Veterans Day offers an opportunity to remember the sacrifices this country's veterans have made to ensure our freedom. And during times of war such as this, those sacrifices are made abundantly clear in the headlines that capture the tragic loss of lives — reflecting the ultimate price the men and women in the U.S armed forces pay for protecting our freedom.

But taking care of our veterans must be a higher priority, one that goes beyond poignant holiday remembrances. Sadly, on that score, this nation has much work to do.

Too many veterans need to fight to receive the healthcare and benefits they've earned. Who can forget the scandal at Walter Reed Medical Center that revealed shoddy outpatient care, dilapidated facilities and the maddening bureaucratic maze veterans face in getting the adequate care? A subsequent study showed similar conditions at veterans' facilities elsewhere in the United States, resulting in a congressional inquiry.

Now, a new study released last week by the nonprofit Alliance to End Homelessness revealed that veterans make up more than 25 percent of the homeless population nationally, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population. "Veterans make up a disproportionate share of homeless people," the report said. "This is true despite the fact that veterans are better educated, more likely to be employed and have a lower poverty rate than the general population."

The report, based on data from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau, found that in 2006 nearly half a million veterans were homeless at some point during the year. That's a shameful number.

Hundreds of veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them with mental illnesses, have started turning up at shelters, prompting homeless officials to warn of problems ahead. Homeless experts noted that it often takes years after leaving the military for mental illness to surface in veterans.

"We're beginning to see, across the country, the first trickle of this generation of warriors in homeless shelters. But we anticipate that it's going to be a tsunami," Phil Landis, chairman of Veterans Village of San Diego, a residence and counseling center, told The New York Times.

One bright spot is Hawai'i's Sen. Daniel Akaka, who has been a tireless advocate for improving benefits and healthcare for our veterans. Akaka, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, has pushed for treatment of the "invisible wounds," including post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses. That's encouraging, considering the fact that studies consistently show these illnesses are often key factors leading to the instability veterans face, which can lead to homelessness, alcoholism and a host of other problems.

Akaka rightly argues that the Congress and the White House must do more to take care of our veterans across the board: "This nation must never forget the sacrifices made by those who served on the beaches of Normandy, at the Chosin Reservoir, in the jungles of Vietnam and on the sands of Kuwait. Congress should focus on creating a system that is equitable for all of our veterans — young and old," Akaka wrote in a commentary for the Washington Post.