Real way to support our troops

This editorial is from the Cincinnati Enquirer

Real way to support our troops

In the midst of troops fighting to stay alive in Iraq, it is painful news that 27 American soldiers took their own lives last year in the midst of warfare there. Another three killed themselves while deployed in Afghanistan.

All told, 99 active-duty soldiers committed suicide last year, the highest rate in 26 years of Army record keeping, according to an Army report released Thursday. While mental experts fear rising rates among Iraq veterans, no one can say for sure because the military has no method for tracking such numbers.

The new report dramatizes the need for stepping up mental health services for military members and their families. A Defense Department task force earlier this year issued a strongly worded report admitting military health services were inadequate and poorly positioned, still not geared up for wartime needs.

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I'm glad people are talking about and reporting on PTSD, especially the suicides linked to it. I just find it really ironic they couldn't pay attention before this. Nothing that has been reported in the this recent series discussing the suicides last year is new. It is not a shocking revaluation to anyone living with this, regarding it with all seriousness.
But where were they all before this?

Jeffrey F. Braun, 19, Stafford Springs CT Pfc. Jeffrey F. Braun 19 Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division Stafford, Connecticut "Died of a non-hostile gunshot wound in Baghdad, Iraq, on December 12, 2003The only confirmed Connecticut suicide is that of Army Pfc. Jeffrey Braun, 19, of Stafford, who died in December 2003. His father, William Braun, told The Courant he still did not have a full explanation of what happened to Jeffrey, but said, ""I've chosen not to pursue it or question it. It's over and done with.""http://www.coalitionmemorial.org/pdf/abraun.pdf
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/7/4000


Jason Cooper - Iraq War Heroes, Fallen Heroes Memorial
One of its victims, she said, was her son, Jason Cooper, 23, who took off his dog tags, fastened a noose, and stepped off a chair. ...July 14, 2005

1st Lt. Debra A. Banaszak 35 1035th Maintenance Company, Missouri Army National Guard Bloomington, Illinois "Died from non-combat related injuries at Camp Victory, Kuwait, on October 28, 2005Barbara Butler, mother of Army National Guard 1st Lt. Debra A. Banaszak, 35, of Bloomington, Ill., said she has trouble understanding why her daughter would have taken her own life in Kuwait last October, as the military has determined. She said that while Banaszak, the single mother of a teenage son, was proud to serve her country and had not complained, the stresses of the deployment may have exacerbated her depression.

Joshua Omvig - Iraq War Heroes, Fallen Heroes Memorial
Joshua Lee Omvig. Gillette, Wyoming. committed suicide at the age of 22. December 22, 2005


"All is not okay or right for those of us who return home alive and supposedly well. What looks like normalcy and readjustment is only an illusion to be revealed by time and torment. Some soldiers come home missing limbs and other parts of their bodies. Still others will live with permanent scars from horrific events that no one other than those who served will ever understand." - Douglas Barber , 2005
On January 16th, (2006)after having talked quite normally on the phone with at least two other people that same day, Douglas Barber, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) living in Lee County, Alabama, changed the answer-message on his telephone.
"If you're looking for Doug," it said in his Alabama drawl, "I'm checking out of this world. I'll see you on the other side."
He then called the police, collected his shotgun, and went out onto his porch to meet them. From the sketchy reports we have now, it seems the police wouldn't oblige him with a "suicide by cop" and tried to talk him down. When it became apparent he wasn't able to commit cop-suicide, 27-year-old Douglas Barber did an about face, rotated the shotgun and killed himself.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/21/6619/03308

Private Gary Boswell, 20, from Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, was found hanging in a playground in July. John and Sarah Boswell said army personnel should be offered counseling when they return from active service.
http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/armed_force/us_soldiers_committing_suicide_vietnam_iraq.html

There were a lot more and even more we still don't know about because they are still listed as "under investigation" by the military. Even they don't know how many committed suicide once they were home. There are too many no one is keeping track of. So where was all this concern back then when all of this started? I'm not talking about 2003 when Iraq was invaded. I'm not talking about 2001 when we invaded Afghanistan. I'm not even talking about the Gulf War but I am talking about Vietnam. Where was all this concern back then when we began to lose more after they came home than we lost in Vietnam?
Naturally I am grateful every time I read a reporter taking the time to bring this all out into the open, but I've seen this "interest" before and they drop it before even attempting to put a human face on the numbers they provide. As it is, the numbers they provide are wrong and far too low against reality. These are men and women we are talking about. They have lives, dreams, families and friends. They mattered to others and they should have their stories told. Until we stop just putting them into containers of expedience we will never end the stigma keeping them from healing and the help they need.

Where is the attention to the 1,000 the VA has committing suicide every year or the other 5,000 committing suicide outside of the VA?

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington