I AM a veteran -- a Vietnam war veteran. I'm the fourth (or fifth) generation in my family that has served. My father, in fact, was career military, with 21 years of service in WW2 and Korea.

What scares me most is the growing need for Veteran Administration services, such a medical facilities, at a time when spending money on the people involved is at a low point. Oh, yes the military and the government will spend billions a day on the wars, but only a small percentage of that is going to the people actually fighting in them. And even less is going to support services for them when they come home.

A number of years ago, I faced a serious health issue -- and was, like many Americans, without healthcare benefits and out of work. Luckily for me, at the time there was a small proportion of dollars allocated to provide medical services for non-service related injuries or disease by the VA. I got accepted for that plan and had a year of services provided for a small co-pay. The next year, the Bush Adminstration got rid of that program, as well as reduced the budget for all VA services. Yes, at a time when more and more veterans needed services, they were being cut.

To this day, the VA budget remains a small fraction of what is needed to really provide decent healthcare, the promised educational services (one of the ways to recruit new service members), and emergency funds for cases like the woman veteran mentioned in the CNN story. And the military still questions the validity of the PTSS diagnosis in all too many cases.

These people put their lives on the line for this country. I didn't -- I served stateside for my enlistment -- but by doing so, I freed up a man to be available for service in a war zone. But insuffient services await them when they come back. For myself, and others who never served in an active zone, services are less essential -- but our war zone veterans should NEVER feel as if there is nowhere and nothing for them.