"washington journal." a.m.morrow morning, 7:00 eastern time, we will begin again with michael waldman about then we will talk to the senior editor at the -- senior editor ponnuru. aboute will talk foreign-policy challenges that president obama faces. we will see you again tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. enjoy the rest of your memorial day. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] 4]

>> on this memorial day, c-span is visiting for memorials around the national mall in washington dc. this is the korean war veterans memorial, just steps away from the lincoln memorial.

it opened in 1990 two. the walls in the background are etched with 38 soldiers representing the 38th parallel. it also contains a pool of remembrance. on the walls, an inscription that reads freedom is not free. also today, live coverage from the tomb of the unknown. nationalrlington cemetery. we will be bringing you here at 11:00 eastern as president obama takes part in the annual wreathlaying. after that, the president will want to the amphitheater at the cemetery to deliver the annual memorial day address. we will hear remarks from general martin dempsey. our live coverage it's underway at 11:00 a.m. eastern right here on c-span. afternoon, c-span's coverage of commencement addresses from around the country continues.

we will hear from scott walker, terry mcauliffe, and antonin scalia. here are some of his remarks. >> in more than a few law schools, including some of the most prestigious, the university of chicago for example, it is possible to graduate without ever having studied the first amendment. talk about citizen lawyers. can someone really call himself an american lawyer who has that gap in his compendious knowledge of the law? so a society that depends much upon lawyers for shaping public perceptions and preserving american traditions regarding freedom of speech and religion afford such an ignorant bar? all of justiceh scalia's remarks and commencement addresses by terry

mcauliffe and scott walker starting this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. eastern right here on c-span. >> thank you for your service. thank you. glad you are here. >> excellent to be here. a veryare going to have nice surprise when you go in the memorial. it is beautiful. get my wife in here. where is she? [laughter] >> how are you doing? >> thank you. [applause] >> are you in the navy? >> in the marine corps. >> that's tough. >> that was tough. >> well, thank you for being here today. >> thank you.

thank you for all of the service you have given. >> former world war ii senator and veteran bob dole regularly visitors to the memorials. the george w. bush institute in dallas hosted a symposium on supporting veterans returning from war. i and othersl talked about ptsd and jobs for veterans returning home. >> we want to talk in this panel about some of the obstacles are veterans face. some of the obstacles the wounded face. empoweropportunities to those veterans. with generalrt

pete correlli. we went through a lot together. ed have visited the wound together. since retiring as vice chief of staff of the army where he was deeply involved in issues of posttraumatic stress, dramatic brain injury --i truly think no one cares more than peter chiarelli about the future of our wounded veterans. he is now with one mind, where they dedicate their time to continue to help those same veterans. general, i want you to talk and theose obstacles health and wellness of our veterans as they go forward into civilian life. this discussion is a double-edged sword.

in 265,000 soldiers that have come back from these conflicts with ptsd. 3.4 million americans suffer head trauma every single year. with posttraumatic stress, eight iscent of the population expected to have posttraumatic stress sometimes in their life. it is just not caught by combat. most of the work that has been done to understand it has been done on ladies who have been sexually assaulted.

74% of women who are sexually assaulted develop posttraumatic stress. that is why i am so happy that dropped -the d. it is not a disorder. [applause] and italk about this started talking about them because i did not know if they were, the doctors put a slide in front of me that showed 37% of our wounded had to medic brain injury or post-traumatic stress. i did not know what they were. i knew that i had some combat stress folks. i knew what my football coach told me about concussions. i began this process of trying to learn about it.

i found that even the professionals did not know much about it. the only way we diagnose these things are with tests. testive and a cognitive for if you bump your head. i think it is important to put in context that the numbers are great, they affect service members, but the large majority of service members coming back do not have posttraumatic stress and did not have traumatic rain injury. that does not mean we don't need to highlight it and talk about it because that is a you get people and to get the help that they need. >> everyone in this room knows what the fisher house foundation does for our veterans. governmentduring the shutdown you were amazing with the families and supporting those families for those who

loved ones. i want you, ken fisher, to talk about how important it is for this support of those families, the work you do, and that support the families give the veterans, in terms of success when they transition. >> we get the veteran or the servicemen and women when their life seven flipped upside down. ,oo often, the call comes then the family has to mobilize quickly. that is what is done. that is what needs to be done. can you imagine being in the hospital and not having their family there? we facilitate getting to the bedside of the loved one through them. of programs that we provide. through a myriad of programs we provide.

we average americans don't have happens to to what these families, especially at this time. when you think about what is going on in their lives, the world has not come to a grinding halt. bills have to be paid, mortgages have to be paid, children have to be raised, schools. multiple trips back and forth that families have to make. , you havesoldier heard that term. that includes the family. the family plays a very vital role in the rehabbing of the soldier. of the service man or woman. fisher house plays a role there. we have seen the families, the impact that the family has. we get them very early on. it is always very gratifying to know we played a role.

the ones that don't get employment, we try to play a role, we tried to provide mentoring wherever it is possible. i try to be available as much as i can to do that. remember that there are other issues. a veteran doesn't post-traumatic stress. the family suffers as well. education, webout need to educate the families. we need to make them aware of the early signs of posttraumatic we do not gett into substance abuse, domestic file length, and the other , and the violence other issues that have become very much a part of the picture. >> also with us is wayne robinson.

you are a post-9/11 veteran yourself, retired command sergeant major. more importantly, your director of student veterans of america. and about your work educating returning vets. the g.i. bill is amazing. people are not always taking advantage of it. thank you and thank you for the opportunity to speak about ie amazing young people that get to represent. to start with a little bit of background on student veterans of america, it started six years ago on 20 campuses. when student vets were saw that the, they college environment or higher education was not prepared for

student veterans. we were older, much more mature, had a different worldview than just coming out of high school, then the traditional student. .hese vets met in chicago we started on 20 campuses six years ago. today, we are on more than 1000 for 1000 representing chapters with more than 400,000 students being serviced by our , and theur advocacy work that we do in delivering programs. some of the issues that are faced by student vets, number one, being able to transition. 2011, iransitioned in had a team. i was very porch and into -- fortunate to be helped by general pace. i had a personal sitdown opportunity. what i realized was that the majority of individuals will not

have that. we are 25 years old when we are transitioning. they don't have that transitional point. there are gaps between, where do i study, what do i study, and the arrival on a campus. what we have done hereto for is to be able to represent them once they get to a campus and in and through their education. exists between those that transition and those that never make it to the campus. >> what president bush was saying earlier about, how do you transition somebody out of my last job was in a humvee or tracking down terrorists -- how do you transition that to the work list? also joining us is the head of merrill lynch wealth management. we talked earlier about the private sector.

?hat challenges are you seeing what are you doing in terms of hiring veterans? doing what you can that is working? >> we heard what the challenges are. a lack of preparedness, the stigma, ongoing commitments to the guard and the reserve -- we design benefits based on people who do not always look like returning veterans. maked up trying to veterans fit our structure and what we're trying to do as an organization is recognize that to bends not work -- our structure to the way they work and think and act. it requires a different approach. my example might be internships. if you're going to try to get an internship from a firm like marilyn for bank of america, it is very competitive. mostay we go after the

talented folks, the veterans, we created a different internship track. them a noll -- allow risk, free look at what a career might look like. the on boarding process is different as we bring our veterans in. just about how they are going to transition into the work place. we do not have all of the answers. we have unique training for those folks. the answersntly, all lie within our people. we have 6000 veterans that work for bank of america merrill lynch. they have the answers. peer to peer interactions and learning are the best approach we have to continue to evolve the process and how we can make sure that it is a successful transition. the one thing that is important

because itoing this is a business opportunity for us, as well as doing the right thing. merrill lynch has a 40 year hiring veterans. i look at this as an enormous opportunity. is how do we gather the resources to make it seamless? going met people who are to help me do this more effectively. one is sitting next to me. >> you have all of these great ideas, but connecting the dots and making it work, how do you do that? to me from conversation and experience that this all starts while they are still in the military. not get that transitional help or they get

two days of transitional help and nothing more. some people fall through the cracks. each of you talk about your ideas about how you connect the dots to what you are all concerned about. do you want to start, john? >> sure. we have a military support advisor group while they are in the military. we have. teams assigned to working with the military and military support organizations. to identify talent coming out of their service. we have a structure around that. the other way is for us to plug into wayne's organization. i went to florida state university and i am impartially proud of what we do. that is a great opportunity for us to identify talent. we attach directly to the military, as well as our ongoing recruiting efforts with on

college campuses. >> let's go down the order. issue and weat the talk about the greatest generation and we know that the stats exist, we can talk about the 500,000 scientists and engineers they came out of that , 14 nobel laureates, three presidents, three supreme court justices. --ey' pill that back, if you peel that back, they look just like us. i see connection being the issue. today, we are redoing our key infrastructure. we want to have employers that

are interested in reaching out to vets. interested in connecting with vets to connect with them directly on campus. recruiters need to be able to toectly access that -- vets have a robust and dynamic conversation. we will have that infrastructure in place so that we are out of the conversation. they will be able to reach out directly and they that will be able -- a vet will be able to put a face to a name. >> we have been hearing about the veteran and the transition to the private sector. imagine if the veteran is wounded. they still have to overcome their ones, which they do with magnificent grace and dignity.

they have additional challenges. so do their families. in my mind, while they are doing their rehabbing and still receiving treatment, it is to get to them at that point. mentor. let them know what is available. make them aware of what they need to do. they do have additional challenges now. it is not just walking out of the military and into the private sector. for these men and women, the additional challenges are many. we used to say, there is still a benefit cap. -- gap. during the transitional process from the department of defense to the v.a.. that is the point when i would like to see the mentoring process begin. let them know what is available, what will be expected of them, give them an idea of how they can brand themselves, how to put a resume together. use the time all they are

improving themselves toward making them competitive, giving them an equal -- leveling the playing field, if you will, for that particular man are woman. >> you have seen specific things on the transition. the transition from dod to v.a. is not that simple. >> no it is not. those are some of the things we need to fix. in don't know when you are dod that that position to v.a. is going to be difficult, because you have never been in v.a. before. we have drug formularies that are not the same. a kid has posttraumatic stress that is treated with an antidepressant that is four years old and he finally gets on the right dosage with the right drug and he transfers to the v.a. and the v.a. has a different formulary. they say, we cannot prescribe you that drug. can do not have the drug

because the formulary is different. v.a. has a very set formulary. do with whatg to drugs they think are better, it is those are the drugs they have to provide. we have disconnects like that. we have this great place that arnold and ken fisher have built at walter reed. the national medical center at bethesda, i will be politically correct how i state that. job of an amazing putting together a treatment plan for a young man or woman. they leave with a treatment plan, much being experimental or cutting-edge. they go back to a place like west point, where they are relying on the tri-care network.

that network basically says, we will not cover 50% of that which is on your treatment plan. think of that. we send them to a dod facility, they get a treatment plan, they move to the insurance provided by dod where doctors are not available to cover them and they what you are of being prescribed, we cannot provide you because it is not covered by tri-care. there are huge bureaucratic issues if we are really going to provide care. we need to do an end to end assessment. from the time you enter the army until the time you are buried. how to ensure that these two huge organizations are together and are totally focused on the servicemember, man or

woman, throughout their career. if they live in a rural area and they have this prescription and they go to their v.a. -- the plan is to get them home as quickly as possible to aid in their recovery. and mention if they go back to their v.a. in a rural area and they get this response to the pharmaceutical treatment. what happens then? they kind of vanished. we lose track of them. >> i did not even know this existed. i had no idea this problem existed. mayor faceds, one with that, because of the pain they went through in getting the or rightidepressant sleep medication to handle thetoms, they walk out of

v.a., find a civilian provider, get them to write the script, and pay for it out of pocket. that is what they do. they don't want to go through that again. >> i want to touch on what president bush was talking about in the beginning. media coverage. we cover the homecomings and the heroes. we cover challenges or things that make all of the people watching think these people are victims. they don't want to be victims, we don't want to be fake or miss. i do think i understand these issues quite a bit to rid -- bit. how do you convince the country, how do you draw that line that you want people to be aware of of the wounded, the challenges, yet you do not want to paint people as victims?

we want to raise awareness, but we don't want to paint them as heroes are the m's -- were victims. thisu start four ohms like like this, i hope. appreciated the first panel. i think it takes somebody from the top to force veterans employment. when you get to the hr person andis faced with two files if you don't have a push from the top, i can't help but think that the middle manage, hr person is going to float on over the person who has not the floyd because they read a story -- deployed because they read a hady about some veteran who some problem with his brain and

they are afraid. it takes pressure from the top to get in there and say, no, we are going to do things differently. >> how does merrill lynch do this and do away with those stereotypes? >> one is education. communicating with a lot of people is very hard. i can say happy holidays and not everyone will hear what i say. it is relentless education. specifically we have identified is a program called unconscious bias. all carrything we with us. it sounds like this fits in this category. news bitsdbits and that we file away and that suddenly inform us. we are taking our leadership teams through this. this is education. what president bush did for me really helped me. he talked about diabetes. my aunt suffered from it.

had severet childhood diabetes and one day, she went into a, and i recognized it and we were able to call. i think about that as a work issue. she has an incredible leadership career with our organization. why is it any different? you shared about head injury and post-traumatic stress is not unique to combat. it is unique to life. i think that education process would be one way to go at it. a bridgeou talk about from military to civilian life, i know i and up talking to my military friends and i often say, do you have any civilian friends? does theonsibility military have to bridge that gap as well, to hell. -- to integrate?

>> i could speak on that for quite a while. when you look at the investment, when you say, we are going to america's best sons and daughters and we will put them through a process and make them the best warriors, where they can deploy anywhere around the world, be self-sufficient, hit the ground, only be able to answer one question and figure out the other nine when they hit the ground, that is pretty amazing, seeing as how they came in at 18 or 22. after that huge investment, to turn them into this amazing world -- warrior that is able to support the country, fight , andere around the world

then we look at the investment when it is time for them to come out. if you compare the two there is obviously a lot more that we can do. rebrand that 22-year-old that we just told nothing was impossible? if i can address the previous question about conversations. what we want to be able to do is for thehe conversation veteran in higher education. we want businesses to be selfish ask they approach us and what is the return on investment? the return on investment for hiring a vet.

we partner with military family research institute from purdue university and we want to prove quantitatively that if you hire a vet, this is your return. we know that everyone dollar was invested in a vet, seven dollars wee returned in the economy want to reshape how vets are viewed. we have a higher success rate with veterans than on veterans, anecdotally, we have some data. there was also the higher unemployment data. can you address that? why do you think that is quest to mark -- why that is?

deity is doing their best. best. is doing their they are working hard to prepare better. i am pleased to hear the data is being turned over to employees. i could not find the right lawyer to make that happen when i was where i was. those things are great steps forward. we need to go further than that. i had a discussion with a friend of mine. what only require everyone to do a linkedin profile before we leave? i said, i can't do that because it is a privately owned organization.

it is those kinds of modern things that are available today, we need to make sure we get them in the hands of the veterans and in the hands of the hr person far earlier in the process. >> if you had to prioritize right now what you should do make this process , how do you prioritize? we have hired 4000 veterans over the last three years. my priority in achieving that is to connect better with the organizations that can provide me that talent pool. and can associate us

channel the skill set. walking out of here is to do a good job connecting , to pute of the people our team in place so we can have a much more efficient approach to the identification of veterans. >> i want to eliminate the 20%. those who aren affected. i'm different in that way. i want to understand posttraumatic stress. tell withbe a will to certainty that someone has it, not by asking them 20 questions. we treatdemand that today's veterans better than we treated other veterans, who we know had post-traumatic stress and dramatic brain injury from every we have ever fought in. inare 40-50 years behind doing the research and need tong the dots that be connected to find answers to

help that 20%. that and could really , we wouldhis mystery go a long way in helping veterans unemployment, by taking uncertainty,a of of people having brain injury and post-traumatic stress doing things that we don't want them to do. much improvement do you think there has been an removing the stigma. >> i think it is still there. i think this is society's problem. you don't like talking about suicide. i had 170 active duty soldiers

inmit suicide every year four years. we up to be focused on the large numbers. the 3.4o be focused on million people who are going to have head trauma every year. we had to be focused on the $78 billion that traumatic head trauma costs this country every single year and getting rid of it. we have to increase a research budget to researchers who are going to research the right way by sharing their data. [applause] we have to increase that budget because i know with all of the great ceos in here that if you had a 70 a billion-dollar problem and you are only spending $82 million per year to get at that problem, you would not be a ceo for long. htthe stigma still exists.

we have brought it to the forefront that there is a stigma. now it is up to the veteran, it is up to the servicemen and women to come forward and get the help that is there. started working in focusing on what works, instead of what doesn't work. i'm so tired of hearing about everything that is wrong. let's start looking at what is right. let's see what works in this country. to see what works as it relates to veterans and better practices. let's also remember that through this whole thing as the military family and with sequestration , it is thecuts segment of military society that will get hit the hardest. this is where we as philanthropists, as foundations need to do a better job of

hitting the issues, eliminating redundancy, honoring for donated dollar, fulfilling the mission that we have to fulfill. , with everything that has gone on, it is the private that is going to make the difference, that is going to eliminate the gap. we can do it. we need to be more vigilant. if you could tag along,

were to ask anyone in this audience or outside this audience, what are the graduation rates of student vets at a university across the ?ountry invested into student that education, into the g.i. bill. when you ask the graduation rates, no one could tell you. very low data exists. we are determined to partner with the best and the brightest organizations that are committed to bringing them out of the shadows. bringing them out of the portion of nontraditional students. google has stepped forward. lumina.

we're doing a project called the -- millioncord records project. we are computing the graduation rates from 2000 until 2010 and we are going to release that. the first time in 70 years. in march of this year. afterwards, we are going to compute the persistence rates and we are going to demystify student vets. those of us up here on the panel understand this. get is what we're going to out to the american public, so we can get out of the poor that portion of the conversation and put us into the proper business sense and term for the country. >> coupled with the research we are doing here, correct? this up foren

questions from the audience. we are going to wait for the microphone this time. again, if you can state your name and affiliation. you want to direct your question to a particular person. jesuit -- that is latin for troublemaker. [laughter] i run the savior society for the blind. i represent the national association for blind veterans. i would like to refine the focus and little bit. -- a little bit. en talked about wounded warriors who carry their wounds with them. employers tend to back off when up with one leg or one arm. blind people do not even get to

show up. blind people can do almost a sighted person can with the proper training. my challenge is, what are we doing for the blind veterans? that is a small segment, but in the last 20 years, combat injuries that affect the eyes have skyrocketed. dod has created a separate department to deal with this. companies have got to find ways to incorporate this. i will take the question as a challenge. i cannot really address that specific issue. i promise you if that is a bias, we will address it. i agree with you. we just have to check it out. you're going to get anybody who is going to disagree with you. correct? hopefully you will do that and others will do that. thank you for bringing that up to rid -- up.

thank you. right behind you. then we will go to you. i am the director of veterans initiatives for the walt disney company. i am a simple soldier wearing a suit. we heard very big numbers. thousands and hundreds of thousands. the veteran employment is one veteran of the time. i offered to this room with this brilliant crowd that each person assist one veteran toward completing college, one veteran toward finding employment -- we will move 300-400 veterans toward a better life. i offer that to the group. i'm sorry it is not a question, it is a statement., thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. anybody want to say anything on that? that is another, we agree.

it is true. it is one at the time. it is really getting to know veterans. ,t is knowing who is out there who can offer their services. oute are so many veterans there who are so extraordinary, who could do so many things, who just need a push sometimes. >> i am the chair of the veterans coalition of north central texas. nonprofit organization comprised of 70 plus organizations that meet together every month. you talked about, what are you doing? that is what we're doing on the ground. we come together every month to talk about the issues of our veterans and the veteran service organizations that support our veterans. i do have a question. thealks about research and

economy and increasing the funding for research, the gap in prescriptions, aftercare, private sector. all of that goes back to our coverage for our veterans. tri-care is one of the most pathetic coverage is around. us on providers that call a regular basis and say, we can no longer be in your network because you don't pay anything. we can no longer see your veterans because you pay less than medicare pays. that is absolutely embarrassing. what are we doing before we talk about increasing the funding for research? we talk about prescriptions. if we do not have doctors that will see them, how can they even get the prescriptions? how can we talk about research? what are we doing to say we need to provide medic -- better medical care, dental, vision, better all-around health care for our veterans? >> let me take that question.

general, you are going to get this one. [laughter] one of the issues with tri-care is its payment rate. we are trying to establish where that is having an impact. i am sitting on a commission that is looking at this whole thing. i know dod paid out $16 billion in incorrect medical costs onto the tri-care network. they only did $8 billion worth of care inside our facilities. two thirds of our care is going on to the network. there are a whole bunch of things happening in health care today which are making it difficult. a $16 billion bill is something we are being asked to look at, to lower. i promise you that. i don't see a movement to raise tri-care payments. i really don't.

there are things that could be done to help it. they are normally five-year contracts. services are set for five years. that is why you have these problems. the nighco. the plan is set for five years locked in concrete. it is difficult to change. you have to wait until the next contracting phase five years later to include things like cognitive behavioral therapy for people with posttraumatic stress , that is covered across the board. i understand your issues. they are issues. the commission i am sitting on is looking at all of those issues. >> my name is david hambleton.

on mr.d to touch fisher's point about best practices and what is working. one of the organizations i am involved in is to address a $60 million shortfall. the number of people would be happy to dedicate their time to volunteer to do operational improvement,roject for the v.a., if we could gain access. for tri-care. thisbility for people in room to volunteer, to give, to support, to give their time and talents is one of the challenges. >> volunteering is not always easy.

it is not always easy for companies to take fallen tears -- volunteers. love to help, if we could. if we could find access. when i heard that the department of defense was giving up data on how to access veterans and help them prior to their leaving, i was stunned. we did a project for 3000 sale years -- sailors. the biggest problem was how do we engage them? these issues around privacy was a big block. of, we are from the private sector and we are here to help. >> let's let ken fisher talk about that. about volunteering, first of all. about people wanting to help. i think volunteers are very relevant, especially when it

comes to fisher house. program ared of our those who want to serve in any way that they can. they don't always have treasure, they have services. if therereally know was a question. forgive me if i am not answering or fry am not -- if i am not hitting your issue. when it comes to volunteering and the relation to two tri-care, i was not sure about the correlation. what i would like to say is that there are many ways that we can on a could difference. i know there was a lot of anger about tri-care and potentially raising fees and so forth. i know there is a lot of anger. let me rephrase that. i think the quality of care that has been administered to those wounded with a 95% battle survivor rate -- it is hard to

argue with the quality of care. focusing on best practices, working,on what is find something that is worth your time and your effort and volunteer. there are many organizations out there that need you. it is not just treasure, it is time, too. when i hear the word volunteer, i apply it to what we do and the amazing volunteers that we have. [indiscernible] >> do you have a quick question? >> how do we get connected? >> you are considered a private organization and that is something that frustrates us all.

private organizations would come to us with one sole intent and that was to help wounded warriors and it was very hard because of the ethics asulations for us to be seen favoring one private organization, even though it was directed at helping individuals over another private organization. ken can tell you how difficult it is. worldrdest thing in the is to give the government anything. , the less ofe do an onus it puts on the government. what we do, we have to do well. >> gentlemen, i want you to each wrap up, if you can, some final thoughts on how we take what was announced today in this initiative and research that is being carried out