Congress looks into rising veteran suicide rate

Veterans are having a hard time making the transition from war back to normal life.

It?s been so hard, many have committed suicide.

It's not just Iraq and Afghanistan. Vietnam vets have committed suicide years after combat haunted, their families say, by the images of war.

On Wednesday, families told Congress the U.S. is ignoring the problem.

Mike Bowman said the National Guard never prepared his son Tim for what he'd experience in Iraq.

Eight months after coming home, specialist Tim Bowman took his own life, on Thanksgiving.

"His war was now over. His demons were gone," said Bowman.

Six years after Vietnam, Penny Coleman?s husband Daniel O?Donnell committed suicide.

Coleman said, "He would wake up screaming and sweating and fighting something terrible that wasn't there."

"I thought that if I loved him enough I could fix him. I was wrong. I had no idea what I was up against," said Coleman.

Families say veterans with post traumatic stress disorder don't seek mental help because they fear it'll end their military careers.

Author Ilona Meagher wrote the book "Moving a Nation to Care"

She said, "They shouldn't be penalized for having to pick up the phone."

CBS News reported over 6,200 veteran suicides in 2005.

According to the Veteran?s Administration, there were 144 suicides reported in the first three years of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The V.A says over 300 were prevented through its suicide hotline.

"Thank God we're doing what we're doing, because we're truly saving lives," said Ira Katz Deputy Chief, Patient Care Services, Department of Veterans Affairs.

V.A. studies found suicides of veterans from Vietnam to Iraq are no more than the general population.

Lawmakers say that's because soldiers are afraid to seek help.

Their solution? Get rid of the stigma and screen every soldier who comes home from war.

Mike Bowman said he wants to know, "Why isn't the V.A. sitting there when they get off the bus when they're coming home from Iraq?"

"Don't make it so that the soldier has to go to the V.A., make the V.A. go to the soldier," said Bowman.

So veterans like Tim bowman and Daniel O?Donnell aren't singled out or left with no way to deal with the horrors of war. And there's concern about the term "PTSD" or post traumatic stress disorder.

Some families and lawmakers argue it's not a disorder.

They say the mental stress veterans face after war is a combat injury just like being shot.