For this week's cover story, New Times tagged along with a group of combat-wounded veterans on an alligator hunt in a Florida swamp. All the men were Purple Heart recipients injured while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. To gain perspective on their lives after the war, here are a few salient facts, courtesy of a recent survey by the Pew Research Center:
- Just one-half of 1 percent of Americans have fought in the post-9/11 wars, serving in an all-volunteer military.
- Thirty-seven percent of the veterans who served in the post-9/11 wars say they suffer from posttraumatic stress.
- More than 80 percent of those veterans say the American public "has little or no understanding of the problems that those in the military face."
- 96 percent of the post-9/11 veterans are proud of their military service.
- Yet just one-third of them say that, considering the costs and benefits to the U.S., the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have both been worth fighting.
