Commanders not aware of suicide deaths until weeks after?

Commanders not aware of suicide deaths until weeks after? How is this possible? As if that were not bad enough this reports wants to point fingers at the troops instead of the reasons they had "risky behaviors" in the first place.

Drinking? Well gee that's a hard one to understand. Talk to most veterans and they tell you why they drank while in some foreign country. Talk to them if they have trouble after combat and they tell you it calms them down. It's called self-medicating for a reason.

Drugs and overdoes? Well this one could be more from the fact the DOD has been giving out drugs to help them sleep and for full blown PTSD to keep them on duty but offered hardly no therapy and worse, very little medical motoring when medications have been coming with warnings about supervision from a doctor. This also could have something to do with the fact along with PTSD comes short term memory loss. Ever forget if you took a pill and take more?

This is a report from people with blinders on searching in the dark for reasons to blame the troops. You know, the same men and women so dedicated to serving this country they were willing to die for it. Not by their hands but by the enemy they were sent to fight. Blaming them without understanding them is one of the reasons the suicide numbers and attempted suicides have gone up instead of down! Now we also know that "commanders didn’t realize soldiers under their control had committed suicide until weeks after the troops had taken their lives."

Report links suicide spike to risky behaviors

By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Thursday Jul 29, 2010 15:21:23 EDT

A record high number of Army suicides are linked to an increasingly “permissive” environment in the service where soldiers take personal risks in their lives by using alcohol and drugs, committing crimes and refusing to get psychological help, according to a sweeping internal investigation released by Army officials Thursday.

In many cases, the report says, commanders don’t do enough to curb the behavior.

The review, commissioned last year by Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli, says this “Army-wide problem” is linked to a tally of deaths last year that included 160 active-duty soldiers who committed suicide and 146 more who died during risky activity or behavior such as drug use. Seventy-four of those deaths were drug overdoses. There were also 1,713 attempted suicides last year.

In some cases, the report says, commanders didn’t realize soldiers under their control had committed suicide until weeks after the troops had taken their lives.
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Report links suicide spike to risky behaviors

Yet this is how Stars and Stripes reported this

Task force report says suicides linked to lack of leadership, discipline
By Megan McCloskey
Stars and Stripes
Published: July 29, 2010

ARLINGTON, Va. — “Atrophied” leadership has led to more high-risk behavior among soldiers and ultimately more soldiers committing suicide, according to a blunt report the service released Thursday.

“It’s time for the Army to take a hard look at itself,” Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, Gen. Peter Chiarelli said at a Pentagon press briefing.

The report, based on a 15-month review by the Suicide Prevention Task Force, asks: “Where has the Army’s leadership in garrison gone?”

Chiarelli said nearly 10 years of war has led to a generation of leaders who focus solely on preparing for combat. He pointed out that many of the Army’s platoon sergeants joined the service after 2001, so all they’ve ever experienced is an unbalanced, stressed Army that has had to prioritize tactical readiness over good order and discipline in garrison.
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Task force report says suicides linked to lack of leadership