Lewis-McChord leaders ignorance leads to deadly end

Lewis-McChord leaders ignorance leads to deadly end
by
Chaplain Kathie

Who sold the military on this and why do they continue to buy it?

This quote sums up exactly what has been going on at Lewis-McChord and across every base, every branch.

“We take suicide very seriously,” Dangerfield said. “We’re going to continue to push the envelope to make sure soldiers get the resiliency training they need.”

As pointed out over the last four years by Wounded Times, this does more damage than good but they have yet to see it. They keep insisting on using this deadly failure of a program. They defend what they have been doing no matter what the result has been. What is worse is they continue to delude the public into thinking they finally get it.

All this "resiliency training" does is leave them feeling as if PTSD is their fault because they didn't train their brains right and they are weak. When 1 out of 3 walk away from trauma trapped inside of them, they see the other two manage somehow to "get over it" then the training reverberates in their ears telling them they are to blame. They just weren't mentally tough enough and didn't train right.

Tell a parent their son or daughter took their own life because that was what they were trained to do. Isn't that what we're talking about here? Now we have all these suicides, all these years later with grieving families wondering what they did wrong when they should be asking what the hell the DOD did wrong!

JBLM suicides hit grim milestone in 2011 - most ever
ADAM ASHTON; STAFF WRITER
Published: 12/30/11
Joint Base Lewis-McChord passed an unwelcome milestone in 2011, recording more soldier suicides than in any previous year.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord passed an unwelcome milestone in 2011, recording more soldier suicides than in any previous year.

Twelve soldiers took their own lives in 2011, up from nine in 2010 and nine in 2009, Army I Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield said. The total could grow as the Army completes investigations ahead of its annual suicide report next month.

The toll at Lewis-McChord rose despite new efforts to counsel soldiers when they come home from war, including the creation of a suicide-prevention office.

Lewis-McChord leaders plan to apply what they learned from those programs to help soldiers cope with stress at home and in their work.

“We take suicide very seriously,” Dangerfield said. “We’re going to continue to push the envelope to make sure soldiers get the resiliency training they need.”

read more here

For more on this story

Editorial Board is wrong on Joint Base Lewis-McChord and PTSD

DOD message has been PTSD is your fault

The $125-million Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Failure