Over 30,000 veterans took their own lives since 2007

UPDATE DoD does not know if PTSD programs work

One of the hardest things I do is work on a suicide report. It rips me up inside. Today is one of those dark days when I have to read the stories all over again but I know for whatever pain I feel, the families feel it a lot worse. They are the reason I do this. For most of us we read the suicide numbers in headlines across the country. For the families and friends, they were more than numbers. If we are ever going to stop other families from suffering at the grave of someone they did not have to lose, it will be due to these families coming out and talking about someone they loved. I got as far as May of this year and had to stop. It dawned on me that since this blog started, over 30,000 veterans took their own lives if we believe the 18 veterans a day number.  The only problem with that number is, if they are not in the VA system, they are not counted by them and if they have been discharged, the military doesn't count them.  The only people counting them are the ones left to remember them and grieve.

In 2007 I created Death Because They Served about military suicides. It was on YouTube for a couple of years then I moved it to Great Americans.

NamGuardianAngel on September 10, 2009

Suicides are at an all time high. During and after Vietnam, it was easy to hide the true count of those who sacrificed their lives, one way of the other, but now there is a way to track them across the country. Their deaths should never be ignored. These over 100 names were taken from news reports. PTSD was at the root of most of them.

What should make us all very angry is the fact the men and women committing suicide because they served and didn't get the help they needed, grew.

Here are more
Spc. Travis Virgadamo

5 recruiter suicides from Houston battalion

Kelly Barber says her husband Josh couldn't handle what he saw and did in Iraq

Spc. Carl McCoy

Sgt. Coleman Bean

Josh Barber

Brian Norman

Private Jason Scheuerman

Cpl. Jeffrey Lucey

Spc. Larry Applegate

February 1, 2009
Another Warrior Transition Unit Death Ruled Suicide?
by
Chaplain Kathie

How much time is enough to get this right? How many more times do they need to find one more soldier dead before they figure out that what they are doing is not good enough? PTSD is not new! Humans have been on this planet long enough, facing traumatic events, going to war with each other, documenting what comes after war and suffering while telling their stories so that the "experts" should have some clue what the hell to do to help warriors heal. Not only are the veterans suffering, their families suffer and so do the people trying to take care of them while some pea brain without the slightest clue of what they are going through claims to have found the "right treatment" but they keep suffering and killing themselves! ENOUGH TALK! Enough re-researching what has been researched to death. Enough wasting time with what does not work. For Heaven's sake, we know what needs to be done and we know how to do it.

We've had over 30 years of studying this to know better.

Step one-get rid of BattleMind because it does more harm than good. I have yet to hear from one veteran BattleMind has helped.

Step two-normalize PTSD. It's a normal reaction to abnormal events. Let them know how many civilians end up with PTSD from the other causes then point out for them, it's a one time traumatic event that does it while they end up enduring event after event after event. Then they'll get it into their brains that to expect to walk away from combat without any changes is not realistic at all. They all change. Some change more than others. Others end up wounded by all of it instead of just changed.

Step three-Stop acting as if they are criminals. Do not belittle them because they seek help and honor the fact they have the courage enough to ask for help. Do not treat them like scum because they say they want to stop drinking or using drugs to cover up what they don't want to feel and then help them understand that is what medications can do for them a lot better than street drugs and getting drunk ever could.

Step four-spend as much time as need to get it into the brains of their families they are no longer dealing with "normal GI Joe" because Joe is no longer able to communicate with himself anymore. The "Joe" he used to be is trapped behind a wall of pain and he needs their help to find "himself" again. While he will never be totally the same person he was before PTSD, he can in fact end up even better as a person than he was before, even with living with flashbacks and nightmares that may never totally go away. Tell the exactly what a flashback is and what they see in their dreams without sugar coating any of it. They need to know what they are up against when confronting a zoned out veteran on a flashback trip from hell or a out of body nightmare so vivid they have no clue where they really are if you wake them up.

Step five-take the one third of Americans with a clue what PTSD is and get them to pound it into the brains of the other two thirds they better start paying attention to all of this before the National Guards and Reservists come home from yet another deployment and then have to face the next mudslide, hurricane, wildfire, tornado or flood. Make sure they get the message before they face another time when a police officer or firefighter comes back from deployment and needs their help for a change.

This isn't that hard people! Families of Vietnam Veterans have been doing it for years and found out the hard way what works to save their veterans lives along with saving their marriages. The only regret we have is that the people with the power to raise awareness of what our voices have to say ARE NOT LISTENING!

So now please tell me what there is about any of this that there is yet one more suicide from a GI that was supposed to be in the best care possible?

West Point, 2 suicides, 2 attempts in just 2 months

Army Specialist TJ Sweet

Utah National Guards lost 2 soldiers in combat, but ten more because of it

Pvt. Joseph Aaron McMath

Larry "Curtis" Applegate

"Kill yourself. Save us the paperwork" Pfc. Ryan Alderman

Martin Polignone

Timothy Scott

Army Specialist John Fish

Pvt. Paul Bridges

Jason Cooper

Kristin Kouis and her older brother, Jason Kouis

Army Pfc. Roy Brooks Mason Jr

Army Spc. Trevor Hogue

Staff Sgt. Charles Edward Dane Sergeant Larry Flores

Army Spc. Nokware Rosado Munoz

Lt. Col. Raymond Rivas

Spc. Jimmy Lee Foxworth

Sgt. Jacob Blaylock

Spc. Matthew Hastings

Keiffer Wilhelm

Spc. Jacob Sexton

Pfc. Gregory Tilton

Lance Cpl. Mills Palmer Bigham

Maj. Chris Galloway and Master Sgt. Jim Haus

Jesse C. Huff

Sgt. Thomas R. Bagosy and in the same report, Lance Cpl. Kevin P. Grant, Staff Sgt. Nigel Castor, Lance Cpl. Lucas Gary Lowe
Sgt. Tom Bagosy also on this Wife of N.C. Marine copes with husband's suicide
Benjamen Bugden

Andrew Velez

Kenneth Ellis III

Maj. Tad Hervas

Kevin P. Lucey

Orrin McCllelan

Robert Nichols

Staff Sgt. Thaddeus S. Montgomery Jr.

Peter Louis Kastner

Spc. Jonathan Hughey

Kortney Jensen and Jason Ermer

Grand Forks airman committed suicide

1st Lt. Ken Kunze

Sgt. 1st Class Spencer Kohlheim

Fort Hood had four suicides in one weekend

Pvt. Antonio E. Heath, Master Sgt. Baldemar Gonzales, Sgt. Timothy Ryan Rinella, Sgt. Michael F. Franklin and his wife, Jessie, were found dead of apparent gunshot wounds

Sgt. Amanda Sheldon
The family of Sgt. Amanda Sheldon hopes her death may spark change

Pfc. Bryant Evans

David Petrucci, Vietnam Vet

Col. Todd Hixson and Army Spc. Jeremy LaClaire

Travis A. Thomas

Maj. John Ruocco

Staff Sgt. James Wilson

Marine Clay Hunt another after combat casualty

Wendy Torrey

Kara Hinrichs

Cpl. Joshua Barron

Army Spc. Chancellor Keesling

Staff Sgt. Cody Anderson

William Hamilton

Jacob Andrews

Jeremy Campbell

Derrick Kirkland

James Keenan

Staff Sgt. Biel

Sgt. Adrian A. Simmons

Pfc. David L. Potter

Master Sgt. Jeff McKinney

Pvt. Brian Williams

Brian Hartsock

Sgt. Ian McConnell

Sgt. Adrian Simmons

Spc. Rory Johnson and Spc. Jonathon Gilbert

Sgt. 1st Class Jose J. Algarin-Colon

SSG. James Wilson

Sgt. Derrick Kirkland

Josh Fueston

Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann

Christopher Lee Purcell

Sgt. 1st Class Brad Olden

Staff Sgt. David P. Senft

Christopher Hodges

Thomas Farley

Sean Alexander Dacus wrote that his organs should be donated to save someone else before he committed suicide.

Marcus Delon White

Sgt. Joseph H. Baker II

Pvt. Jordon DuBois

Bartholomew Ryan

Maj. Jeff Hackett

Capt. Michael McCaddon, M.D

Russell Hamrick

Edward Andrew Snyder

Michael and Ryan Yurchison's story

Jonathan Bartlett

Jacob Parmenter

Jacob Manning

Tricia Radenz’s 12-year-old son committed suicide during his dad's deployment in 2009

Lance Cpl. Michael J. Ronner

Pvt. Eric Watson

Giovanni Andres Orozco

Trever Gould

Spc. David Paul Swenson Jr

Steven Webb

More reports of interest

PTSD:Now here this, you're normal!

U.S. Marine Corps, 1 suicide every two days, attempted ones, every 2 hours!
DoD Confirms Role Combat Plays in Suicide Epidemic January 2009
Battlemind study leaves too many questions

Veterans blame war and military culture for increased suicides

Army Sgt. Kristofer Goldsmith, whose job was to photograph Iraqi war victims to identify them. Goldsmith recounts how serving his country had always been his life's dream, but it turned into a nightmare when told he would be deployed again to Iraq.

"For over a year I knew something inside me wasn't right. I was drinking close to a gallon of vodka every weekend and starting fights," Goldsmith recalled Tuesday in Venice, where "Ward 54" had been screened the previous night.

When told he had to go back to Iraq for duty, Goldsmith recalled: "I said I can't go back to Iraq. I wasn't afraid of Iraq, but knew I couldn't return."

He said his colonel gave him three choices: "'One, you can suck it up and go back. Two, you can go AWOL and live your life as a felon and three, you can kill yourself.'"

He attempted suicide on Memorial Day 2007.

Master Sergeant Kevin Carter shares his story of surviving suicide

Family members of vets who commit suicide seek understanding

Wife of suicidal Iraq veteran seeks better support

1st Lt. Robert Marinaro