By Vincent Lim
Unprecedented health and social challenges face today’s returning military service members, and they will only mount as veterans age, according to former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs and former U.S. Secretary of the Army Togo West Jr., who delivered this year’s Edward R. Roybal Memorial Lecture.
Sponsored by the USC Roybal Institute on Aging at the USC School of Social Work with honorary co-host Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), the biennial event honors the institute’s namesake and founder Roybal—a champion of health and aging services as well as veteran causes. The institute works to advance research that enhances aging for adults in minority and low-income communities.
West, currently chairman of TLI Leadership Group and Noblis Inc., served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Field Artillery Corps and on active military duty in the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General Corps before holding senior positions for three different U.S. presidents.
Drawing upon his time as co-chair of the U.S. Department of Defense panel that investigated the condition of facilities and barriers to medical treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center, West underscored the critical need for the United States to serve those who have served their country in war.