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BY MAJ. GEN. GLENN K. RIETH

COMMENTARY

On this Veterans Day, our thoughts and prayers are with our brothers and sisters at Fort Hood as they try to rebuild in the aftermath of the tragic shootings there.

The carnage last week at the Texas Army installation served as a reminder that identifying service members with mental health problems — and getting combat veterans from every era the help they need — is a paramount concern for us all.

New Jersey is a pioneer in assisting veterans with mental health needs. In 2005, the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs in conjunction with UMDNJ's University Behavioral Healthcare launched a toll-free hot line that is staffed around the clock by veterans and mental health specialists. The aim is to get any veteran in crisis the help he or she needs immediately. This hot line was one of the first of its kind in the nation and it remains the only such hot line that's available for the family members of veterans as well.

The Governor's Council on Mental Health Stigma is also to be commended for launching the "Life Doesn't Have to Be a Battlefield" campaign last year. More than 400 mental health practitioners have been trained to work with veterans through this anti-stigma campaign.

We begin our efforts to assist our newest veterans from the moment they end their combat tours.

A legion of more than 100 volunteer mental health professionals from some of the state's top providers conducted screenings of the men and women of the New Jersey Army National Guard's 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team immediately after they returned home in June after a year in Iraq.

For the next 90 days, these soldiers were the focus of the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program, a Department of Defense initiative that aims to ensure that every service member who returns from a war zone is made whole in mind, body and spirit.

The members of this brigade had a tough mission in Iraq, returning the country's prisoner detention facilities and Baghdad's International Zone back to the Iraqi government.

I'm proud of these soldiers and their accomplishments. I'm also proud of the way the state's veterans community rallied for their return. Mostly, though, I'm proud of the efforts that have been made to help our neighbors make the transition back to the lives they left behind to serve.

These programs are a benefit to the veterans' families and the civilian employers they left behind in New Jersey.

These 2,850 returning troops from the 50th Brigade are part of the reason for the growth of combat veterans in New Jersey.

In all, more than 17,000 New Jerseyans have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, or both. Put in perspective, that's nearly the population of Rutherford.

Many of these men and women, these soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, joined the military after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and have served more than one combat tour.

James Egan of Glen Rock is typical of this newest generation of veterans. He was so driven to serve this nation that he had to overcome recruiters' concerns about a chronic digestive disorder. He not only joined the Army, he earned his commission as an infantry officer and completed Ranger training before serving in Iraq in 2003 with the 1st Cavalry Division.

After leaving active duty, Egan joined the Army National Guard and led a company of soldiers from Teaneck on his second tour in Iraq. The men and women of Foxtrot Company were well served by Egan's battle-tested leadership.

Serving the nation he loves comes easily for Egan.

After all, he's just carrying on a family tradition. His father, Tom Egan, served in Vietnam as a medic with the same Army division.

Service is what we honor on Veterans Day. In the end, it doesn't matter whether that service was in combat or in peacetime. What matters is that someone stepped forward and served.

Major General Glenn K. Rieth has been the Adjutant General of New Jersey since 2002. He commands more than 8,300 soldiers and airmen of the New Jersey Army and Air National Guard