This really resonated on a number of levels. I served on a nuclear guided-missile cruiser as a machinist mate for 4 years, before I suffered a complete melt-down, went AWOL, just trying to get transferred from my ship and get help for my condition. They gave me an honorable discharge (this was ’77 and they were reducing the ranks, post-war), and within a couple months, I was in a months-long suicidal depression. I was lucky to be in the Philadelphia area right when a doctor at the University of Pennsylvania was running a Depression Clinic at the V.A. hospital, which I enrolled in and got back on my feet, after a 2 month stay in the clinic. I recently went back to the V.A. (for the first time in 30 years) when I was suffering hearing loss. I was again lucky to go the V.A. Medical Center in D.C., where a specialist from Georgetown University Medical conducted an ENT clinic on Fridays. He discovered a rare brain tumor (facial nerve schwannoma) in my inner ear, and I got the best possible treatment for that I could have gotten, anywhere. He was really one of the world’s experts on that rare condition. The V.A. does have its moments — I was most lucky to catch it in a couple of its best. They do have some doctors who truly care about the vets.