This Veterans Day, Americans will gather to wave flags, attend ceremonies, and offer heartfelt thanks to the men and women who wore our nation’s uniform. We will remember their courage, celebrate their sacrifices, and honor their service.
But when the ceremonies end, the flags are put away, and the crowds return home, a troubling reality remains: far too many of the Veterans we celebrate are suffering in silence.
Some are struggling to pay their mortgages or keep the lights and gas on. Others are battling invisible wounds from military service, navigating broken relationships, confronting loneliness, or wondering whether the country they once swore to defend has forgotten them.
For too many, the greatest battles of their lives begin long after their military service ends.
The consequences are devastating.
According to by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 159,800 former service members have died by suicide since the Global War on Terror began in 2001.
Here in Berks County, the statistics are particularly heartbreaking, if not disturbing. Despite comprising just 4.5% of our county population, Berks Veterans accounted for 26% of all county suicides in 2025.
These are not simply statistics. They are our neighbors, friends, parents, children, teachers, first responders, and our fellow Americans. They are people whose lives mattered long before they became another number.
We must ask ourselves a difficult question: Are we truly honoring our veterans if we celebrate their service one day a year but fail to recognize their struggles the other 364?
At the Berks County Department of Veterans Affairs, we believe honoring Veterans requires more than gratitude. It demands meaningful, sustained action year-round.
When Deputy Director CW2 Will Tobin, USA (Ret.), and I assumed leadership in late 2023, we established a vision centered on one overriding objective: the optimal well-being of every Berks County Veteran.
That meant fundamentally rethinking our mission.
Rather than simply processing claims, we committed ourselves to removing barriers, building relationships, creating partnerships, restoring dignity and connecting veterans locally with the resources necessary to thrive.
Our relocation to a new facility in Spring Township provided an opportunity to create a welcoming, private environment grounded in trauma-informed care. We recognized that many veterans carry experiences that cannot be seen, and that how we welcome, listen to, and serve them matters just as much as the services themselves.
The results have been extraordinary.
For the first time, Berks County ranks No. 1 among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties in both veterans disability compensation and pension benefits at the same time, according to Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs reporting.
During state fiscal year 2026, our department secured $58.45 million in federal benefits for local veterans and their families, a 25% increase over the previous year and 64% growth since our leadership team arrived in 2023.
We also processed more than $4.5 million in property tax exemption credits for eligible disabled veterans.
These achievements belong to our remarkable staff, whose compassion, professionalism, and unwavering commitment have transformed our department. They understand that behind every claim is a human being, a family, and an opportunity to change and save lives.
But our greatest accomplishment cannot be measured in dollars.
It is the veteran who keeps a roof overhead. The struggling family that finds financial stability. The isolated veteran who discovers someone genuinely cares. The person experiencing emotional darkness who finds a reason to embrace their tomorrow.
That is what meaningful service looks like.
Yet government cannot accomplish this mission alone.
We need healthcare professionals, businesses, nonprofits, elected officials, neighbors, and fellow veterans working together to build a community where asking for help is viewed as courage, not weakness.
We must move beyond awareness campaigns toward coordinated action that reaches veterans before hardship becomes hopelessness.
That’s why, this Veterans Day, I encourage every Berks County resident to do something beyond saying, “Thank you for your service.”
Reach out. Listen. Donate. Volunteer. Advocate. Help a veteran reconnect with the community they helped protect.
Our veterans once made a solemn commitment to defend us. We owe them an equally solemn commitment that they will never have to face life’s battles alone.
Because the truest measure of our gratitude is not how loudly we honor our Veterans on Nov. 11. It is how consistently and faithfully we fight beside them every day thereafter.
Lt. Col. Jay Ostrich is director of Berks County Veterans Affairs, a combat veteran with 23 years of military service.