Army on track to surpass 2008 suicide numbers

How big does this headline need to be?

Army on track to surpass 2008 suicide numbers

Army on track to surpass 2008 suicide numbers

Army on track to surpass 2008 suicide numbers

Army on track to surpass 2008 suicide numbers

Army on track to surpass 2008 suicide numbers

You may be getting the idea, but the Army, for all their claims of taking charge of this, doing this program and that program, the fact remains I still have to hold soldiers and Marines in my arms while they fall apart at the VA clinic and wonder how many do the same without having anyone there to lean on, help them understand what the Army and the Marines and the National Guard or any other branch have yet to even acknowledge?

How many more emails flying in the middle of the night? How many other families have to decide where to bury someone they thought came home save from combat? Any ideas? I'm fresh out of them because no matter what all these years the "experts" were supposed to have learned by now, they are so far behind the curve, they are doing more harm than good.

Did they really think replacing Battle Mind with Warrior Mind would work to help them understand what makes them human? Both programs operate on the same premise. They can train their brains to prevent the emotional toll, so if they end up with PTSD, then it's their own fault. This is what message is delivered no matter how good it's dressed up with buckets filled with funding behind it, the programs do more harm than good and the numbers coming out prove that.

Army on track to surpass 2008 suicide numbers

By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Aug 13, 2009 18:47:01 EDT

As many as 12 soldiers killed themselves in July, the Army announced today, and the service remains on course to setting a record for suicides in a single year.

Of the 12 deaths, eight were active-duty soldiers and four were National Guard or Army Reserve soldiers who were not on active duty at the time of their deaths.

All 12 deaths are possible suicides and remain under investigation.

Typically, about 90 percent of these investigations are ruled suicides, Army officials have said.

In June, there were 13 confirmed or possible suicides; nine were active-duty soldiers and four were soldiers who were not on active duty. As of Aug. 13, four of those 13 deaths had been confirmed as suicides.

Between Jan. 1 and July 31, there have been 96 reported active-duty suicides. Of those, 62 have been confirmed as suicides and 34 are still under investigation.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/08/army_suicides_081309w/