Suicides of four soldiers in a week stun Fort Hood

mlurp · #1 (**permalink**) 10-01-2010, 03:26 PM

One of my Nam buddies sent me this NYT news release, I called him and we talked for a bit.

He was reading a book by a Airborne Nam vet, and found on line where 3 times the number of names on the Nam wall have killed themselfs. Many reasons are possible, the near 90 % diviorce rate, other vets whom they might know dying, etc.

But this is about todays military, mostly the Army.. This is so sad. And some think unstopable as these wars go on.

Most guys in the Nam were not married while in the military. But today much more are older and married and some both are in the military.

War has little rewards for those doing the fighting. But they pay the highest
costs of the many battles.

Quote:

Suicides of four soldiers in a week stun Fort Hood

By Ann Gerhart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 1, 2010

Fort Hood's leaders have tried nearly everything to stop the suicides. There are support groups and hotlines, counseling sessions and Reiki healing therapies, and strict assessment guidelines for commanders.

But the soldiers keep killing themselves. This past weekend, four more were dead at the Texas post, all of them decorated veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, three of them officers, two of them fathers of young children.

All four appear to have shot themselves, according to preliminary reports gathered for the Army's Suicide Prevention Task Force. Their deaths, which did not appear to be related, came within a few days of a visit from the Army's vice chief of staff, who reiterated his urgent plea for hurting soldiers to seek help.

"Every one of these is tragic," said Maj. Gen. William Grimsley, who commands Fort Hood, the nation's largest Army post. "It's personally and professionally frustrating as a leader."

"It came out of nowhere," said Spec. Dana Blomquist, 23, whose former squad leader, Sgt. Timothy Ryan Rinella, 29, was found dead in nearby Copperas Cove, Tex., on Saturday. "He always had a smile on his face. He cared for so much for his soldiers and people that weren't even his soldiers. There are so many people who are feeling guilty, but he never really showed any of the normal signs of people needing help."

So far, 104 Army troops have killed themselves this year, a rate that eclipses the one in the civilian world. The rate at Fort Hood, where 14 suicides already are confirmed this year and six other deaths are under investigation, is nearly four times that of the civilian population.

Grimsley said he saw no indication that the increase in suicides is related to November's mass shooting, when an Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire inside the post and killed 13 people.

A thick Army report on the crisis two months ago points to several causes, including troops being so busy fighting two wars in 10 years that they don't take time to focus on their mental health and a rise in crime and substance abuse. The Army has concerns that the force is becoming "increasingly dependent on both legal and illegal drugs," according to the report.

Soldiers "tell us again and again we are failing," the chief of psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Medical Center said at a military medicine symposium last week. They fear losing their security clearance and losing promotions if they seek help, said Col. John Bradley, and they don't have confidence that the military can provide the necessary care.

"They don't trust us. They believe we speak with forked tongues," added retired Col. Charles Hoge, a former psychiatrist at Walter Reed, who was also at the symposium.

At the same time, in what the Army has begun to call "an era of persistent conflict," soldiers are increasingly culturally, socially and physically isolated from the rest of the country, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in a blunt speech Wednesday at Duke University. Such a small fraction of the nation's 350 million people serves in the all-volunteer force that the divide between military and civilian life is widening.

"Whatever their fond sentiments for men and women in uniform, for most Americans, the war remains an abstraction - a distant and unpleasant series of news items that do not affect them personally," Gates said.

CONTINUED 1 2 NEXT PAGE.
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washingtonpost.com

mlurp · #2 (**permalink**) 10-01-2010, 03:34 PM

The vet I spoke with and I both even 40+ years later face this several times a
year ourselves.

At the right time of year we hit very low points. And trying to climb out of it is
not that easy.

mlurp · #3 (**permalink**) 10-01-2010, 03:56 PM

Many reports down play the rate of self destruction. a few are right on.

Quote:

Suicide epidemic’ hits veterans

For many, post-war life can be more deadly than combat
By Peter Korn

The Portland Tribune, Aug 21, 2008,

Nobody seems surprised. Not the physicians and therapists who treat returning veterans. Not the veterans themselves.

When told of recent data that appears to show that Oregon troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to die of suicide than in combat, they nod their heads, as if saying they’ve known all along.

And they have.

“More often than not, the veterans I have spoken to all say they know somebody who has attempted suicide,” says Portland State University professor and suicide researcher Mark Kaplan.

The numbers are stark, and staggering:

• In 2005, the last year for which complete Oregon data has been compiled, 19 Oregon soldiers died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. That same year, 153 Oregon veterans of all ages, serving in various wars, committed suicide.

• The rate of suicide among Oregon men who are veterans is more than double that of Oregon men in general — 46 suicides out of every 100,000 compared to 22 out of 100,000 — according to the Oregon Department of Human Services Center for Health Statistics.

• Nearly one in three Oregon suicides, according to Kaplan, is a veteran.

Medford resident Stacy Bannerman, whose husband, Lorin, is expecting to be deployed soon for a second tour of duty in Iraq, has become an outspoken advocate for military families. She says she has heard from more than 100 families whose veterans have attempted suicide.

“Based on what we’re seeing already, this country hasn’t seen anything yet in terms of the severity of combat trauma and veteran suicide rates,” Bannerman says.

The reasons, she says, are simple. “It’s about what happens there and how long they spend there,” she says.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See related story:
Treatment scores points with veterans

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One surprising trend: Kaplan and other experts are noticing a rising trend of suicide among aging Vietnam veterans, possibly influenced by what they’ve seen in recent years about Iraq and Afghanistan.

Still, the age group in the state health statistics showing the greatest differential between veteran and nonveteran suicides, by far, are those between ages 18 and 24. Veterans between 35 and 44 have the next highest suicide rate relative to nonveterans of the same age. Twenty-one Oregon veterans under the age of 45 committed suicide in 2005.

Kaplan says even those numbers might be underreported as much as 25 percent.

Nationally, reports of high suicide rates among veterans began to gain attention in April, when a series of e-mails from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs officials came to light during a class-action lawsuit brought by a veterans group in San Francisco.

The e-mails say that 12,000 veterans under VA treatment attempt suicide each year, and that more than 6,000 veterans succeed in killing themselves each year. There are about 25 million veterans.

“There is clearly a suicide epidemic,” says Paul Sullivan, executive director of Washington, D.C.-based Veterans For Common Sense, which brought the lawsuit. Sullivan says the VA’s own data on calls made to its suicide hot line might be the best indicator of the depth of the problem.

According to the VA, in July there were 250 calls a day to the suicide hot line. And veterans have made more than 22,000 calls since the hot line started in July 2007. Portland VA officials say 864 calls to the suicide hot line have come from Oregon veterans in the last year.

But Sullivan says the epidemic might not be most virulent among veterans from the two current wars, but from Vietnam-era veterans. He says many Vietnam veterans he has spoken to tell him that seeing images of the war in Iraq on television and in newspapers has triggered memories and trauma.

Linda Rotering, a social worker who counsels veterans at the Portland Vet Center on Northeast Sandy Boulevard, says she is seeing an increase in the number of Vietnam veterans coming in to see her with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Rotering and others say many Vietnam veterans may have been able to keep the symptoms of their stress disorder at bay while they busied themselves with jobs and families after the war. Now, she says, many are retiring, with adult children, and may be more susceptible to the images from the war in Iraq.

“There’s nothing to block out the memories,” Rotering says. “I hear over and over again, if I have a 19-year-old sitting in my office or a 60-year-old from Vietnam, the exact same things are coming out of their mouths.”

Corvallis mother Adele Kubein, regional representative of Military Families Speak Out, which supports withdrawing troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, says her daughter returned from Iraq in 2004 with a shattered leg and a shattered psyche.

“The first time was when she called from Iraq weeping and weeping and saying, ‘Oh, mom, I can never come home. I just killed a 12-year-old boy.’ I knew from that point on she was suicidal.”

While nobody is sure what leads a veteran to attempt suicide, a recent report from the Rand Corp., a nonprofit research organization, looked at the risk factors for post-traumatic stress disorder, which many believe serves as a precursor to suicide among those who do not get help.

The Rand study found that one in five veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — more than 300,000 people — suffer from either post-traumatic stress or depression. But just more than half sought help and only one in four received acceptable care.
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‘Suicide epidemic’ hits veterans

lizzie · #4 (**permalink**) 10-01-2010, 05:45 PM

I don't think the military is spending adequate efforts trying to re-educate soldiers back to life in the civilian world, and I also believe that many of the soldiers have alot of trouble separating war mentality from normal mentality, and it's easy to understand why. War is an awful thing to deal with on a personal level, because so many people don't understand the complexities of it and the psychological changes caused. If you like to read, I highly recommend a book written by James Hillman (he's either a psychologist or a psychiatrist that uses the Jungian method) titled "A Terrible Love of War". He offers alot of insight into the psychological aspects of war and the reasons humans both hate and love war. It was a really interesting perspective imo- not suited to everyone's taste, but a good read.

alan · #5 (**permalink**) 10-01-2010, 07:05 PM

When looking at suicide rates, one must also consider the demographics.
It is not a fair comparison to compare the military against the national average or a state average because the demographics are very different.

A national average includes all people, but the military is heavily weighted towards white men between the ages of 18 and 26. White males have a higher suicide rate than the general population. Males between the ages of 18 and 26 have the highest suicide rate.

About 2 years ago (on another message board) somebody posted all the statistics broken down by age, race and gender and showed the comparisons between military suicides versus similar rates for the same non-military demographic. The rate for the military was still higher, but not dramatically different than the civilian rates for the same demographics.

I wish I could find the stats that person posted back then, but I can't.

I'm not trying to diminish the importance of this (military suicides), but rather just pointing out how the media tends to skew the facts by comparing the military demographic (which is obviously different) to the national average. By comparing apples to oranges, they elicit an emotional reaction and people tend to go off half-cocked.

lizzie · #6 (**permalink**) 10-01-2010, 08:22 PM

Thanks Pat. Those are great points.

lizzie · #7 (**permalink**) 10-01-2010, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pat

I'm not trying to diminish the importance of this (military suicides), but rather just pointing out how the media tends to skew the facts by comparing the military demographic (which is obviously different) to the national average. By comparing apples to oranges, they elicit an emotional reaction and people tend to go off half-cocked.

I don't doubt that to be the case, but I do believe that young men in the military, especially those who are in direct combat, have alot of difficulty reconciling the mentality it requires to go kill on a foreign battlefield, with the mentality of coming back to civilian life, especially currently in the society in which we live. In older times, most people were more in touch with the reality of life and death, because many more people hunted and fished for food, and they understood more about the intricate connection that humans have with sacrificing life. Many kids nowadays never get connected to nature and reality of living, dying, and survival. They get sent to war having had no experience with a gun besides video games or paintball games. Add to that, that there are alot of Americans who treat military men as 2nd class citizens when they return (just as we saw happen after 'Nam).

alan · #8 (**permalink**) 10-01-2010, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lizzie

I don't doubt that to be the case, but I do believe that young men in the military, especially those who are in direct combat, have alot of difficulty reconciling the mentality it requires to go kill on a foreign battlefield, with the mentality of coming back to civilian life, especially currently in the society in which we live. In older times, most people were more in touch with the reality of life and death, because many more people hunted and fished for food, and they understood more about the intricate connection that humans have with sacrificing life. Many kids nowadays never get connected to nature and reality of living, dying, and survival. They get sent to war having had no experience with a gun besides video games or paintball games. Add to that, that there are alot of Americans who treat military men as 2nd class citizens when they return (just as we saw happen after 'Nam).

Indeed, killing another living being has many variances to it.
The vast majority of people would have no problem killing a black widow spider that was in their house or killing a poisonous snake that was in their yard.
Then we have food. Most of us don't have a problem knowing that a chicken or cow was killed for the food on our table. Some wouldn't be able to make that kill, but have no problem eating the flesh anyways.
Killing another human is an entirely different matter. It is killing our own species. In war, it is killing another person that you don't have a personal grievance with. Had that other person harmed you or your family personally, you could possibly justify killing them (in your mind), but on the battlefield, that isn't the case. I'm sure it weighs heavily on the minds of those that kill.

mlurp · #9 (**permalink**) 10-03-2010, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pat

Indeed, killing another living being has many variances to it.
The vast majority of people would have no problem killing a black widow spider that was in their house or killing a poisonous snake that was in their yard.
Then we have food. Most of us don't have a problem knowing that a chicken or cow was killed for the food on our table. Some wouldn't be able to make that kill, but have no problem eating the flesh anyways.
Killing another human is an entirely different matter. It is killing our own species. In war, it is killing another person that you don't have a personal grievance with. Had that other person harmed you or your family personally, you could possibly justify killing them (in your mind), but on the battlefield, that isn't the case. I'm sure it weighs heavily on the minds of those that kill.

Thats a solid point but add in buddies who die or our wounded, command, living stiuations, and the sites of battles, ambushes (IED's as well as enemy contact) and the fact the enemy is not fighting main battles which most of our forces are trained for it is a night mare for all involved.

Yet like the Nam I have not heard about the enemies dealing with the same mess.
And like Nam far more of them die or are wounded than our troops..

And our forces are well intergrated today, If might point this out.

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