A veterans service organization slammed President Obama Tuesday night for commuting the sentence of felons while not pardoning those who had been kicked out of the military for behavior linked to post-traumatic stress disorder.
John Rowan, the president of Vietnam Veterans of America, said in a statement that the group hopes the president will pardon veterans who received other-than-honorable discharges related to PTSD before leaving office on Friday.
“As pardons are being issued to people who have been convicted of serious felonies, veterans who served their country in combat wait to be offered the same clemency,” Rowan said.
Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning on Tuesday. Manning was convicted of leaking sensitive information about American military and diplomatic activities and sentenced to 35 years in prison, but will be released in May as a result of Obama’s action.
Vietnam Veterans of America sent a letter to both Obama and President-elect Trump in November asking them to help those veterans who had been discharged because of symptoms related to post-traumatic stress disorder. Some veterans with undiagnosed PTSD received other-than-honorable discharges because of behavior that stemmed from their disease, such as repeatedly being late to formation or violent behavior.
As a result, some of those veterans were not eligible for mental healthcare or other benefits through the Veterans Affairs Department.
“We hope that President Obama, in the final hours of his presidency, will do right by his troops by helping bad-paper vets with PTSD,” Rowan said. “We cannot wait another four or eight years for an outgoing president to take action to help the most vulnerable veterans in the country.”
