President Donald Trump will launch a national comprehensive effort with a task force to help combat the epidemic of veteran suicides because there "has to be a war on this," Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie said Tuesday.
"Every day, 20 veterans take their own lives," Wilkie told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "Some of those are on active duty; some are in the Guard and Reserve. The sad thing is that 14 of those 20 are outside of our veteran system."
Wilkie said he will co-chair Trump's task force, along with his partners at the Department of Defense and other government departments and "we will bring out our best medicine" and go to Congress for grants and money to help states.
The president has recognized there must be a national effort, and that the science has changed when dealing with suicides, said Wilkie.
"Most of our veterans come to us in chronic pain," he said. "They are like professional athletes, a lifetime of wear and tear. And we have found in many of the suicide cases that some can't cope with that pain."
Further, there are many of those who commit suicide who have little or no contact with veterans' services, said Wilkie.
"We are looking at a problem that goes back to the time in many cases when Lyndon Johnson was president," said Wilkie. "The majority of those veterans who take their own lives come from the Vietnam era...these are problems that have been building for now almost 50, 60 years. It is those folks that we need to reach out and touch."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.