Army Suicides: The Invisible Elephant in the Pentagon

I predicted two years ago on Salem-News.com that the PTSD and suicide rates of this war would be catastrophic from my own experience.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I listened to Katy Couric's story about excessive and worrisome Army suicides on Thursday, April 8th, on CBS. This did not surprise me.

I was a Combat Infantryman, point man, Battalion scout and forward observer in the Infantry during WWII for about two months. When I tell this to fellow Infantry battle veterans, they usually say, "No, you weren't."

Well, I was, and I have the PTSD, a Combat Infantry Badge and a Bronze Star to prove it. Been there, done that, seen that!

What really surprised me were the comments of a Light Colonel at Fort Campbell. In response to the shocking numbers, he remarked, "I hardly believed it."

Well, Colonel, I have some news for you, the Blood and Guts of war mostly occurs to the front of the company command post and most of that kind of war is fought by the Privates with a little help for Corporals and Sergeants, and practically none from the officers behind company CP and even less at Battalion or those way back someplace where the USO and Red Cross girls are.

Those guys' biggest stress was getting their two or three bottles of booze before it ran out.

Katy reported 13 Army suicides in March '09, and 54 since January 1, and 140 for last year. The frontline dogface Infantryman sure know what is going on, even if the colonels don't.

Now as a battle-scarred PTSD veteran, I'm going to tell the Colonel from the Army trade school in West Point not what is going on, but what is NOT going on.

"The frontline soldiers are totally stressed out." "Urban combat is like walking blindfolded into a mine field."

"The thousand pound IEDs are the booby traps and the explosion of one can OBLITERATE a soldier even many yards away."

In Europe and even in Korea and Nam, soldiers could go AWOL if only for a few hours or days. Any escape from the front can be a life saver.

I predicted two years ago on Salem-News.com that the PTSD and suicide rates of this war would be catastrophic from my own experience.

I am comforted that the newspapers, TV etc and finally the Army have caught up with the facts, maybe.

The worst part of this is that the Army medical and VA care is a colossal travesty. The drugs they are foisting on the PTSD vets are only working on the low level cases.

Those in the moderate or especially severe cases are S-O-L. They are the alcoholics, drug users and suicides.

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Bill April 26, 2010 9:06 am (Pacific time)

The major problem with psychservices is the stigma engendered from unaccountable psych diagnoses, and demeaning terminology. American physicians also have a high rate of suicide, like our veterans yet American physicians refuse psychoservices. Why? American physicians report that any involvement with psychs, causes documented family/personal problems, and ruins one's professional career. Now if physicians are saying this perhaps we should take notice. Secondly psych like to blame everyone else; however, they invested psych terminology, they profit from it, and they tend to defend it. And that's the documented truth folks.

Franklin Cook April 13, 2009 5:35 pm (Pacific time)

I wrote "Culture of Stigma Is a Key Cause of Military, Veteran Suicides" -- http://tinyurl.com/StigmaMilitary -- to highlight how essential addressing stigma is in countering this tragedy. The post concludes with this proposition: "If stigma ingrained in military culture is a force that is stopping suicide prevention programs from working effectively, then the vital question to answer is, What is military (and civilian) leadership doing -- besides issuing orders, which is a necessary but not sufficient step -- to decisively lessen the stigma against help-seeking that is killing so many of those whose sacrifices make our freedom possible?" Franklin Cook, Editor and Publisher "Suicide Prevention News and Comment" http://tinyurl.com/SPNAC-about

i agree April 13, 2009 3:50 pm (Pacific time)

i am not a veteran but i am in a relationship with one just glad that they are now aknowledging it and am now waiting for results

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