I am Thomas Mahany, a Vietnam veteran who resides at 3122 Warick Road, Royal Oak, Michigan, and am the founder and administrator of the Stop the Loss Foundation, a nonprofit organization established for the benefit of service members involuntarily sent forward on multiple deployments.

 This letter concerns the welfare of our combat veterans stricken with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as they struggle daily to cope with debilitating anxiety, depression and despair in a society still largely unaware of their individual exigencies. As one who lost a brother-in-law to suicide after a long struggle with PTSD following Vietnam, and still to this day sees the effects of that tragedy on my sister and two nephews, I regrettably, am all too aware of the horrors of this illness.

 According to data compiled by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the suicide rate in 2007 among veterans from 20 to 24 years of age was 22.9 per 100,000, which was four times higher than non-veterans in the same age bracket. The Pentagon’s figures on suicide from 2008 suggest that more than 1,600 of Army and Marine Corps personnel tried to kill themselves in that year. An estimated 30 percent of soldiers who took their own lives in 2008 did so while on deployment. Another 35 percent committed suicide after returning from a tour of duty. An early 2009 study by multiple mental health agencies and providers showed that an estimated 24.6 percent of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan meet all criteria necessary for a diagnosis of PTSD. These rates increase to almost 34 per cent, one out of every three, for troops who served multiple deployments.

 Stop the Loss Foundation believes that accredited recognition of the wounded party for his/her valor in coping with its effects, focusing on hope and honor rather than despair and shame, can do much to aid in the suppression of the stigma attached to PTSD ultimately improving that service member’s chances for survival. We therefore further believe that the time has come to formally recognize the entitlement due those individuals inflicted with PTSD resultant from their involvement in one or more unconscionable events during their tour of duty in a combat zone.

 In 2008, the Pentagon established a provisionary panel of experts to evaluate this issue. Sadly, their conclusion was "against", but stated that they were leaving the door open for future evaluation. We seek your assistance in petitioning the Pentagon to reconvene deliberations on the issue of awarding the Purple Heart, or equivalent medal of merit, to victims of PTSD.

 We are working with AMVETS, the Michigan chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and a group of renowned mental health care providers headed by Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Michigan State University and former Associate Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Frank M. Ochberg MD to form a coalition calling on the Pentagon to renew the discussion.

 We are hoping that you would agree to formally advocating our objective and forwarding our position to the appropriate official in the Department of Defense, and ask that you do so.

 If there is any further information which you need, I hope that you will not hesitate to get in touch with me.

 Respectfully,

 Thomas Mahany

Founder, Stop the Loss Foundation

eldonstone@wowway.com