18 Vets Kill Themselves a Day: We Hail Them As Heroes Then Treat Them Like Garbage

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/investigations/18-vets-kill-themselves-day-we-hail-them-heroes-then-treat-them-garbage?akid=9339.277129.xcDUIw&rd=1&src=newsletter704563&t=14




The month of July set a record high for the number of suicides in the U.S. military. An Army report reveals a total of 38 troops committed suicide last month, including 26 active-duty soldiers and 12 Army National Guard or reserve members — more soldiers than were killed on the battlefield. The reasons for the increase in suicides are not fully understood. Among explanations, studies point to combat exposure, post-traumatic stress, misuse of prescription medications and personal financial problems. Army data suggest soldiers with multiple combat tours are at greater risk of committing suicide. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta addressed the issue in June at the annual conference on suicide prevention in the military, saying, "Despite the increased efforts, the increased attention, the trends continue to move in a troubling and tragic direction." We speak with Marguerite Guzmán Bouvard, whose new book is called "The Invisible Wounds of War: Coming Home from Iraq and Afghanistan."

AMY GOODMAN: The month of July set a record high for the number of suicides in the U.S. military. An Army report revealed a total of 38 troops—26 active-duty soldiers, another 12 National Guard or reserve members—are believed to have committed suicide in July, the highest rate recorded in a month since the Army started tracking detailed statistics on such deaths. More U.S. soldiers died in July by taking their own lives than on the battlefield.

We recently spoke to Iraq War veteran Aaron Hughes about suicides in the military.

AARON HUGHES: Every day in this country 18 veterans are committing suicide. Seventeen percent of the individuals that are in combat in Afghanistan, my brothers and sisters, are on psychotropic medication. Twenty to 50 percent of the individuals that are getting deployed to Afghanistan are already diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, military sexual trauma or a traumatic brain injury. Currently one-third of the women in the military are sexually assaulted. It’s clear that these policies of the global war on terror has had a profound effect on the military, my brothers and sisters, while simultaneously perpetuating a failed policy. And unfortunately, we have to live with that failed policy on a daily basis, and we don’t want to be a part of that failed policy anymore.

[marmar]

1. k/r

[Scuba]

2. Words fail. K&R

[A-Long-Little-Doggie]

3. K&R

[ejbr]

4. k & r n/t

[leftyohiolib]

5. we?

[99Forever]

7. No kidding.

[pasto76]

10. yeah. "we"

[heaven05]

6. how

about multiple deployment exposure to the insanity, violence and tragedy of war. Vietnam, 12 months and out. I talked to a vet who spent 26months over in Iraq during the height of the violence(not saying it's not violent now) and he's depressed with some of the things seen and done in the name of American freedom. Bugsy Bush, chickenhawkRumsfeld, Chainy caused this multiple deployment scenario. Yeah, there is no draft but remember in the beginning of both incursions our troops were sent into harms way without even the basics like body armor, armored vehicles ect; Yeah, yeah I know we don't have the troop numbers because of no draft yet we have to protect our troops, period. Afghanistan for 26 months with the "friendlies" trying to kill our troops, man that's no good on any mind. the rape statistics, inexcusable for an armed force. These are our own!

[pasto76]

8. we dont have the troop numbers because SERVICE is no longer a core american value

no body armour x 7 months. No armoured vehicles period. Poorly trained leadership. Check.

That was what my deployment looked like.

[Victor_c3]

14. Just curious, but when were you there?

You sound like an OIF I guy if I had to guess. I can't argue with you over the poor leadership at the top of the military during the early stages of the war (including planning).

I was there during OIF II (Feb 2004 - Mar 2005). I was an Infantry Platoon Leader with 2-2 IN BN/3 BDE/1 ID and my platoon was attached to the 82nd Engineer Battalion for the duration of the deployment. I personally didn't have issues with a lack of armored vehicles, but then again I had Bradley Fighting Vehicles equiped with reactive armor. The HMMWVs and 113s the engineers I was attached to had were a different story. Their HMMWVs all started out as unarmored, but they quickly welded a whole bunch of steel plates all over these things. I remember having to ride around in HMMWVs with my knees up to my chest because we had stashed sand bags all on the floor of the vehicles to help protect the occupants.

As far as leadership goes, I think a lot of it was hit or miss. I'd like to think that I was a good leader, but I'm obviously biased towards myself. Many of the SSGs and the Platoon Sergeant that worked under me were phenomenal and are exactly what I attribute my success to. Some of my fellow LTs were dirt bags. I was thrown out into sector for a 24 hour firefight under the command of a complete POS company commander (he was relieved the following day after the firefight), but there were many awesome company commanders out there as well. I loved my BDE commander (COL Dana J.H. Pittard) and my division commander (MG Batiste). In fact MG Batiste speaks out from time to time for votevets.org. If either of those guys were to run for president in the future, they'd get my vote. The biggest leadership issues I saw were at very top. The tippity top made some amazingly stupid decisions that impacted the war for its entire duration. Why the hell would you disband the Iraqi military and let them all go home with their weapons?

I don't think that "service" no longer being a core American value is the full reason why have low troop numbers, however I think I understand what you are trying to say and I do agree with you to a point. If anything, my experience in the war pushed service out of my "core values". I joined the army when I was 17 in 1997 (my parents had to sign a waiver) and I saw what we were doing in the Balkans and I believed that pointless wars like some in the past would no longer happen. I joined for the opportunities to help myself get ahead in life, but also because I thought that I would contribute something positive to the world. I received my commision in May '02, spent a while at Ft. Benning, then eventually made it to my unit just in time to deploy for OIF II. I never agreed with the premise of the war in Iraq from the get-go, but I obligated myself to our military and I was determined to bring as much good as I could to the Iraqi people in my sector. After my first series of firefights and after seeing the impact of my weapons on people (both combatants and non-combatants) I really started to feel ashamed of the war and what I was a part of.

The most upsetting experience for me wasn't even the most intense in terms of combat. I was escorting my company commander and 1SG to a town meeting and my 1SG's HMMWV was hit by an IED. My gunner identified who we thought was the trigger man and shot him. In another HMMWV, one of my SGTs got out and shot at someone else. After the handful of shots, we all dismounted and were working on recovering the vehicle that was hit by the IED. We were light on people as we were only escorting my CO and 1SG to a meeting so my 1SG, medic, a SAW gunner, and myself scoured the area to find the people that we shot. We found the "triggerman" still alive, but bleeding to death and just roling on the ground. I left my medic there with him my SAW gunner to begin first aid. I saw a group of 2x 20ish males and a 6 year old boy sitting on a log solemnly about 50 feet away. As I approached, I saw an 8 year old boy lying face down on the dirt. He was still alive, but not doing so good. The two guys were his uncle and the younger boy was his little brother. They were on their way to a wedding and the boy was even carying his little tuxedo all wrapped up in plastic to keep it clean. I did all I could, but I could have done a lot of things differently and offered more compassion in that situation. I don't know if the kid actually died or not, but we did get him on a helicopter extremely fast. He wasn't doing good at all. I still get flashes of the incident when I look at my two little girls and I think about how much I love them and I realize how devastated I'd be if something happened to them like what happened to the kid I found.

I can tell you that I didn't feel any sense of patriotism watching people die, picking up their parts, and stuffing them into body bags. I definintely dign't feel proud for my service or what I did by any measure. I hated the awards and decorations I received for my combat experience as it feels like it cheapens the whole thing. My parents and family are proud of me and my service, but I'm not. They weren't there and they have no idea what it is all about. It's easy to tell stories like this in a semi-anonymous fashion, but I'm scared shitless of telling my family things like this. The scary truth is, after a while, you kind of get turned on to violence. I find myself missing combat, holding a rifle, the danger, and everything else. If I could somehow go back to Iraq and to the war, I'd drop everything in a heart beat to get back. I wouldn't call myself suicidal, but I can totally understand veterans and their suicide dilemna as I've been through it myself. Comming back to the civilian world sucks and is impossible for some of us. I've been out of the war for about 8 years and I still find it is a central facet of my life. I just can't get away from it.

I can keep going on and on, but I kind of lost what my original message was supposed to be. I believe this is still worth posting, whatever the final message is. Anyways, thanks to anyone who is reading this and for listening to the ramblings of a veteran.

(As an aside, I'm currently receiving treatment for PTSD from the VA).

[Victor_c3]

15. another aside

It's kind of funny, but you know you're messed up when you memorize the suicide hotline [phone]-TALK, option 1)

[heaven05]

17. wow

you are still a patriot. I salute you. I spent 9 months in VA. I feel you

[RepublicansRZombies]

18. That was an amazing story- thank you for sharing it

(BTW- this really deserves to be it's own OP)

My son and I read it together, and have been discussing it for 30 minutes.

I really understand things in a new way, and it has given me a lot things to think about ( and some ideas for PTSD treatment)

The way you can express yourself, I think you have come a long way in your treatment, to the point you should be treating others.

You have a gift, seriously, and I think you could be answering the phones at the suicide hot line. I know you are not yet healed, but as a wise person once said, we are 'stronger in the broken places'. Perhaps you can finish healing by telling your story and helping other veterans understand what they are feeling.


I dream of a day when we treat our veterans with the respect they deserve, only using our troops for the defense of this country, then supporting them back home where they can live for FREE, in a community of veterans, as least until they have healed, perhaps providing jobs which improve everyone's lives, putting up solar panels, helping children...which will heal their tortured souls and help them feel good about themselves and the world again.

This is really sad, but I remember reading before the war in Iraq, that Saddam Hussein had such a place for his veterans. He gave them free housing in a community of other veterans, with free health care and visiting nurses.


As for PTSD treatment, I was reading yesterday about psychologists using video games to treat phobias,like for instance spiders... helping people face them, conquer them, move on.

Is there anything like this being used to treat PTSD? I don't know exactly what that would look like, but a video game that helps with the transition back into society. Perhaps you are in a war zone, when peace is declared. You suddenly start shaking hands with the 'enemy', start helping families who have been harmed, 'shooting' bananas at them (we miss you Bill Hicks!!!)...back in America, you can 'civilization' style build as many public parks, solar panels, windmills, amusement parks as you want. Gunfire is heard frequently, what sounds like gunfire, turns into a beautiful fireworks show....maybe this sounds crazy, but it just might work. Visualization and repetition are very powerful things.

[Victor_c3]

20. Thanks

Thanks for the kind words. I don't know how I could help a fellow veteran other than just letting them know that they aren't alone. I do post on veterans forums from time to time. I really feel sorry for the doctors at the VA who have to hear all of the horrors of war from guys like me and who see first hand how it affects not only the veteran, but their families too. It has to be a hard job.

My experiences in Iraq have spurred a very anti-war position in me. I mentioned this in another thread, but the one thing that appalled me the most about the violence in the war is that hardly any of it is shown to the American people. George W. was smart when he banned the press from taking pictures of coffins returning from Iraq. Displays and visual references to people dying in war is bad for its support. The ratio of civilians killed to soldiers killed in combat is a staggering 10:1 (straight out of wikipedia, I can find the link if anyone is interested in citing that statistic). If people in America saw first hand the dead and mangled women and children this war produced, the support would have vanished a lot sooner. As a veteran who is appalled by the war, I feel it is my duty to portray the realities of combat to people who have no idea what it is all about. I'm slowly coming out of my shell on talking about the war but I feel it is my duty.

I somehow ended up with a whole pile of pictures of dead and mangled people. After a firefight, I had to take pictures of the dead and submit them with my AARs (after action reviews). So I inadvertantly have a whole pile of this crap somewhere. I believe it is considered confidential material and I think it is illegal to distribute these sorts of pictures. I honestly don't know why I still have them. I just can't bring myself to get rid of them. They are rough and raw, but it helps to convey the brutality. For instance some guy decided it'd be a good idea to attack one of my Bradley Fighting Vehicles (BFV) while wearing a suicide vest. The only person who was hurt during the attack was the attacker (who obviously died), but I have a picture of a Sergeant looking really pissed off picking up pieces and stuffing them in a garbage bag with the blood-splattered BFV in the background. If it wasn't for the cold brutality of it, it'd be a funny picture.

I really loved the military, what it stands for, and the people I worked with. I'd say most people who are in the Army are good people and strive to do the right thing. However, there are people at the top who, in my opinion, misuse the Army. The bottom line, and this is something that I should have realized when I was 17, is that unless you are willing to deal with war, you should never join. The real kicker is you have no idea what war is really like until you actually experience it. You can read and watch all the movies you want, but it still is hard to portray just how devastating and traumatic war actually is.

It is a significantly emotional event when you pull one of your dead Soldiers out of a ditch and hold his cold hand while your medic tries to resuscitate them. It is even harder when you make it home and you talk to your Soldier's mother and she wants to know the details of her son's death. To talk about it is one thing, but to actually demonstrate how much it sucks and to get people to internalize it is the hard part.

I would love to write a book one day and I do have a couple of ideas, but I'm not ready for that yet for a variety of reasons.

As far as the community idea goes, I think that isn't a bad idea. I got back from Iraq in March 2005, but stuck around in the Army until October 2007. I managed to get a cushy job at Range Control to ride out the majority of the rest of my time where I helped units align their training objectives to a variety of live-fire training ranges. I really took that job to heart as I was a junior Captain and I saw a whole bunch of even more junior Lieutenants getting ready to deploy to combat for their first time and I wanted to prepare them the best I could for what the war was going to be like. Anyways, back to the community idea, I found that things weren't so bad for me and my PTSD while I was still in the Army. A lot of the guys around me were all dealing with the same issues and being around the military community was very comforting to me. Sometimes they'd be firing artillery from a firing position on one of the far sides of the training area, the rounds would fly over our building, and land in the impact area several miles away. We'd all be going totally crazy from hearing and feeling the sounds of artillery and just look at each other and laugh.

I've read some things recently that community service is of tremendous benefit to veterans recovering from their issues with the war, which ties directly into your idea.

The biggest hindrance to me and actually submitting myself to an intensive in house PTSD/war trauma program offered by the VA is I have a young family and I have bills I have to pay. I can't take that sort of time off from work.

The suicide part of war is tough.

Anyways, thanks again.

[RepublicansRZombies]

23. "I don't know how I could help a fellow veteran other than just letting them know that they aren't a

"I don't know how I could help a fellow veteran other than just letting them know that they aren't alone"

Never underestimate the importance of that. I don't think anything is more important.


You post just made me cry because I feel the American people failed you. I feel so awful about that. So many of us tried to get the lies about the WMD out before the war, tried to tell everyone about PNAC and their real plans. They had forgeries that seemed to be done by 4th graders. All the media had to do was 5 minutes of research, all the American people had to do was demand the media tell the truth..and we failed. I am horribly sorry about that.

When the war started, the shock and awe fireworks show was sickening. Our media is disgusting. You don't help people by bombing their homes and their families to pieces.

When the war photos came out, and some did come out on the net, pictures of little kids covered in blood, piles of bodies, a little girl screaming with her families blood spread all over her ...and fallujah! So many of us tried to spread the heinous truth around the net, we made some progress waking people up, but nothing worked, we ultimately failed. Even though a Lancet study showed over one million deaths 5 years ago, people still believe only thousands died.

Just thinking about this now is bringing tears to my eyes, I am still traumatized myself watching what became of our country after 9/11, watching how they used it to kill so many innocent people.


So even though you have many Veterans that share your feelings, know that there were millions more of US out here wishing we could have done better by you guys. I don't think I can apologize enough. Take care and hang in there! You are not alone in wishing we could turn back time and take it all back.




(You know what you deserve is a real vacation out in nature, somewhere amazingly beautiful like Alaska. (it's getting cold now so maybe in the Spring)
http://www.vacationsforveterans.org/PropertyList.aspx
http://www.onemansalaska.com/blog/military-vacation-deals-seward-alaska-military-resort-vacations)

[Victor_c3]

24. thanks again

I believe that there is a large segment of our population that feels like you do. Also, remember that it is a volunteer army and I joined on my own free will (although I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into). The guys I really feel for are the Vietnam era guys who were drafted and got the raw deal all around. At least I was able to come home and not be labeled a baby-killer and people sincerely do wish the best for out veterans. The VA, as strained as it may be, is much better suited to care for veterans today than it was during the Vietnam era and there is a lot more support out there.

As an aside, I remember shortly after 9/11 seeing a story on the news about a group of people who were calling themselves "anti-recruiters" who posted themselves outside of recruiting stations to try to deter people from enlisting. They were all Vietnam era veterans who were broken by the war who were trying to inject a sense of reality into potential recruits before they enlisted. I saw this long before I personally was deployed and I remember thinking "what a piece of shit" and "how could someone do something like that?" Geeze, I sure was wrong on that one. Unfortunately I didn't realize it until I already found myself engulfed in the war. If/when another war is on the horizon, I'll be there outside of a recruiting station doing the same thing. I can gurantee it.

I really hate the violence in our media and what our kids are exposed to in the terms of games and everything else. I think the unrealistic portrayal of war in movies and in games glorifies war and combat to an extent and helps to make it easier for our country to send troops to Bush's Follies for "glory". Its just like the inconsequential violence that people complained about being portrayed in cartoons like Tom and Jerry where nobody really gets hurt when someone is smacked in the head with a hammer.

Anyways, I'm preaching to the converted here. Again, I appreciate your words and support.

[heaven05]

27. yep

truth and wisdom.

[heaven05]

26. you

said all of the truth.

[heaven05]

16. godamn!!!!!!!!!

fucking rethugs

[trailmonkee]

9. i would like to the this brought up at the dnc...

[proReality]

11. K&R n/t

[woo me with science]

12. DU Rec

Shameful.

[duhneece]

13. The human cost of war is never acknowledged by the R's

Especially in unjustified wars, like Iraq...and Vietnam.

[Kurovski]

19. .

[DeSwiss]

21. K&R

''Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.''

President Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 1953

[Victor_c3]

25. Nice quote

I find the stark contrast between quotes like the one posted above and even quotes from other Republicans like John McCain regarding war compared to quotes regarding the glory of war issued by guys like Romney and George W. Bush startling. I can't think of anyone who has actually experienced combat who has said anything positive about the glory of it. But I sure hear plenty of quotes citing how envious they (Romney and W. Bush) are when they talk to troops getting ready to deploy to combat or when they talk to groups Vietnam veterans about the glory of combat that they missed out on.

I'm all for the seperation of powers built into our government and the fact that a civilian is the commander and chief of our military, but at the same time I'm also worried that someone who has no concept of the brutality of war is in a position to wage it.

[DeSwiss]

28. I could not agree with you more. n/t

[spanone]

22. k&r...