Yesterday Josh Michaud was arrested for armed robbery. Last month he robbed a drugstore for painkillers. Two years ago he was a sniper defending our freedom. Why hasn’t the VA taken enough care of him to have kept this from happening???
Michaud was the youngest in a sniper group overseas that has been brought up on murder charges and the VA was doing everything they could with the current budgets (or lacks thereof) to get him the help he needed. In the meantime he behaved this way. I hope in addition to imprisonment, that the state and federal governmental people working with him will have enough courage and intelligence to go the extra mile in getting him the help he needs rather than simply trying to play reward and punishment games with him and other people who will surely be in similar situations.
[ref] = [ http://www.esquire.com/features/michael-hensley-0708-6 ]
Just search this page for Josh Michaud to see what I’m talking about.
He’s a veteran. Why are we only giving him attention AFTER he points a gun into someone’s face???
I’m crying as I write this. Was he priority 8? Maybe several different people in the VA told him they couldn’t help him. Do any of you know how frustrating it is to serve your country for a number of years and then have someone at the VA say they’ve looked up in a chart and your disability percentage is too low? Or that you make $11,500 rather than 11,200 so you can’t get the same service they gave to you or someone else last month?
Just a few things I’m aware of being a vet myself.
If you say you support the troops, then where was his healthcare??
I have healthcare currently but I went without from the day I left the army signal corps until about 2 years ago when I started school again. I’m quite thankful the amount of PTSD I suffer is minimal compared to Josh Michaud.
There but for fortune, go you or or I.