Follow through on commitment to prevent veteran suicides

Joshua Omvig served an 11-month tour in Iraq. The 22-year-old returned home to Grundy Center, with no visible injuries, yet he died on Dec. 22, 2005, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

His parents, Ellen and Randy Omvig, dedicated a significant part of their lives to spur national action so that their experience would not happen in other American military families.

A bill named after their son, The Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, became law on Nov. 5, 2007. However, the law was never fully implemented. At the time the law was signed, there were 18 veteran suicides daily.

Earlier this month in Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama signed into law another bill intended to address the issue, the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act. An unfunded law, it intends to do what the Omvig Act had been intended to do.

In the interim between the passage of the two laws, the average daily number of suicides among veterans has climbed to 22, plus one additional active-duty service member.

The new Clay Hunt law, named for a Marine combat-veteran sniper who committed suicide in 2011, directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to require annual mental-health evaluations and suicide prevention programs. It also requires a loan repayment program for psychiatrists who agree to serve in the Veterans Health Administration.

Hunt, a Marine from Texas who served in Anbar province in 2007 and 2008, was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder at various Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, but he was frustrated by delays, the lack of effective treatment and difficulty with his disability compensation. Even so, before ending his life, he worked with other fellow veterans who were having difficulty fitting back into civilian life because of PTSD.

At issue now is monitoring of the Omvig-Hunt laws. Who will inform America of actual efforts to reduce or to eliminate suicide in military families? Who will report on effectiveness or ineffectiveness of efforts to deal with suicide of those who serve in America's military?

Seven years ago, Veterans and Military Families for Progress, a national non-profit group, followed the Omvig family's lead and helped monitor the bill through Congress. As an Iowa VMFP member, I was privileged to visit with and learn from Ellen and Randy Omvig in their living room.

Now I must ask why, more than seven years after passage of the bill, is the rate of suicide among veterans still increasing? Why is Congress passing another law to deal with veteran suicides? How many Americans even know the Omvig law's story of failure?

How many know of a lack of follow-up by Congress, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the media? How many Americans assume America's veterans all are receiving appropriate care?

There is a disconnect between the lives of average Americans and the lives of America's military families. Who will help eliminate that disconnect and begin to educate about and advocate for the necessary, real, bottom-up solutions which military families need and have earned by their service to America?

Joshua Omvig's and Clay Hunt's stories represent so many other stories of veteran suicides. All of those stories deserve more respect.

' Tom Howe, of Dubuque, is a Vietnam veteran and member of Veterans and Military Families for Progress. Comments: 1075 Martha St., Dubuque, Iowa 52001; (563) 451-9919; howetf@gmail.com

Correction: An earlier version of this column incorrectly named Joshua Omvig's hometown.