Luis Carlos Montalvan’s battle as an Iraq war veteran is not uncommon. Even so, chances are you haven’t heard about it or about the struggles of many vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan seeking medical care. An estimated 6,000 vets commit suicide very year. 200,000 are homeless. According to the Rand Corporation, 300,000 suffer from brain injuries. Many soldiers on their second and third tours of duty in Iraq are heavily medicated with psychotropic drugs because they suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). 

Montalvan, a former U.S. Army cavalry captain who served two combat tours in Iraq, was stabbed by assassins in 2003. He has fractured vertebrae, PTSD, chronic leg and back pain, a physical brain injury, and the list goes on. A captain in the Army Montalvan has had to fight for entitlements since he returned to the United States.

According to Aaron Glantz, the author of The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle against America’s Veterans says that the VA is cumbersome, bureaucratic, and corrupt. In the last six months 1,500 vets have died waiting for claims to be resolved. Yet in a country far from the theater of war the plight of veterans is hardly a national issue. The Walter Read hospital scandal drew a certain amount of attention to the care veterans received but did not investigate the larger inefficiencies of the VA that have become obstacles for vets like Montalvan. There’s been little follow up reporting. Glantz and Montalvan are, however, hopeful that a new administration will address veterans’ issues and that General Shinseki might change the culture of willfully ignoring the plight of soldiers who return wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan. 

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