Army suicides hit record number in June

mlurp · #1 (**permalink**) 07-16-2010, 12:48 PM

I understand some of these troops as I have come close several times. But at each attempt, but one a time long ago, the last moment my faith in Jesus stopped me from going through with it.

Others might not believe in Jesus, but if I didn't I would not be here now. And yes I still get depressed enough to consider taking my life. But there is that voice or thought (call it what you like) that stops me.

I just wish more of our youth was raised with our Lord in their life.

Many LINKS within the news release...

Quote:

Army suicides hit record number in June

By Liz Goodwin... 1 hr 34 mins ago

Thirty-two soldiers took their own lives last month, the most Army suicides in a single month since the Vietnam era. Eleven of the soldiers were not on active duty. Of the 21 who were, seven were serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said.

Army officials say they don't have any answers to why more and more soldiers are resorting to suicide.

"There were no trends to any one unit, camp, post or station," Col. Chris Philbrick, head of the Army's suicide prevention task force, told CNN. "I have no silver bullet to answer the question why."

Last year, a record-breaking 245 soldiers committed suicide. The Army seems on track to surpass that number this year, as 145 soldiers have taken their lives in the first half of 2010.

Tim Embree of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America testified Wednesday before the House Veterans Affairs Committee that many soldiers fear seeking help.

"The heavy stigma associated with mental health care stops many service members and veterans from seeking treatment," he said. "More than half of soldiers and Marines in Iraq who tested positive for a psychological injury reported concerns that they will be seen as weak by their fellow service members."

He pointed out that the statistics don't include the number of veterans who end their own lives. That figure surged 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to the Veterans Affairs Department.

The Army has a 24-hour suicide prevention hotline, and has videos and other resources on its website. The Army's new suicide prevention video features a soldier talking about his own failed suicide attempt after his wife said she wanted to divorce him. The rifle he used to try to kill himself didn't fire, he says, and he later found out his comrade had disabled it because he was worried about him.

Army suicides hit record number in June - Yahoo! News

saltwn · #2 (**permalink**) 07-16-2010, 02:45 PM

Went to visit my inlaw at a VA long ago and in the day room (where you could still smoke) there was this charming young man and we talked. About nothing in particular but he made such an impression I asked about him on the next visit. He had leaped from the window in the day room where we met and managed to break his neck. He did it on the evening of our visit.
I was depressed for weeks about that. Was there something I could have done to prevent it/were there signs I should have seen? I still ask myself once in awhile.
What a tragedy.

mlurp · #3 (**permalink**) 07-16-2010, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saltwn

Went to visit my inlaw at a VA long ago and in the day room (where you could still smoke) there was this charming young man and we talked. About nothing in particular but he made such an impression I asked about him on the next visit. He had leaped from the window in the day room where we met and managed to break his neck. He did it on the evening of our visit.
I was depressed for weeks about that. Was there something I could have done to prevent it/were there signs I should have seen? I still ask myself once in awhile.
What a tragedy.

When I went thru the Viet-Nam unit (now called something else) they placed pictures of those they thought completed the time there with good results. Half way in my short time there I saw a nurse's aid removing the pictures and asked why.

I got along with the aids so she told me, even though several had been given
service connections, they had either killed themselves or like one walked into a bank with a gun in hand and was killed. His gun was empty. Only one had died from a drug overdose.

salty stop beating yourself up. War is really Hell on earth. What you do and see while involved doesn't leave most.

I have dreams (I call Nam Mares) several times a week. Or while posting the story I saw my first comfirmed kill, he had to be a teen, his gun jammed but he kept pulling the trigger while I brought my M-60 to bear and hit him 7 times in the chest. We were about 20 feet apart. He came out of nowhere while we were doing a patrol in the highlands.

It just happens to me as well as the others.

While in the VA before the Nam Unit ( it was required each did a week in the drug treatment unit ) we had 3 Nam groups. In the last one a guy who had entered the Unit a long while B-4 was at the group, he was a WWII vet. Had a milk farm north of here.
He was out one night and it was foggy he went back to Europe and shot about half of his cows the evening before thinking they were a German patrol.

At dinner time the group stopped. I went to my bed and was crying because then I knew it would never end.

And I wanted a normal life... Away from the drugs and misery that made me leave society and live in a cave in the mountains from where the CO. VA sent me to KS. for the program.
All I knew was it was suppose to help us. Truth be told it can't do much after 20 years of living with it and not understanding what is going on.

I came home 42 years ago and the best it has done is allowed me to get off drugs and on the VA drugs and avoid run ins with the police.

So no your not at fault nor were you trained to see the signs.

MrLiberty · #4 (**permalink**) 07-16-2010, 05:03 PM

I had a good friend who went through the Vietnam war and came home without injury. He went to college and came out an Engineer and went to work for GM.

Somewhere along the way we lost touch with one another and just a few years ago as I was leaving a bar that was near my house at the time I was approached by a guy looking for spare change. He was homeless and raggedy so I reached into my pocket and gave him a ten. He looked at me and asked if I remembered him. Well, it was my friend from years ago. He hadn't come home from the war unhurt, it just some time before it caught up to him. He had lost everything, his wife, job, home, everything, and the only thing he wanted more than a drink was death.

Like salty you do beat yourself up over these things, and I have asked the same questions she did. There was nothing we could have done differently, but maybe, who knows.

Today, at least my friend is dried out and off drugs, but his life isn't much better, he still has no job, but he does get veterans benefits and has a small apartment. It isn't much but at least now he doesn't talk of wanting to die.

Someday I hope he find his way home to Jesus, but until then.........

Thanks lurpy!

mlurp · #5 (**permalink**) 08-06-2010, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrLiberty

I had a good friend who went through the Vietnam war and came home without injury. He went to college and came out an Engineer and went to work for GM.

Somewhere along the way we lost touch with one another and just a few years ago as I was leaving a bar that was near my house at the time I was approached by a guy looking for spare change. He was homeless and raggedy so I reached into my pocket and gave him a ten. He looked at me and asked if I remembered him. Well, it was my friend from years ago. He hadn't come home from the war unhurt, it just some time before it caught up to him. He had lost everything, his wife, job, home, everything, and the only thing he wanted more than a drink was death.

Like salty you do beat yourself up over these things, and I have asked the same questions she did. There was nothing we could have done differently, but maybe, who knows.

Today, at least my friend is dried out and off drugs, but his life isn't much better, he still has no job, but he does get veterans benefits and has a small apartment. It isn't much but at least now he doesn't talk of wanting to die.

Someday I hope he find his way home to Jesus, but until then.........

Thanks lurpy!

Your friend like me took a long while to face up. As do most from back then when P.T.S.D. wasn't considered a war problem seeing the govt. said one year tours and your home (DERO'S).
And they oftered no help as I tried but they put me on a locked up mental ward.
I had the nursers key the same day and was on my way out of the VA in E. Orange, N.J. when the VA police grabbed me as all I had were the PJ's I was given to wear..

They wanted to test me and say No "Post Viet-Nam Syndrome" which I have the records to prove it. That was in the early 70's.

My first marriage went south and I lost many friends blaming all but myself.

What it took for me was leaving society and being alone as much as possible. And realize I made the choices not anyone else. That voice in my head was the Lord, telling me the truth, I was the one to blame, not others.

Once I did that I felt a weight lifted up and instead of blaming others and God, I faced many truths...

So you and salty still shouldn't blame yourselves, if the govt. didn't do a thing.
What could you guys know or do. NOTHING, but give that $10.00 dollars. I still do that when I see one and offer to give them a ride to the VA.

I don't care if they were in the service or not, if a guys is without lift them up a bit. Sure they will buy a bottle, but they will also eat.

Myself I know as I lived on the streets and saw it happen.

But never asked for a dime. I could work at the day labor site. Or deal with the college kids and the guys I knew that had pot.

And nobody can help anyone unless that person faces the truth and is with the attidude I need help.
And the first test is stop the drugs and drinking, cause with them no help is going to last. IMHO...

Today at least the govt. is trying to reach out and help those in need, be it P.T.S.D., homeless Vets, those who want to stop the drugs or drinking or both. Which is the usual case.

And like during the end of the Nam era these are plenty of Vets in jails or prisons. That either couldn't get help or didn't ask for it.

What one can do is offer help at the VA's as a volunteer if one is close to you for a few hours a day or weekends. Or give to Vet causes and shelters that need support.

In CO. there were plenty of these I used to feed and cloth myself for free. And as payback I stuck around and stopped the drunks form messing up as I knew most of them.

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