been in terms of removing the stigma . Because its certainly still there. Its still there and i dont think i think youre going to have to stand this forever. But this is a society. Societys problem. And we take your young men and women. You dont like talking about suicide. We concentrate on military suicide. I have 160, 170 active component soldiers commit suicide every year. 38,000 americans commit suicide every year but we were focused on that 160 to 170 in my case army soldiers. We ought to be focused on the large numbers. We ought to be focused on the 3. 4 Million People that are going to have head trauma every year, on the 78 billion in direct medical costs that traumatic head trauma costs this country every single year and getting rid of it. And weve got to increase a Research Budget to researchers who are going to research the right way by sharing their data. Weve got to increase that budget because i know with all the great ceos in here that if you had a 78 billion problem and you were only spending 82 million a year to get at that problem you would not be a ceo for long. I think you want to Say Something about that. I think as the general just said, the stigma still exists. But there has to be a starting point everywhere. And weve made this weve made this issue, we brought it out to the forefront that there is a stigma. So now its up to the veteran, its up to the service man or woman to come forward and get the help thats there. I think that its time that we started working and focusing on what works instead of what doesnt work. Im so tired of hearing about everything thats wrong. We know whats wrong. But lets start looking at whats right. Lets see what works in this country. Lets see what works as it relates to veterans best practices and bring that to light. And lets also remember that through this whole thing is the military family. And with sequestration and budget cuts its this segment of military society that will get hit the hardest. This is where we as philanthropists, where we as foundations need to do a better job of hitting the issues, eliminating redundancies, honoring the donated dollar, fulfilling the mission that we have to fulfill. Because i think in the end i think with everything thats going on with all the cuts, with all the issues, be it stigma, wounded, jobs, its the private sector thats going to make the difference, thats going to eliminate the gaps, thats going to lead the way forward. Its up to us to do a better job, to spend more money on our programs, and not on promotion, on salaries, so forth. We can do it. We just need to be more vigilant. If i could tag along to what ken was just speaking on. What we are doing and the issue that we think is very prevalent in the student vet area or arena is that for if you were to ask anyone in this audience or outside of this audience what are the Graduation Rates of student vets at a particular university across the country, each year. So between 2009 and 2013, there was 34 billion invested into student vet education through the g. I. Bill. So if you ask the Graduation Rate no one could tell you what those Graduation Rates are. As a matter of fact, no one could tell you for the last 70 years what the Graduation Rates are. So very low data existed. So we at s. V. A. Are determined to partner with the best, the brightest organizations that are committed to supporteding student vets and bringing them out of the shadows, bringing them out from just the portion of nontraditional students. So we partnered, were funded by google is stepped forward, lume in a, a couple of foundations, and what were doing is a project called the million records project. And were actually competing computing the Graduation Rates from 2000 to 2010 of student vets. And were going to release that. The first time in 70 years on march of this year. And then afterwards were going to compute the persistance rates and were going to demystify student vets. Were going to show you how well student vets are doing. So those of us up here on the panel understand this but this is what were going to get out to the American Public so we can get away poor vet portion of the conversation and the handout and put us into the of investing in the country. With the research we are doing here. I want to open up to questions from the audience. We are going to wait for the microphone. Right there. Name and your affiliation. If you want to direct your question to a particular person. Father john sheehan, i am a jesuit. That is latin for troublemaker. I run the Xavier Society for the representingm the association for blind veterans. We have heard about postTraumatic Stress and brain injury. Ken talked about Wounded Warriors who carry their weapons woundsem carry their with them. Employers tend to back off when shows up in a wheelchair or with one arm. A blind guy does not get to show up. Blind people can do almost anything a sighted person can with proper equipment and training. I have ridden in a car driven by a blind guy. My challenge is what are we doing for blind vets . That is a small segment but in the last 20 years combat injuries that affect the eyes have skyrocketed. Unity has created a separate department to deal with this. Companies have got to find ways to incorporate this. John, do you want to take this . I will take this as a challenge. I cannot address that as specifically as you would want. If that is a bias, we will just it. We will address it. I dont think youre going to get anyone who will disagree with you. You will do that, others in the room will do that. Thank you for bringing that up. [indiscernible] thank you. Behind you. Will go to you. Good afternoon. My name is kevin, director of interest initiatives director of Veterans Initiative for the walt disney company. Very big numbers. Numbers in the thousands and hundreds of thousands. The veteran employment is one veteran at a time. With this this room brilliant crowd if each person towardsone veteran completing college. One veteran towards finding employment, we will move free hundred to 400 veterans to a better life. To the group, it is not a question, it is a statement. Panel, thank you for your time. Thank you, kevin. I think that is another one we agree. To that point, is getting to know veterans. Is out there and who can offer their services. There are so many veterans who are so extraordinary who can do so many things. And just need a little push. Right there. Thank you. My name is nakema, i am the chair of the Veterans Coalition of North Central texas. We are a nonprofit comprised of 70 plus organizations that meet every month. From nonprofit organizations to the federal government. He talked about what are you doing, that is what we are doing on the ground. We come together every month to talk about the issues of our service and veteran organizations that support them. You mentioned a couple things i have a question. He talked about research and the economy. Increasing the funding for research, the gap and prescriptions and after care. All that goes back to coverage for veterans. Tricare is one of the most i am sorry pathetic of around. S i have providers that call us and say we can no longer be in your network because you do not pay anything. We can no longer see your pay lessbecause you than medicare pays. That is embarrassing. What are we doing before we talk about increasing funding for research or prescriptions. If we do not have doctors who will see them how can they get prescriptions . How can we talk about research . What are we doing to say we need to provide better medical care, better dental, better vision all around health care for our veterans. I am talking about let me take that question. Sorry, general chiarelli, you are going to get this one. One of the issues with tricare is the payment rate. We are trying to establish where that is having an impact. I am on a commission now looking at this whole thing. Dod paid out 16 billion last year in indirect medical costs on the tricare network. They only did a billion dollars they only did 8 billion worth of care in our facilities. Ontof our care is going the network. There are a bunch of things happening in health care today making it difficult. A 16 billion bill is something we are being asked to i promise you that. I do not see a movement afoot to raise tricare payments. I really do not. There are things that could be done. One, they are normally fiveyear contract. The contract is set and services are set for five years. That is why you have problems with nico nico . National Intrepid Center of excellence. I am just reminding. That is a problem i mentioned earlier. ,he plan is set for five years it is difficult to change. You have to wait until the next contracting phase five years later to include things like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for people with the strikes stress people with postTraumatic Stress that it is covered across the board. I understand your issues. The committee i am looking the committee i am sitting on is looking at all those issues. Sir . Hello, my name is david, executive director of the greater dallas military foundation. I wanted to touch on mr. Fishers point about best practices and sharing what is working. The commission you are working on, general, defines best these problems. That is where we need to spend time. One organization i am involved with is helping childrens medical, a private organization, address a shortfall of 60 million in their budget. There are an enormous number of people around the country that would be very happy to dedicate their time and effort to operational do excellence, improvement projects, etc. For the v. A. If we could gain access to stop for tricare. The ability for people in this , to to volunteer, to give give their time and their talents is a challenge. Volunteering is not always easy. It is not always easy for companies to take volunteers. Or for the government. I thinkfor all these people they would love to help if we could. If we could find access and we were given when i heard that the dod was giving up data on veterans, is pat was stunned. We did a project with 3000 sailors to help them get a job. The biggest problem was how do we get to them and engage them . The issues around privacy was a big block. The issue of pay, we are from the private sector and here to help. Lets let ken fisher talk about. About volunteering, first of all. About people wanting to help. I think volunteers are very relevant, especially when it comes to fisher house. The lifeblood of our program is those who want to serve in any way that they can. They do not always have treasure, they have services. It is these kinds of foundations. Therenot really know if was a question forgive me if i am not answering or hitting it. When it comes to volunteering at the relationship to tricare i was not sure about the correlation. What i would like to say is that there are many ways we can make a difference. I know there is a lot of anger about tricare and potentially raising fees and so forth. I know that there is a lot of anger about the quality. Let me rephrase that, because i think the quality of care that has been administered to those who have been wounded with the 95 or 96 battlefield survival rate is pretty hard to argue with the quality of care they are getting. Focusing on best practices and what is working. That is worth your time and your effort and volunteer. There are many of organizations that really need you. It is not just treasure, it is time, too. I do not know what your question was. When i hear the word volunteer, and theit to what we do amazing volunteers that we have. [indiscernible] leaders do you have a quick question . How do we get connected . Privatee considered a organization, that is something that frustrates us all. Throughout my time as the vice for four years, i am sure general paes had similar experiences. Private organizations would come with one intent and that was to help Wounded Warriors. It was very hard because of regulations for us to be seen as favoring one private organization, even though it was solely directed at helping individuals, over another private organization. You cannot fund raise. Tell you how difficult it was to get the process in place. The hardest thing in the world is to get the government anything. That was my point. It is hard to volunteer than you think. You said it better. Less itore we do, the falls on the government. What we do, we have to do well. I just want you to each wrap up, if you can. Some final thoughts on how we take what was announced today and the initiative and the research being carried out. And what they want to happen and how do you make that happen. I learned a lot today. There is research and it is accurate. It came from the people trying to serve. That has tons of credibility with me. I learned a long time ago that none of us are as smart as all of us. I challenge us to take the challenges we have today and then do something about it. It can be one person one at a time. I am walking away saying i have much more information. And we have better data and more facts to fix the problem and we will do that as an organization. I will just say if we look at what can we do with those sitting in the room, help us to fund research. Number two, to be able to reach chapters in your local community. Asked to serve as mentors. It might be tough initially are busy,udent vets with families they are older. Once you break down that barrier the first thing you will realize is that they do not know the question to ask you. And justith resources saying i am here to help, to support, what do you need . On a local level that will help the student vet be in power. Ken . 1 of this nation raised their right hand and took an oath to defend this nation. We as americans also need to raise our right hand and take enough to take care of the military family. Take care of those who have given so much to this nation, whether it is a mental or physical injury. Remember the military family. Do what you can to help employee our wounded. Do what you can to employ the blind. Do what you can to employ those in wheelchairs and so forth. Remember what sacrifices have been made on behalf of this nation. I would like to build on president bushs lost lede. He buried the lede, yeah. That we end the stigma associated with these issues. Depression, post about it stress or brain depression, postTraumatic Stress or brain injury. Creating the environment in your own space. Be that a Large Corporation or a small group of people. That tells people it is all right to go get treatment for these problems. That is absolutely critical. That, we will go a long way in helping the great group of people that are out there that really need to get some help. I am sometimes criticized for winning to drop the d. People say i have talked to all kinds of people and they say they had no problem with the d at all, they called the disorder. That is the wrong group of people to talk to. Talk to soldiers who say at 19 years old i do not want to be told i have a disorder because i had to pick up my friend in pieces on the side of the road and put him in a body bag so i could bring him home. I do not want to be told i have a disorder because of that. Ending the stigma and getting that we to get the help