A note to our listeners, this episode contains references to suicide.

The war in Afghanistan lasted 20 years, longest in American history.

It overlapped with the war in Iraq, which lasted nearly nine years.

Before that, there was another much shorter war in Iraq.

But that's not all.

While there aren't a lot of World War II veterans around,

there are Korean War vets with us and a lot of veterans from the Vietnam War, the second longest

war in U.S. history. And the thing about war is that, certainly from a mental health perspective,

it's hell. So you have a whole lot of veterans in rough shape,

with psychic wounds, with lasting damage from the things that they've experienced. And you have a

government that put them there and has the responsibility of taking care of these veterans.

That's why the Veterans Administration is there and and the VA medical centers, and telehealth

conducted by the VA.

It's a big system, a whole ton of appointments, all these scheduled appointments.

And there's a problem, because many of these appointments are being canceled.

And it's hard to tell why.

The upshot is that veterans aren't getting the care they need.

So what's going on? It's Depression Mode. I'm John Moe. I'm glad you're here.

The website Military.com, with the assistance of the Pulitzer Center, recently conducted an investigation into reports of a rash of canceled appointments for veterans seeking mental health treatment, especially through telehealth.

Military.com ran a recent article about this. It was headlined canceled appointments, unexplained

mix-ups, veterans facing challenges getting VA mental health care. Reporter Patricia Kime explained

that some veterans, unable to get the care they need, to which they are entitled, are now

...