Women Veteran Suicides: Is this SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)?

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - This history of American women in the military goes back to the Revolutionary War and every war since and most probably the result of the same mistreatment including rape, the worst assault.

At the present time 15% of military veterans are female and this amounts to about 2,000,000. I wrote two stories relating to this subject in 2008: MILITARY NURSES: VA’S SHABBY TREATMENT OF FORGOTTEN ANGELS and MILITARY RAPE: SOP (STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE) both in salem-news.com and I had many responses.

The Oregonian newspaper, December 2, 2010, came out with the headline: SUICIDE RISK IS TRIPLE FOR WOMEN VETERANS. This story was based upon an article of the same subject in the Journal Psychiatric Services co-authored by Prof. Mark Kaplan of P.S.U., Dr. Bentson McFarland of the Oregon Medical School and Natalie Huget also of P.S.U. They did not mention nor include the fact that 41% of female veterans had suffered Military Sexual Trauma (MST), 19% had suffered sexual assault before the military and 24% had suffered sexual assault after the military.

Many were gang-raped by their military “comrades” possibly many by superior non-coms or officers. About 60% of these women had PTSD usually caused by the MST.

This brings me back to the history of women in the military, our sisters and sometimes our mothers or daughters.

Dr. Mary Walker in the Civil War was the first woman to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Think about that you guys with a Bronze or Silver Star! In Italy in WWII 4 nurses got Silver Stars for staying with their patients, covering their bodies during artillery barrages at field hospitals. Many nurses got 6 or more battle stars, far more than the typical Dogface Infantryman. Sixteen nurses were killed from battle action. Two hundred more were killed from accidents or illness. The nurses got many Bronze Stars and many Purple Hearts. Most lost about 25 pounds and got grey hair in the 4 years of WWII.

One of the most disturbing facts of my story on Military Rapes was by Retired Air Force Captain and an ordained minister who reported she had been raped by her Colonel and Lt. Colonel and she wrote of 40 U.S. Generals, Admirals and Colonels who have been given immunity by U.S. Courts for serious criminal sexual behavior.

Rape is a serious consequence for women in the military. If it were civilians the rapist would be serving beaucoups time or killed by a relative of the woman.

Men veterans are committing suicide at alarming numbers mostly for total abject failure of VA Treatment for Combat PTSD. Many women also have Combat PTSD mostly because there are really no rear areas, almost everything is frontline terror with incredible combat stress.

Women are said to be reluctant to seek VA Treatment for PTSD. They have probably been told – “you really haven’t been in combat so how could you possibly have PTSD.” Well if frontline nurses and medical techs get PTSD anyone in Artillery range will get it also.

Another disturbing factor regarding mistreatment or maltreatment for Combat PTSD is that about 300,000 male vets are homeless but there are also about 8,000 female veterans who are also homeless.

Got a question or comment for Dr. Leveque?
Email him: Newsroom@Salem-News.com

More information on the history of Leveque can be found in his book, General Patton's Dogface Soldier of Phil Leveque about his experiences in WWII.
Order the book by mail by following this link: Dogface Soldier.

Watch for more streaming video question and answer segments about medical marijuana with Bonnie King Dr. Phil Leveque.

Click on this link for other articles and video segments about PTSD and medical marijuana on Salem-News.com: Dr. Leveque INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES

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Luke Easter December 5, 2010 3:37 pm (Pacific time)

Gangs? Not on the corners in Chicago, LA, Detroit, Harlem but in the U.S. Military. Maybe, being captured by the enemy isn't all that bad. I'm sorry, the enemy on the outside because there is certainly one on the inside. So, how come after LaVena Johnson, Tina Priest, Morganne McBeth and countless others even before these, why is it still going on? Is this not America? Are we not aware? President sips beer at the White House to calm a racist incident but rape? Not amongst crack heads or meth addicts but serving in the Armed Forces. Joe Wilson where are you? Spoke up and shouted, "lie, you lie" or Sarah Palin, John McCain, John Kerry, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson. You rant and rave about every other little thing. Hey! Tea Party, looking for a real cause? Yeah! Tough guys on the platform, rally circut, backyard bar-b-que, hometown buffet but in real life? All of you are useless.

Veritas Amore December 4, 2010 11:20 pm (Pacific time)

I used to help veterans of both sexes develop evidence in support of their sexual assault claims in the VA system. These victims were assaulted by individuals and then often by the service or VA when they sought treatment and justice. Things are much, much better now though far from perfect. In fact, the VA's rules of evidence for personal trauma claims are the ONLY types of claims in which a qualified medical professional, after a thorough review of the veteran's service records and interview, can establish legally whether an event or series of events caused the current Axis I Disorder disability. In no other circumstance can the medical profession intercede on legal matters of determining "service connection." (38 CFR 3.159) One more thing: Something I won a 3-day pass for while in the Army was knowing what SOP stood for. Most people wrongly assume the "S" stands for "Standard" when in fact the correct answer to SOP is "Standing Operating Procedure" since the "normal" procedures change from time-to-time, upon command change, manual updates, etc. I hope this helps and thanks for bringing an extremely relevant and difficult subject to light in support of our wounded soldiers. Respectfully, A Disabled Veteran who knows and cares

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