Recommending Military Documentary THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE

“The U.S. military faces a mental health crisis of historic proportions.”

Warning:There are scenes of fighting in this video and in the documentary.

From the website description of the documentary:

Thank You for Your Service takes aim at the flawed mental health policies within the Armed Services and their tragic consequences. The film interweaves the stories of four Iraq War veterans with candid interviews of top military and civilian leaders. Observing the systemic neglect, the film argues for significant internal change and offers a roadmap of hope.

The film proposes the implementation of a Behavioral Health Corps in the military in order to streamline effective care, create accountability at the highest levels and ultimately a reduction to stigma on the issues surrounding mental health. [#bhcnow on Twitter]

Note: There are other military film projects with the same name.

The October 28, 2016, New York Times review stated:

“Thank You for Your Service” starts with a frantic, tear-filled 911 call reporting a suicide. It’s a gut-wrenching moment in a documentary that’s filled with them, and with scenes that make you want to scream in frustration at the bureaucracy faced by combat veterans seeking mental health services.

“We couldn’t have drawn up a more catastrophic way to fail to meet mental health needs than the blueprints that were followed in this war,” a retired Navy psychologist says about Iraq. The facts bear him out: Over the past decade, the number of suicides among veterans has soared.

The documentary reports:

If a soldier commits suicide 121 days after discharge it is not counted as a suicide in the United States military.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), wrote a CNN opinion piece March 11, 2018, after the March 9, 2018, killings at the Pathway Home for veterans in Yountville, California. The title of the piece was “Yountville shooting: The casualties of America’s war at home” and he concluded:

The road forward after war is never easy, and never a straight line, but it’s out there. For individuals — and for our nation. And it’s easier to navigate if we do it together.

That includes you, whoever you are, reading this piece. Veteran or not. Ten tours overseas or none. We all have an obligation to look out for our fellow citizens. And especially those who heroically step up into the breach to serve our country like Christine, Jen and Jennifer did. Not just on the front lines overseas, but here at home. This is your moment. America’s future needs you.

I highly recommend this documentary, especially for Americans who have no connection to active duty military personnel or veterans. It is imperative that we all support the efforts to provide our veterans better mental health care while on active duty and afterwards.

If you have any doubt that we all need to do this together, watch the documentary THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.

Click here to watch THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE on Amazon (free with an Amazon Prime subscription).

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) is the author of the short story SOLOMON’S JUSTICE, which is inspired by the real-life Los Angeles County Veterans Court (see www.SolomonsJustice.com).

Her Kindle fiction ebooks may be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller — and her Kindle nonfiction ebooks may also be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author