Veterans Labor Day is no day off

Veterans Labor Day is no day off
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
September 3, 2012


This is Labor Day for Americans enjoying a day to sleep late and relax. There are other Americans waking up this morning after another night of little or no sleep without any time to relax at all. They are in Afghanistan because it is the profession they chose to do but not where they chose to be. We forget that part. They don't get to decide where they go, how long they'll be there or when they go home.

Argue about the reason behind sending them in the first place all you want but the fact is, we sent them and then forgot all about them.

You may have a nasty coworker you're glad to be away from today. They have to worry about coworkers they are training while wondering if they will end up killing them or not. You may have a job in a dangerous neighborhood. They have a dangerous job in a combat zone.

When it comes to really supporting the troops, we suck at it because we didn't demand the 24-7 cable news stations reminded us they were still there.

We suck at it just as much when they come home and find it harder to survive here than in combat. Suicides go up and families grieve while we pretend to be shocked as if it is the first time we heard about any of it.

This is what I hear all the time. While reporters keep repeating what they are told about what the military is doing to stop military suicides, they never seem interested in asking why everything else they have done has failed. No one is ever held accountable for this.

Every month since 2007 there has always been one claim after another posted on this blog by military folks saying they are doing all that is possible to prevent suicides but they are always followed by another month of more suicides. With at least 6,000 veterans suicides a year that adds up to 30,000 the government admits to just since this blog started.

With all the press conferences and interviews they've been doing, you'd think by now reporters would once and fall all finally ask them why they should be believed at all anymore.

Families Testify Military’s Suicide Prevention Claims Were Hollow, as DoD Funds Yet Another Study
Posted on August 27, 2012
by The Military Suicide Report

Army widow Ashley Joppa-Hagemann says her Ranger husband Jared was facing his 9th deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan before he killed himself near Fort Lewis, Wash. Joppa-Hagemann says the Army ignored obvious signs her husband was struggling with the psychological “invisible” wounds of war. She participated in panel discussion for survivors of military suicides and was featured on PBS‘ news magazine Democracy Now.

Jared's death is still under investigation, so it is listed as that and not counted as a suicide. The problem is, there are too many still under investigation.

His widow talks about how he was suffering from Combat PTSD.


We tell them to get help, Jared tried to get it. He's dead now and not even counted in the suicide data. His widow says the Army Rangers won't even give him a memorial.

30,000 families expected that when their combat veterans came home, it was the end of the danger to their lives but ended up having to visit their graves.