A new push aims to save the lives of countless veterans.
This week, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced plans to expand mental health care to vets with other-than-honorable discharges.
This could impact a little more than 500,000 former service members.
Marine veteran Vincente Hernandez said, “My story is not unique. It’s painful but it’s not unique.”
Action News Jax spoke to one of them about how it could impact his life
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Hernandez joined the Marines when he was 18 and was in boot camp at 19.
Hernandez said it was about “building myself up and making something of my life … the pride you get from wearing that uniform and the legacy of every man that wore it before.”
He said he served from 2008 to 2012 and during his second deployment to Afghanistan as a squad leader, his life changed.
Hernandez said, “I was closer to the IED then you and I are today. I was probably an arm's distance away. It was a 25-pound explosion. It killed my interpreter and wounded three of my other Marines.”
Hernandez suffered a serious brain injury.
“Doctors described it as putting my brain in a microwave,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez got medical treatment and, despite his injuries, he finished his deployment and returned home, where he was recognized for his service. He even re-enlisted, but life wasn’t the same.
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“I didn’t know how to cope … nobody knew how to cope … drinking, fighting, hollering, howling at the moon. We didn’t know how to cope. We didn’t know how to readjust. There was no readjustment program. There was no pep talk. There was no nothing, we returned and we were just expected like nothing ever happened,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez was promoted to a platoon sergeant after his second deployment. But still he struggled.
Hernandez said during the day, “I was balancing this responsibility and then at night I was drowning myself with alcohol abuse.”
That eventually led to Hernandez going out on the town with other Marines.
“We all partaked in the drugs, the drinking and the following Monday there was a random urinalysis,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez failed that drug test and he said after four years of service, he was discharged – “other than honorable.”
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Hernandez said, “I broke down 'cause I realized my whole life was about to be taken away. They stripped me of all benefits, from education to medical … Pretty much the way they described it to me is I was a never was.”
Hernandez said following his discharge, he bounced around from place to place.
“For many years I had shame. I didn’t tell my mom for two years. I got out and my family haunted me … why aren’t you in school? I had to create excuses and lies and eventually it became too much and I confessed and that was the proudest thing I’ve ever done in my life. For that to be taken away I felt no worth. I felt like my whole life was stripped from me,” Hernandez said.
Eventually, he ended up homeless.
Hernandez said, “It’s hard to find stability when you have no treatment for your mental health issues and so I went through years of substance abuse and drinking and homelessness.”
Hernandez was diagnosed with PTSD and traumatic brain injury. He was able to get help in Michigan at the Eisenhower Center and then found his way to the Five STAR Veterans Center in Jacksonville. He got help, but he was lucky.
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Hernandez and others like him say a VA plan to expand urgent mental health care will be a lifeline for struggling veterans.
Col. Len Loving, USMC (retired) and CEO at Five STAR Veterans Center, said, “With this program, if it goes into place, then he can start getting his meds from the VA.”
A life-changer for people like Hernandez who proudly served and later struggled to live.
"It took me years to … to … finally accept this and to actually agree with it. It doesn’t matter how your service ended. No one can ever take away what you’ve done and your pride," Hernandez said.
And for other veterans and even those still serving, Hernandez has a message.
“Some people, they go to work; some people, they go to college. Some people go their whole lives, and I’ve done things in my life with great men I can carry with me for the rest of my life. I’ve shook the president’s hand, I’ve shook the secretary of the Navy’s hand. I’ve led men in combat, I’ve seen women and children get saved from certain situations that they were in danger. I’ve lived through some incredible life events due to my military experience and career, and no matter what discharge they gave me they can never take that honor and service that I’ve gained from my duty," Hernandez said.