Keeler: Courtroom compassion for veterans

The sentence "Thank you for your service," spoken to a veteran, means well and does no harm. But those who have served in the nation's wars -- and come back with post-traumatic stress disorder and other lingering problems -- need a lot more than this five-word salute.

They need to know that help is available, and they need a nudge to seek it. They're often reluctant, because the mission-first military culture discourages weakness. And admitting to a psychological ailment seems to many veterans like a weakness. If the disability persists and leads them to act in ways that land them in the iron embrace of the criminal justice system, they can use a bit of a helping hand there, too.

So a couple of recent developments are really welcome.

One is an admirable educational campaign by the Mental Health Association of Nassau County and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock in Manhasset.

"The number one issue that's really come to the surface is that veterans are entitled to certain benefits by their service, but they're not aware of them," said John Javis, director of special projects for the Mental Health Association. Hence, the campaign slogan: "You served. You earned."

The congregation's dollars are paying for such necessities as brochures and posters. The campaign will also include a series of outreach talks by Denis Demers, a Vietnam veteran who worked in a psychiatric treatment unit at a military hospital in Danang.

//move upOK. SEE CHANGE.The audience is the more than 150,000 veterans on Long Island. The disabilities they face range from Agent Orange exposure and PTSD to military sexual trauma -- usually suffered by women service members at the hands of the males who served with them. And the services are many.

Still, veterans don't always get that treatment in time, and their disabilities can lead them into committing crimes. That's where veterans courts come in.

When a combat vet suffering from one of these disabilities is accused of a nonviolent crime, these courts focus on getting them the right treatment -- the treatment that might have kept them out of crime in the first place. That's a little judicial break that they deserve.

The state's Office of Court Administration says there are already 14 of them in operation, with six more on the way. On Long Island, there are veterans courts in one form or other in Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk. The district attorneys of all four deserve kudos for their cooperation.

Last month, at the opening of the Nassau vets court in Mineola, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman of the New York Court of Appeals talked about the need.

"We now realize in a way we did not in the past that these invisible wounds of war can have a devastating effect, including behavior that brings many veterans into the criminal justice system -- creating obstacles to a return to a stable and law-abiding life," the chief judge said. "We have an obligation to respond by offering treatment and services to help our veterans get back on their feet."

The chief judge himself is fully committed to these courts, and in his talk in Mineola, Lippman praised the "vision, commitment and persistence" of a predecessor as chief, Sol Wachtler, for his pivotal role in making them a reality.

For Wachtler, a veteran, it's crucial that the courts get going now, while our young men and women are still in harm's way. Once they all come home, he fears that our society's historic forgetfulness of veterans will return, making it tougher to help them.

So these courts and this outreach campaign are necessary, fruitful and meaningful ways to say to our veterans, "Thank you for your service."