In honor of Veterans Day, we will be holding a special Twitter discussion about the disconnect between the U.S. military, veterans returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the rest of American society under the hashtag #TIMEVets.
This week’s cover story by TIME’s Pulitzer Prize winning Pentagon correspondent (and the fearless editor of Battleland) Mark Thompson examines that disjunction. Tomorrow at 2:30 pm (1430 for all of you who’ve spent time with the troops), we will be hosting our first Twitter chat, discussing the civilian/military divide. We will focus on veterans unemployment, the VA healthcare system, and the myriad other challenges facing today’s veterans.
In addition to Mark, @MarkThompson_DC, we will also have TIME’s international editor and author of Black Hearts, Jim Frederick, @Jim_Frederick. I will be tweeting under the incredibly clever handle @naterawlings.
All you have to do to join us is tweet using the hashtag #TIMEVets. We will host the discussion from 2:30 to 3:30 pm on Veterans Day, but we hope the conversation will last much longer. If you have any questions, please reach out to TIME’s social media producer Alli Townsend (allie_townsend@timemagazine.com) and of course you can always find us on Twitter @TIME.
I hope many of you will join us tomorrow on Twitter, and happy Veterans Day!
Nate Rawlings is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @naterawlings. Continue the discussion on TIME‘s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.