Bob Filner: “Unfortunately, suicide prevention has become a major part of our responsibilities to both active duty and our veterans.…”

“Unfortunately, suicide prevention has become a major part of our responsibilities to both active duty and our veterans. It is a terrible statistic, but as many Vietnam veterans have now committed suicide as died in the original war. That is over 58,000. We have to do as a Nation a better job. The Army just announced recently that the suicide rate among active duty and recently discharged has now reached Vietnam proportions. So we have to do a far better job and we intend to do that. One of the top priorities of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs in this Congress is to address the needs of our returning servicemembers. I believe that if we send our men and women off to war, we must, as a nation, do all we can to address their health care needs when they return. We cannot ask them to fight and then forget them when they return from battle.”