Since the start of the Iraq war, Fort Campbell, a sprawling installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, has seen a spike in the number of suicides and soldiers suffering from severe post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Sgt. Brian Rand, shown here grilling chicken in Iraq, killed himself a few months after being discharged from his second tour of duty in Iraq. Rand believe he was being haunted by the ghost of the Iraqi man he killed.
Memories of Iraq haunted soldier until suicide
By HALIMAH ABDULLAH
McClatchy Newspapers
Until the day he died, Sgt. Brian Rand believed he was being haunted by the ghost of the Iraqi man he killed.
The ghost choked Rand while he slept in his bunk, forcing him to wake up gasping for air and clawing at his throat.
He whispered that Rand was a vampire and looked on as the soldier stabbed another member of Fort Campbell's 96th Aviation Support Battalion in the neck with a fork in the mess hall.
Eventually, the ghost told Rand he needed to kill himself.
According to family members and police reports, on Feb. 20, 2007, just a few months after being discharged from his second tour of duty in Iraq, Rand smoked half of a cigarette as he wrote a suicide note, grabbed a gun and went to the Cumberland River Center Pavilion in Clarksville, Tenn. As the predawn dark pressed in, he breathed in the wintry air and stared out at the park where he and his wife, Dena, had married.
Then he placed the gun to his head and silenced his inner ghosts.
"My brother was afraid to ask for help," said April Somdahl. "And when he finally did ask for help the military let him down."
Since the start of the Iraq war, Fort Campbell, a sprawling installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, has seen a spike in the number of suicides and soldiers suffering from severe post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
In 2007, nine soldiers from Fort Campbell committed suicide - three during the first few weeks of October, according to a letter sent to base personnel by the 101st Airborne Division's commander, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser.
"As our soldiers fight terrorism, the sacrifices asked of them and their families have increased significantly," Schloesser said in the letter. "... Regrettably, under such circumstances, it is natural for our people to feel the stress of these demands and to be overwhelmed at times. Tragically, these pressures too often end in suicide."
Fort Campbell spokeswoman Cathy Gramling said post officials were unable to track the suicides referred to in the letter and declined to give additional suicide figures. The Pentagon said it does not track suicides by military installation.
go here for more
http://www.kansascity.com/440/story/635463.html
It costs a lot of money to get a soldier and even more to train them.
The military spends a fortune on recruitment advertising but relatively little on retention of trained soldiers. Substantially more money needs to be shifted from recruitment to retention. The reasoning: it can cost as much as $250,000 to properly train a soldier for a skilled assignment -- only to have them leave after one term of service.
http://www.politics1.com/jcoc.htm
It costs even more to outfit them.
It Ain't Cheap to Outfit a Soldier
Modern soldiers, with their night-vision goggles and high-tech vests, are starting to look more and more like they might have dropped out of a popular video game. But it's a pretty expensive one:
It now costs 100 times more to outfit a soldier than it did during World War II. Back then, it cost $170, even adjusted for inflation. These days, The Associated Press reports, it costs $17,000 and could reach $28,000 or even $60,000 by 2015.
In the 1940s, a GI went to war with little more than a uniform, weapon, helmet, bedroll and canteen. He carried some 35 pounds of gear that cost $170 in 2006 inflation-adjusted dollars, according to Army figures. That rose to about $1,100 by the 1970s as the military added a flak vest, new weapons and other equipment during the Vietnam War.
Today, troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are outfitted with advanced armor and other protection, including high-tech vests, anti-ballistic eyewear, earplugs and fire-retardant gloves. Night-vision eyewear, thermal weapons sights and other gear makes them more deadly to the adversary.
These days, soldiers are responsible for more than 80 items, weighing a total of 75 pounds. And in the future, their gear could include "a weapon that can shoot around corners so soldiers don't have to expose themselves to their enemy and a helmet-mounted 1.5-inch computer screen showing maps of the battlefield."
All this new technology stands to increase the pressure on the military to retain well-trained personnel because of the cost to train and equip new ones.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/10/it_aint_cheap_to_outfit_a_sold.html
When it comes to the price tag on getting them ready for combat, it seems as if the sky is the limit. So where is the money when they are done doing the risking of life? Why are they no longer of value? Sgt. Brian Rand was still the same person the military trained, spent a lot of money on and depended on. He was still the same person who left his family and friends to serve the nation and still the same person they loved. Why is it that when they come back home, no one seems to take what happens seriously enough in the chain of command? Is it because they were willing to risk their lives that the military has taken this long to care what happens to them and felt their deaths by their own hands was no great loss? Aside from the moral question, we have the financial one. Sgt. Rand, along with all the others who took their own lives because of being wounded, have to be replaced. You would think it would be in the financial interest of the military to take care of them and get them help as soon as humanly possible in order to retain the trained and not have to replace them. Think of what kind of symbol taking care of them would provide for those who are contemplating joining the military or not. It would go a long way for them to truly believe their lives were valued. Think about it. It's too late for Sgt. Rand and all the others. But what about the next one?
I am Dena Rand. The wife of the Brian Rand you speak of in this article. I think it's a shame that you and other reporters that have talked with April never checked any of the facts she's said.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, April NEVER talked to Brian while in Iraq and he never had a relationship with her. Nor did he have one with his mother. If you listen to her, You would see how her story changes every interview she gives.
The latest she is saying to the media is that my husband thought he was a vampire and stabbed a fellow soldier in the neck while in Iraq and he was haunted by an Iraqi soldier that he killed. NONE of this is true and if you had contacted me or the military you would have known this. She has gone public speaking out (for soldiers and their families). I know for fact it's all about attention.
I have every piece of paperwork from every file of his and I HOLD THE FACTS. I also believe I have a case against the VA and Military.
You people have done nothing but help April dishonor my husband in the worse way along with all the others that have passed away in similar circumstances.
You should be ashamed of yourself
Dena Rand
Sorry for your loss but, I suggest you read what I wrote and then maybe address what I wrote instead of just lumping me into "you people" since I've worked for the over 25 years to help men and women like your husband. The only shame in me is that after all these years the stigma is still alive while they are not.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote that "I know for a fact it's all about attention." and on that you are correct. For me it's about making sure these new veterans do not come home, suffer and die in silence like Vietnam veterans did.
As for the report posted on my blog, I suggest you contact the author of it or didn't you read where it came from?
If you want to tell your side of this to correct anything you say is not true, I will be more than happy to publish the comment, but I suggest you stop attacking people who are trying to get their stories out so they do not suffer the way people like my husband did or my family did and still do. When they came home, no one cared. Reporters would not bother to even listen. You really need to redirect your anger where it belongs.
I’m the reporter who wrote this article and I deeply empathize with the Rand family’s tragic loss. As I discussed with Mrs. Rand when I interviewed her in late April for the piece, in the interest of fairness, all sides must be told in stories such as these. Clearly her version of events differs greatly from her in-laws. It is unfortunate, that despite giving an interview with a local television station the week this article was published http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=8356112 and previous interviews to other publications on the topic http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39203 and http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NEWS01/704220359 , Mrs. Rand failed to return McClatchy’s follow up phone calls in May and emails and phone calls in June to discuss any additional concerns. I truly wish the Rand family the best as they continue the healing process.
ReplyDeleteHalimah Abdullah
Halimah, thank you for responding. I don't know where the difference in reporting came from between April and Dena. While I do understand the need to get the story out, this should not have been done without the Dena or other family members.
ReplyDeleteBelieve me. I deeply appreciate the fact reporters are now interested in what is happening to our veterans of combat. It serves in saving lives and the more reports come out, the closer we are toward eradicating the stigma of it. That said, I've been torn on this since I responded to Dena.
As his wife, she had the right to speak or not to reporters. There is a lot of emotional turmoil going on inside the family members. Some feel shame that their loved one committed suicide. There shouldn't be any shame on their part or for their warrior, but the shame belongs to this nation we did not take care of them. The families who are willing to speak are heroes because it takes a lot of courage to do it. They know people will still judge them instead of reaching out to help them heal their pain. We need to respect that. We need to respect the fact that some family members don't want to talk about it and let it go at that.
There is a lot I should have written in responding to Dena, but I didn't and I regret that. I hope she can forgive me for snapping back instead of reaching out to her. The truth is that sometimes I allow the frustration of doing this everyday get to me and dealing with some difficult people commenting on these posts gets to me. Days of defending myself for what I do to people who only pop in to read what they want causes my anger to rise because there are so many suffering and dying but too many only read what they want. Dena didn't deserve my response.
Most of my readers are either living with this, trying to help others or reporting on it and they read it all. Those are the readers this blog is intended for and not the casual observer. Sometimes I'm tempted to block comments to solve the problem but then people will not be able to speak freely. While it would help me greatly to not have to deal with the fly in readers, it won't help the people who suffer with this
My thing is that Brain just wanted to be close to Dena, I don't understand the facts... Ok first off Dena quote on quote says "When my husband came back he was very clingy". My opion is he got fucked up in war and just was done with all the war military everything so with violence he served his country lives that life to take another one n to move on n so fourth. That being said I felt like he just wanted to be with his loving wife and spend his life with her to be that cuddling teddy bear and be the loving more effective type. U fourntaly war and PTSD fucks people up where they change and wasn't the person that there spouse went to get hitched and never leave each other . Un fourntally I felt Dena wanted that hard ass, asshole type and he was being to effectioney, I will never know. So what happened really Brain said his going kill himself why was Dena dicking him around? Sad enough it prob went like this.. imma kill myself why are you acting like this I'll I ever wanted to do was be a loving husband like I have been.. and someone said you don't have it in you to off yourself so Brain had it in his mind to show her that he wasn't playing.. And well what better place to off yourself than where u set your vowels.. tragic story we will never know the truth. .. . Just open mind to alot military n spouse I know they set things up get killed off them selves and there spouse can continue f n around and well what you know set for life due to kill in action or they off them selves... I have so much more to add about this situation and many others . I'm done for now but I'll be back. Yours TRULY THE MOFA GB WHISPER--//)( ILL BE BACK WITH YEAH BOYS INSIGHT)
ReplyDeletePlease edit my post if you have to just post it please (GB WHISPER)
ReplyDelete