The Changing Veteran Poses Challenges For The VA
Carolyn Schapper was an Army sergeant who served in Iraq with a military intelligence unit north of Baghdad. Today, several years out of uniform, she keeps up with veterans online — on Facebook, blogs and chat groups.
Schapper taps on her computer at her kitchen table and pulls up a community on the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America site.
"They've got 11 people online now doing a chat," she says of the nonprofit group. "So there are about seven different groups that didn't exist three years ago that you can start communicating with people online."
She says that veterans of today don't go to American Legion halls or the VFW for a drink and a game of pool. They've created a virtual community.
"It's a way to find answers to the issues we're dealing with, problems, how to navigate the VA," she says.
Today's Veteran
Schapper, 37, is a California native who joined the Army National Guard after picking up her master's degree in international relations from Boston University. She deployed to Iraq during the height of the insurgency in 2006. During that year, she would go outside the wire to villages, trying to get information from Iraqis.
