A small group of veterans wearing masks took to the street of New Orleans Sunday to bring awareness to what they say is the high cost of war.
Dozens of U.S. veterans gathered outside the VA Hospital and put on a white mask.
“This is not something that you are going to see every day, a veteran with a dead mask on his face,” Army Veteran Adam House.
“I wear the mask because to me, it helps represent the fact that the costs of war are so deep.”
House says that one of those deep costs in the number of veterans that take their own lives. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, every day 20 veterans commit suicide.
“It is overwhelming when you think holy crap, 20 veterans a day are committing suicide in this country? That should shock any conscience,” Marine Corps Veteran Adam Kokesh said.
House was deployed to Afghanistan for 15 months is 2007 and 2008. He said that most people today are side of the way politicians see the military.
“It's always rah-rah-ree-kick-em-in-the-knee that kind of thing with the military, and I think a lot of us get tired of used as props of political points and rhetoric,” he said.
House wants to change the conversation and make it more about veterans and the issues they are facing. The white mask he wore Sunday, embodies that.
“This is life and death. This is war. These are the issues that we deal with as veterans. This is more of the face of the issues we are talking about,” he said.
The VA Hospital made it very clear that it did not have anything to do with the march. It would not let any of those gathered for the march on the grounds of the hospital unless they had an appointment.
Katie Steiner can be reached at ksteiner@wwltv.com.