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SALT LAKE CITY -- Some of the Army's top brass visited Salt Lake City Friday to discuss veterans' health issues and future solutions. They see potential here for a national center to address the needs of veterans.
The visiting generals understand the physical and emotional injuries of our returning vets, but they want to know more. They explored the potential for a National Center for Veterans Studies based at the University of Utah. An official announcement for the center is expected next month, but the groundwork is ongoing.
Brigadier General Loree Sutton and Major General Robert Kasulke met with the governor and the president of the University of Utah. They also toured the VA Medical Center.
They're exploring ideas for a National Center for Veterans Studies to engage in research, education and outreach to improve the lives of veterans -- a place to study combat-related trauma on the mind and body.
"We are in uncharted territory," says Sutton. She points out the conflict in Afghanistan is now America's longest. The war in Iraq outlasts America's involvement in World War II.
The long-term impacts of prolonged war on the physical and emotional health of our warriors continue to emerge.
Military leadership says it is committed to solutions.
"Aside from winning the war, there simply is no greater priority," says Sutton.
Sutton is the highest-ranking psychiatrist in the U.S. Army. She directs the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.
She believes the country can offer returning veterans better care than ever before.
"We're able to now pull together everything that we've learned about resilience and heartiness, and everything that we are learning now about post-traumatic stress, given the new technology we have that now helps us understand the brain in ways we never could before," she said.
Troops and their families deal with tremendous challenges adjusting to civilian life after war. Yet that transition experience gets much less attention than the trauma of war.
In a veterans' research and education center, specialists from different fields could foster new insight and solutions.
Doug Parkin is a veteran and co-chair of the Student Veterans of Utah.
"They have a unique experience as a veteran," says Parkin. "We need to study and understand what that is. If there's a center, a network possible, I think those studies will move forward."
The National Center for Veterans Studies will be operated by the College of Social and Behavioral Science and the S.J. Quinney College of Law.
E-mail: jboal@ksl.com
