Letter To Patch: There's No Universal Path Home For Veterans

The following is a Letter to Patch submitted by Jeffrey Blonder of Disabled Veterans of America:

Every Veterans Day, we take a look back. We remember where veterans served, what they sacrificed and what they endured on our behalf.

We tell their stories simply because they deserve to be told, and we offer a simple but significant message: Thank you for your service.

But to truly honor veterans, we must also look forward.

Army veteran Sam Juan's story shows why.

Her path to military service was unconventional. She grew up in Bahrain before moving to the United States as a teenager and eventually enlisting in the Army. She began her career as a food service specialist before switching to a new role as a signals intelligence analyst.

Then, she saw a poster for women soldiers to join a new initiative: Cultural Support Teams, serving with some of America's most elite special operations forces in Afghanistan.

She returned carrying wounds that weren't readily visible.

Juan had experienced trauma before the military, and her experiences in combat in Afghanistan added to her burden. Like far too many veterans, she spent years searching for ways to heal. That led her down a dark path that involved self-medicating with alcohol, opioids and other substances.

Eventually, that search took her to Mexico for treatment with ibogaine, a psychedelic plant medicine that isn't approved for medical use in the United States but has attracted growing interest for its potential to help people living with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and substance use disorders.

For Juan, the experience was profound.

It didn't erase her past or undo what happened to her. But it helped change her relationship with those experiences and opened the door to a different future.

She also found healing through art. Today, Juan is a full-time artist who describes the flow state she reaches while painting as a "deep exhale." She's also become an advocate willing to speak openly about her experiences and the unconventional path she took toward healing.

This year, DAV (Disabled American Veterans) named Juan its 2026 Disabled American Veteran of the Year.

Her story is uniquely hers. But the larger question it raises belongs to all of us: Are we doing enough to find better ways to help veterans heal?

For generations, Americans have asked service members to go wherever they're needed and face whatever their country asks of them. When they return home with wounds from that service, our commitment to them can't end because existing treatments don't work for everyone.

Researchers are investigating psychedelic-assisted therapies as potential treatments for some of the most difficult conditions facing veterans. There's still much to learn.

Promising treatments must be studied rigorously, with careful attention to their effectiveness and safety. But veterans deserve the opportunity to benefit from advances in care supported by sound evidence.

They also deserve more than any single treatment.

Healing can take many forms. For Juan, ibogaine was part of her journey. For another veteran, it may be counseling, medication, physical rehabilitation, community, adaptive sports or simply a new purpose.

There's no universal path home.

That's worth remembering this Veterans Day.

We should absolutely thank veterans for what they've done. But gratitude carries a responsibility. It means ensuring veterans receive the benefits they earned, have access to high-quality healthcare and are supported as they build meaningful lives after military service.

A veteran's story doesn't end when the uniform comes off. Neither should our commitment to them.

This Veterans Day, let's honor where our veterans have been and invest in where they're going.