First off, thank you for the valuable work you do with our Nation’s veterans. Our service members deserve anything and everything we can do for them when they come home.

Second, it makes perfect sense. The therapists at the rehab hospital I was at took us on lunch outings on weekends. They got to know us quickly, and to them, we were just Matt, Tony, Tamara, Ben… T outside observers, we were a collection of human oddities that descended upon that restaurant with the express purpose of making their day uncomfortable. Pointing, staring, glances followed bywords spoken in hushed tones — we grew used to it. For some of us, those behaviors from strangers persist long after we’re discharged from the rehab hospital.