(NewsNation) — Since 2015, Rep. Seth Moulton has been hosting veterans town halls to provide a forum for service members to share stories and connect with their community.
He hosted another Friday night.
A veteran himself, Moulton served four tours in Iraq as a Marine Corps infantry officer. He said Friday on “The Hill on NewsNation” that veterans town halls can bridge divides between veterans and everybody else in the community.
“I think we’re fortunate to live in a time in America when a lot of people support veterans, even if they don’t support our wars. They want to support veterans when they come home. They want to help us out, but they don’t even know how to relate,” Moulton said. “Veterans town halls enable U.S. veterans to share just short stories of how our experiences overseas have affected our lives back home, and it’s a powerful experience.”
People across the country are taking time this Saturday to honor those who served in the military for Veterans Day.
The holiday is observed yearly on Nov. 11, regardless of what day of the week it falls on, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Moulton says the town halls are a way for veterans to share their experiences with each other and non-veterans.
“I remember an Air Force veteran from World War II just talking about how much he missed being in the war, heard veterans from Vietnam saying they thought the whole war was a terrible mistake, veterans from Iraq who regretted some of the things that they were called to do, and other veterans who really felt impacted by the amazing people they met and got to serve with and yet feel kind of lonely back here at home,” Moulton said.
“So, you’ll hear all range of experiences, but a lot of Americans just haven’t heard of those experiences at all because they don’t know veterans.”
The Democratic congressman from Massachusetts also believes there’s an opportunity to better treat veterans who have PTSD. More research is being conducted on the medicinal properties of psychedelic drugs, and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced Friday she’s ordering one such study.
“There are a lot of veterans from many wars that are suffering from this, and yet it’s really just been an issue that we’ve been willing to address with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, and so there’s a lot of work that can be done,” Moulton said. “We’re pushing the VA to not only research cannabis but research psychedelics as well, and I think there is broad bipartisan support for this.”
NewsNation digital producer Cassie Buchman contributed to this report.