America has built an entire culture around thanking its service members. We thank them for their sacrifice. We honor their bravery. We applaud their willingness to defend something greater than themselves. But gratitude has never been the hard part.
From airport homecomings to stadium tributes, we regularly pause to recognize those who serve. These gestures are meaningful, but also easy. The real test of appreciation comes long after the simple acts of gratitude, when veterans return home and rely on us to help them make the transition to civilian life.
That is where the country is falling short.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs exists for a single purpose: to support the men and women who served the country once their service ends. The agency says so itself in its mission statement: “To fulfill President Lincoln’s promise to care for those who have served in our nation’s military and for their families, caregivers and survivors.”
Yet, for an institution built around that promise, the execution of that mission is extremely lacking.
The transition from military to civilian life is rarely simple. For many veterans, this is where the challenge begins. When leaving behind a sense of purpose and a life few can relate to, mental health issues like isolation and difficulties adjusting to civilian life are common. And when support systems barely meet those needs, the consequences are devastating.
Veteran suicides continue to hover far above the national average. From 2022 to 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, suicides among veterans dropped from 6,442 to 6,398, according to the American Legion. However, the suicide rate per 100,000 veterans increased during the same period: 13.7 percent to 13.9 percent for women, and 37.3 percent to 37.8 percent for men.
Even more alarming — about 61 percent of veterans who died by suicide in 2023 had not received care from the VA in the last year of their life. This challenges one of the most common stigmas about veteran suicide: It isn’t the trauma from combat, or the repercussions of post-traumatic stress disorder, but that the system itself that doesn’t provide a safety net to catch them when they fall.
At the same time, the VA continues to pour enormous amounts of money into programs that show little evidence of real effectiveness. According to the VA 2026 Budget Submission, the Suicide Prevention Program Office is requesting $608.1 million — an increase of $114.4 million from the current estimate of the 2025 budget. In theory, that funding should represent a serious commitment to solving the problem.
In practice, it raises a different question: If we’ve thrown so much money at this issue, where is the accountability for the lives we have lost since then?
The agency fired over 40,000 employees under President Donald Trump and VA Secretary Doug Hollins. It is hard to address a crisis of this scale while simultaneously reducing the workforce that is expected to solve it. Fewer employees mean fewer doctors, fewer mental health professionals and fewer staff members available to guide veterans through an already overly-complicated system.
Respect for our veterans cannot stop at applause or speeches. Thanking someone for their service means very little if the country fails to care for them once that service ends.