One Native veteran's new mission: Fill in the gaps of VA care on his reservation

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/24/ [login to see] /native-american-veterans-health-care-military-service
When Jestin Dupree got out of the Army in 2014 after 17 years, he was tired.

"I ended up doing five tours of duty overseas. I went to Bosnia in 2001, Afghanistan in 2003, Iraq in 2005, Iraq in 2007. And then [Iraq] again in 2010," he says, "My body was ... the 'check engine' light came on."

He moved home to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana, but things didn't calm down for him right away. He got on the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribal Council there, and even went to Washington, D.C., to testify before the Senate about VA care for Native vets. He was invited to serve as one of 15 vets on the first-ever VA Secretary's Advisory Committee on Tribal and Indian Affairs. That was around the time he realized that he'd been trying to help his people without taking the time to help himself.

"I guess I've been so busy ... getting out of the military diagnosed with PTSD myself, I haven't been able to seek care," he recalls.

And when he tried to get the care, he says, it wasn't easy.