From Zamperini to Uncle Gary, veterans deserve support year-round

*First appeared in the Nov. 14 edition of the Laurel Chronicle

Last summer, I found myself enraptured by the guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Talking softly but directly, the guest – a gentleman well beyond prime showbiz years – was talking about fighting in the second World War, fending off sharks, and finding Jesus.

Turns out, Louie Zamperini was discussing his biography, “Unbroken,” by Laura Hillenbrand. At age 96, this veteran’s life story is more speckled than the fictional journey of Forrest Gump.

Zamperini’s early years as a thieving youth were eventually overshadowed by his ability to run very, very quickly. This speed led him to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, where he briefly met Adolf Hitler and narrowly avoided a bloody run in with Nazis.

Although Zamperini planned to claim the gold in future Olympic Games, a brewing world war thwarted those plans. Zamperini joined the U.S. Air Corps as a bombardier, participating in a successful raid on Wake Island where he escaped mostly unharmed but his B-24, “the Flying Coffin,” was ruined. Later, Zamperini and the rest of his crewmates would find themselves torn apart, with the majority of them drowning in a fiery crash in the Pacific Ocean. Drifting at sea for 47 days, he survived shark attacks, brutal weather conditions, starvation and dehydration, and even rapid fire from a Japanese Zero fighter jet.

Surviving the ocean was, to me, amazing in itself; but Zamperini’s journey gets worse. He reached shore in Japanese territory, where he was imprisoned and subjected to torture, mental abuse, starvation, and physical slavery for more than two years.

When the Allied Forces finally declared victory, Zamperini and his fellow Prisoners of War were released from their bondage. Zamperini’s return to the United States was anything but easy; he found himself having flashbacks, suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms that could, at least in his mind, only be eased by alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol.

Fueled by the difficulties of adjusting to a postwar life, Zamperini’s alcohol abuse was driving apart his marriage and life. After months of his wife’s pleas, Zamperini agreed to attend a tent revival led by a young preacher known as Billy Graham. The year was 1949, and that twenty-something preacher man led our hero to Jesus Christ, helping him overcome addiction and repair his marriage.

(Coincidentally, last week was Graham’s 95th birthday.)

This column won’t do justice to the story of Louie Zamperini, but his story demonstrates the extreme dangers faced by our men and women in uniform. It doesn’t matter whether a veteran has had a harrowing wartime experience. What matters is that every soldier fought with the knowledge that Zamperini’s story could have very well been their own –and yet, they didn’t retreat from their resolve to protect our nation. Our soldiers have weighed their options, finding that the perseverance of America and our way of life is more important than individual suffering and death.

That’s powerful stuff.

But the veteran’s heart of service doesn’t end with the tour of duty; indeed, many of them remain involved in servant leadership within their communities. I’m particularly proud of Gary Staples, whom many of you know through his service as State Representative for District 88. Uncle Gary (as I call him) served in the U.S. Navy where he specialized in what I’m calling “communications espionage” (intercepting Russian transmissions).

Although his service was nearly fifty years ago, Uncle Gary believes joining the Navy was one of the best things he’s ever done. Today, Uncle Gary is in his fourth term in the Mississippi Legislature where his communications specialty is no longer at a naval base but rather in the halls of the State’s Capitol.

From Zamperini to Uncle Gary, I’m so grateful these individuals answered the call to protect our great country. We owe them more than a single day of remembrance; we owe them a nation’s worth of debt to be paid by support from communities, businesses, families, and government.

Sadly, we don’t always make good on these debt repayments. This week, CNBC says it has found major issues related to patient care at the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center in Jackson, which has the most whistleblowers of all the VA hospitals across the country. The investigation allegedly uncovered a culture of bureaucracy, questionable ethics, and reckless personnel actions that threatened the lives of veterans.

Healthcare isn’t the only struggle, as many veterans returning from service in the last decade have more trouble finding work compared to their civilian counterparts. Categorized by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as “Gulf War-era II” veterans, the group’s unemployment rate in October 2013 is a staggering ten percent, significantly higher than the 6.8 percent for nonveterans.

Clearly, we need to improve the services provided to the defenders of America. From healthcare to re-employment, I’m not convinced we’re treating our uniformed personnel with the respect and dignity they deserve. This Veterans Day week, I hope our policymakers and community members will remember that dysfunctional bureaucracies serve the needs of no one, least of all our veterans. Let’s cut the red tape and give these men and women the treatment they have earned.

LAGNIAPPE - Zamperini movie in the works; due Christmas 2014