General says "suicide is the toughest enemy I ever faced"

Army leaders hear concerns from troops
Posted: Jul 27, 2012
KCTV
By DeAnn Smith, Digital
By Sandra Olivas, Reporter

FORT RILEY, KS (KCTV)
Top leaders in the U.S. Army on Friday met with soldiers at Fort Riley to hear their concerns.

Reporters were not allowed to videotape the Army leaders meeting with the soldiers and the military declined to provide any video taped by its own photographers, saying they wanted to ensure the discussions were open and honest.

Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the Army chief of staff and who previously oversaw the armed forces in Iraq, said the war in Afghanistan is the top priority.

"We want to finish that mission successfully, but equally important and mutually supporting mission is the health of our force," Austin said.

Austin and others toured this week six Army posts, including Fort Riley. The focus is ways to improve the lives of soldiers and their families. The focus is the solders' physical and mental well being.


"I have been deployed to Iraq three times and once to Afghanistan and been in good fights with tough enemies," Austin said. "And I will tell you: suicide is the toughest enemy I ever faced."
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PTSD The Final Battle After War

"America I gave my best to you." is part of the song American Anthem from Ken Burns The War. I never really understood this growing up because I was surrounded by veterans. My Dad was a Korean War veteran and my uncles were WWII veterans. To me, they were normal. When my friends told me their family members didn't serve, I thought they were the odd ones. As I got older, I knew I had it backwards.

Still I didn't have a true sense of what came back with the men and women sent to fight in combat until I met a Vietnam veteran. We've been together for 30 years and it is because of him I know that when it comes to the population of America, we are odd but when you consider 8% of the population can call themselves veterans, we are not so odd among them.

What shall be our legacy?
What will our children say?
Let them say of me
I was one who believed
In sharing the blessings
I received
Let me know in my heart
When my days are through
America
America
I gave my best to you

When it comes to Combat PTSD, we are not odd at all. The heart/soul/spirit of a man/woman, so committed to another human they would die for them, is magnificent. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. which is the most courageous love there is. Felt so deeply by so many that it is also the thing that burdens them the most. It is what causes the cut so deeply within them they cannot heal it without help.

Battles fought together acts of conscience fought alone, these are the seeds from which America has grown.

If there was ever an anthem for Combat PTSD, this should be it.