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GUEST: Penny Coleman, widow of a Vietnam War veteran who took his own life after coming home, author of “Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide and the Lessons of War”

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee held a hearing this Tuesday called “The Truth About Veteran Suicides” during which lawmakers blasted officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs for covering up the true numbers of suicide attempts among vets. The hearing was sparked by investigative news reports by CBS News last November and this April which revealed how the VA has hid the real numbers. The VA initially claimed that only 790 veterans have attempted suicide. CBS has found 12,000 attempted suicides among veterans. Leaked e-mail communication from the VA’s head of mental health, Dr. Ira Katz had revealed that nearly 1,000 U.S. soldiers per month have attempted suicide after returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The numbers of actual deaths from suicides are so high that they rival combat related deaths in the battlefield. The RAND Corporation recently conducted a study showing that 20 percent of returning US soldiers have post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, and only half of them receive treatment.

For more information, visit www.flashbackhome.com.