Veteran mental health: A war on home soil
By Kasey Turman
Miami University journalism student
When Mike Farmer moved to Butler County after getting out of the Marine Corps, all he knew was that he needed a job.
He didn’t know his hearing had worsened every year during his enlistment. He didn’t know there was a community of veterans who could use his help. He didn’t know he would join multiple veteran organizations trying to find a community while helping others.
Now, Farmer is the current executive director of the Butler County Veterans Service Commission. In this position, he handles the funds for different veteran services, including ones he has created, like a food drive for homeless veterans that took place over the winter.
When he’s not dealing with budgeting and events, he helps find medical and mental health resources for veterans all over the county.
Despite advanced veteran facilities in both Cincinnati and Dayton, there are issues in the veteran community that outweigh others. Because of the nature of their job, veterans can return home with health issues they didn’t expect to have.
Just like everything else, Farmer didn’t know he would be surrounded by the death of his fellow veterans.
“So, you know, it’s hard to talk about, but I think the number one issue that Butler County is facing is veteran suicide,” Farmer says.
Farmer says in 2023, nine veterans died by suicide in Butler County. The Department of Veterans Affairs statistics show that 17 veterans die by suicide a day.
With Farmer’s help, the county is putting up billboards in the highest affected areas in an attempt to reach veterans who would otherwise not know about available resources.
Zip code 45069 of West Chester, Ohio, will see two new billboards showing mental health resources following a “disproportionate” number of veteran suicides Farmer says. He says data on local suicides in 2023 will not be available until 2025 because of the amount of data the VA collects across the nation.
Farmer says the largest roadblocks in his job are getting in touch with veterans in need of help and figuring out what resources a veteran might need. Alongside the challenge of finding the right resource, Farmer says veterans aren’t always seeking out help even if they need it.
“I think the issues that veterans faced [in the past] and even some now is that they don’t know what’s out there,” Farmer says. “And we always think ‘I don’t need assistance’ or ‘I don’t need a benefit. That’s for somebody who’s severely disabled or they lost their limbs.’ It’s just not true. I mean, there’s a lot of VA programs.”
The past
Four blocks from Farmer’s office sits the American Legion Durwin Schantz Post 138. From the outside, the post is a nondescript white building with a porch for smokers and a few rock statues of soldiers. Inside is less nondescript, with the post housing tables and barstools full of veterans.
Just inside the door is a game room populated with seven slot machines. Through another doorway is a full bar and memorials for every branch of the military. Veterans from every branch sit together, many talking about life between orders at the bar.
Andrew Bernett, an Army veteran, sits at one of the tables with a half-full glass of Bud Light in his hand and a Vietnam veteran hat on his head.
Bernett worked in communications during his three-year tour in Vietnam that sent him to multiple bases, especially during the Tet Offensive. Now, he lives in Oxford, Ohio, and spends his free time either at the Legion or working with his family.
Bernett is 100% disabled because of his interaction with Agent Orange, a herbicide used by the military that includes chemicals that increase the risk of cancer. Soldiers who came in contact with Agent Orange were listed as 100% disabled when they were discharged because of the increase in health risks.
Outside of Agent Orange, Bernett has had multiple health issues, but they have all been helped by the VA.
“The VA is the best thing to happen to me medical-wise,” Bernett says. “They paid for my cataract surgery and my hearing aids. They’re fixing to give me a new right knee so I’m gonna be rebuilt.”
When asked about mental health, Bernett leans in close to give his answer.
“I was raised a poor kid,” Bernett says. “Poor kids are tough to start with because they have to struggle a little bit. You take a bunch of these wishy-washy kids who get everything given to them, and they hear a loud noise and automatically hide. I’ve had no problem, no problem at all.”
Roy Miller, a fellow Vietnam veteran, had a similar response when asked about his mental health since he’s been back in America.
Miller was drafted into the infantry and did two tours in Vietnam working in aviation, ending as a captain. During his service, he was the Fifth Army middleweight boxing champ and had 146 confirmed kills in the field.
Miller, who recently joined the Legion, is known by other members as a decorated veteran who has seen it all. He received two bronze stars for his service and shares his stories with anyone who wants to listen.
Miller says these reasons have led the VA to reach out to him about mental health.
“The VA said ‘[Your time in Vietnam] is affecting you and you got mental issues, don’t you?’” Miller says. “I’ve been fighting that for the last two years.”
Miller says he gets letters and calls from the VA, but doesn’t want to talk to anyone about his mental health issues. After an unneeded medical procedure relating to exposure to Agent Orange, Miller says he avoids specific doctors and the VA in general.
Kevin Childress, a Navy veteran who served from 1981–1989, worked as an aviation technician aboard the USS Independence which steamed through the Suez Canal and assisted troops during the Invasion of Grenada in 1983. After enlisting in high school, Childress found a home in the Navy and says enlisting was “one of the best things” he ever did.
Since his discharge, he says he hasn’t had mental health issues, but he’s seen the generation before and after him be more affected because of their time in combat.
One thing Childress credited to helping with soldier mental health is how individuals are discharged. He says that how soldiers were sent home after their service in Vietnam left them feeling isolated because they would oftentimes be the only ones leaving their platoon.
Childress says when his father came back from his service in Vietnam, he was dropped off at a base and went home by himself without any Army program on what to do as a civilian.
Although Childress hasn’t had any mental health issues himself, he says his dad struggled to transition back into civilian life.
“A lot of [combat veterans] drink a lot,” Childress says. “My father being one of them. He told me ‘I’m pretty sure I had PTSD.’ He said ‘I talked myself out of it.’ I don’t know what the hell that means, but that’s what he told me.”
Childress says he’s thankful that he didn’t see combat like those in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan did. He says he believes combat is the largest factor in the mental health issues that he sees in the generations before and after him.
“I can’t imagine what [dealing with mental health issues] is like,” Childress says. “Seeing what you see and having to process it. I wouldn’t know how to talk to any of them about it. And I don’t think I have a right to because I wasn’t there.”
Despite saying he wouldn’t be able to talk to combat veterans, Childress says he takes time to sit down with veterans from all generations to talk about what they’re going through, but only when they start the conversation.
The future
Alex Burns, a current senior at Miami University and member of Miami’s Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), says the issues veterans in Butler County are facing are being addressed more in the training he has received so far.
Burns’s interaction with the military so far includes officer training at Miami and basic training. After graduation, he will go to Fort Moore, Georgia, for basic officer leadership training, then ranger and airborne school before ending up in Anchorage, Alaska, as part of the 11th Airborne Division.
Throughout his training, Burns says he has seen a change in mentality compared to stories he’s heard of the past.
“[The military’s] not in a state where it’s perfect by any means, but we kind of call some of those [unanswered issues] old Army thinking,” Burns says. “New Army is that they have a lot of different programs for seeking mental health and diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Because of his interaction with other cadets in ROTC programs across the country, he says the new generation of soldiers has a different outlook than some currently in the service.
“There’s still a lot of people who just got in [the military] during a different time, and it’s hard for them to accept the new attitude and the changes,” Burns says. “But it’s not so much anymore where you’re considered soft for, you know, feeling like you need help or struggling with things like [mental health].”
Burns says despite his lack of experience, he is confident that the Army is a place where he can ask for help if he needs it. He says he would think otherwise if he hadn’t talked to current officers and his cadre at Miami.
Even with his current mentors, Burns has not had a relationship with a veteran. Nevertheless, he’s confident in the military’s ability to put him in a good place during and after his enlistment.
“I wouldn’t say I’m really worried about [not getting resources],” Burns says. “I think the army is heading in the right direction from everything I’ve heard and hopefully continues to do so when it’s my full-time job.”
Burns says he doesn’t know his plans for after his service, only that he’s looking forward to his next few years in the Army.
