BWF in the News

January 13, 2010

13 JANUARY 2010

Chairman Alquist and distinguished members of the Senate Health and Veterans’ Affairs Committees; on behalf of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, I want to thank you for your continued support of injured service members, veterans, and their families.  With over three million veterans living in the state of California, your State represents the largest veteran population in America. You are keenly aware of the challenges that our nation’s service members, veterans and their families face.  It is an honor to speak with you today.  

On January 29, 2006, my brother, ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff, was severely injured in Iraq when his convoy was struck by a roadside bomb. On that day our entire family was thrust into an unfamiliar world that has changed all of us forever.
After five weeks in a medically induced coma at the National Naval Medical Center, in Bethesda, Maryland, Bob finally awoke on March 6, 2006. For Bob and our service members injured in this war, Bethesda’s state-of-the-art care was only the beginning of a very long road to recovery. Over the last four years, Bob has made miraculous strides in that recovery with his “new normal” turning out better than nearly all had expected. In fact, today Bob is back at work reporting full-time throughout the world, and this summer he even returned to Iraq with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen. Bob was fortunate. He had a definitive diagnosis, access to state of the art rehabilitative care in close proximity to his home, unlimited access to cognitive testing and rehab, a commitment from his employer to do everything they could to retain him in his professional field, and a strong support network of family and friends to assist him through all phases of recovery and the transition back into his community. Bob was also blessed with the support, professionalism and high competency of military medicine without the overwhelming burden of navigating an unwieldy bureaucracy. Throughout Bob’s recovery, our family surrounded ourselves with service members who had sustained similar injuries. Through them our family has learned that Bob’s road to recovery was not riddled with the same administrative snares or limited treatment options that so many injured service members and their families endure, nor the difficulties reintegrating back into his community. Despite the challenges these families face each day, the bravery and steely resolve we have seen in the eyes of children, spouses, and parents who care for their injured service members each day have inspired us. Much has improved for our injured service members and their families, though much still needs to be done, especially after acute treatment is complete and our service members return to their communities.

I am not a veteran though over the last four years I have shared their pain and have been blessed to have met many of our wounded and their families. I share their love for our country - your love for our country - and, as a result, I try to understand their burdens. I see the pain of their sacrifices and I watch them as they weary from the enormity of their circumstances. As an American, I stand with pride, in awe at their accomplishments. I often wonder, even though they live in a resilient community of people with whom one another rally at times of stress, how they can keep up with this operational tempo. Our service members and their families continue to re-double their efforts, re-connect, prepare for the future and pace their marathon. They know their job is not done, that they still have a long and challenging journey ahead. My question is, as a government, are we doing all that we can to prevent, screen, diagnose and treat our injured? As civilians do we support them, empower them, ensure that they thrive in our communities when they return? Our veterans cannot manage this journey alone, sustain this pace and continue to thrive at home and abroad. They need us.

In Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and Iraq (Operations Iraqi Freedom) our service members are engaged in asymmetrical warfare, a war with no “front” lines, where crude yet effective blast weaponry is used by insurgents to gain an advantage against US forces. IEDs are the signature weapon in these conflicts, and the combat circumstances create hypersensitivity and severe injuries in the “rear.” We recently witnessed this occur in Afghanistan when we lost seven CIA agents in a deadly bombing in the “rear.” The signature injuries of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are Traumatic Brain Injury and Combat Operational Stress (COS), which sometimes results in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. These less visible injuries are typically “hidden” from view.
While 1 in 50 service members in OEF/OIF have sustained physical combat injuries, 1 in 5 have sustained a hidden injury of war. They are often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, and the frequent over-lay of a TBI combined with PTSD makes diagnosis and treatment more difficult. Though there are efforts within the military to dispel stigmas, they are still prevalent in the military culture frequently delaying or preventing service members from seeking screenings and treatment. The Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have not screened every returning veteran for TBI and COS, and there is no consensus from unit to unit on when to remove a service member from the “fight.”

Treatment for injured service members is often not executed close to the service member’s home of record. Suicides continue to increase in the Services, especially within the Army and Marine Corps, and tracking to ensure successful reintegration for service members and their families is inadequate. Moreover, as our service members return from combat to civilian life, these injuries create other complex problems such as substance abuse, divorce and homelessness. Veterans and their families who have not been properly screened, diagnosed and treated while in the service or who have been disciplined or discharged from service will constitute a large proportion of individuals needing State assistance.

As of January 5, 2010, 36,364 service members have been wounded in action and 5,301 killed in action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Advancements in combat medicine and training, improvements in body armor and vehicle armor, as well as detection devices, have increased the survival rate of a wounded service member to approximately 90%.

The burdens of responsibility to ensure that our service members, veterans, and their families have successful futures are shared by the federal, state, and local governments, as well as the private sector. The federal government alone is inadequate in addressing all of the needs of reintegrating service members, especially those with the hidden injuries of war.

We encourage the State of California to consider requiring that all California military service men and women returning from combat zones throughout the world be comprehensively assessed and treated for the cognitive, psychological, physical, social, and medical complications associated with the hidden injuries of war. That the State establish and fund a formal reintegration program at the State level to address the needs of injured service members, veterans, and their families to ensure successful futures and empower local communities to take action to assist. The program should specifically address the following issues: Housing, Education, Employment, Healthcare, and Recreation/Socialization.

Even though Bob’s career as a journalist is very different from that of a young service member, as a family we feel a special connection to those who have volunteered to serve and have been injured in the line of duty.  In gratitude for the care Bob received and for the service of our men and women in uniform, we established the Bob Woodruff Foundation – a national nonprofit that helps ensure our nation’s service members return to a home front ready to support them.   We do this in three key ways:

1. Through a movement called Remind.org — we help educate the public about the needs of service members returning from war… and our nation’s greater responsibility to ensure our heroes and their families receive the support necessary to successfully reintegrate into their communities.

2. We collaborate with other experts and organizations, at the federal state and local level, to identify and solve issues related to the return of service members from combat to civilian life.

3. We invest in national and community-based programs that connect our troops to the help they need — from individual needs like physical accommodations, medical care and counseling, to larger social issues like homelessness and suicide.

Together with our partners, supporters, and communities, we are helping heal the physical and psychological wounds of war. The Bob Woodruff Foundation has spent nearly $4.5 million on programs, reaching more than 500,000 service members, support personnel, veterans and their families nationwide.

The Bob Woodruff Foundation is dedicated to collaborating with lawmakers, the Departments of Defense and Veteran’s Affairs, and private industry to develop excellence in prevention, diagnosis, treatment, support and resources for our injured service members. By creating awareness and educating our nation on the hidden injuries of war, and helping individual injured service members and their families with opportunities as they navigate their own journey, we hope to make certain all of our injured receive the best treatment available and the best chance of resuming their lives as successful honored members of their communities. Thank you.

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