Former soldier Marty and his wife Ness from WA. He suffers from PTSD. Picture: Gary Ramage

“There’s three reasons I’m still alive,” says Marty, 37, who wants to go by his first name. “The first is I had determination. The second reason is Ness. The third reason is this little dog here, who licked tears off my face when I was lying, crying on the floor.”

Australians are indoctrinated to a belief that those who serve will be embraced by Defence and the Department of Veterans Affairs long after they leave. Cradle-to-the-grave, they call it.

Across Australia, the faces of those who have known homelessness, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide attempts, tell a different story. The government’s affairs when it comes to looking after young veterans remain badly out of order.

Defence cannot shake a culture that sees those with mental injury sidelined and drummed out of service.

DVA, which processes veteran claims, is plagued by a system so archaic it has not yet arrived in the digital age. Files are sent snail mail, city to city, to sections within DVA for lengthy processing. They get lost or stalled on the desks, adding to the distress of young vets who may be homeless or contemplating suicide.

Former soldier Marty and his wife Ness from WA. Picture: Gary RamageSource:News Corp Australia

In March, a Senate committee inquiry found veterans were “being discharged into homelessness” from psychiatric wards. It considered this a “significant dereliction of duty” by DVA and the hospitals concerned.

Such was the case with one young vet we encountered: he’d been in Adelaide’s Ward 17 suffering acute PTSD. Upon discharge, several weeks ago, Rowhan Weatherell, 27, from Victoria, had nowhere to go. Had he not come to the attention of the Adelaide’s Homes for Heroes, he says: “I’d be homeless.”

Housing is not DVA’s responsibility but the committee said that “does not discharge DVA of its obligation to support veterans and assist them to access one of the most basic human needs, stable housing.”

Nor did it accept DVA’s excuses that digitising records would take time: “[It] must be made a priority and should be funded accordingly.”

This was a thorough politically bipartisan caning. DVA is clearly struggling. So are many of the 70,000 Australians have deployed since East Timor in 1999.

In this special investigation, journalist Paul Toohey and photographer Gary Ramage travel the country, talking to young veterans about the issues they should not be facing.

*For help with emotional difficulties, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or www.lifeline.org.au

*Veterans who feel in need of fast help can contact the Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service on 1800 011 046, day or night.

*Veterans can also contact various Overwatch sites on social media such as Facebook, who have networks across Australia and will try to mobilise help.