Military Suicide Prevention countered by Resiliency

Military Suicide Prevention countered by Resiliency
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
October 21, 2012

Talk to someone about military suicides, especially if they happen to be a veteran, you hear a very telling statement. "They want us to die so they don't have to pay us."

While common sense demands this statement be countered with the statistics of amputees surviving because of what the DOD has done "in the golden hour" to save lives, they turn around and point out this keeps the death count down.

Despite Record 237 Soldier Suicide Cases in 2012, Top Army Gen Says Soldiers Must Continue its Resilience Program
Posted on October 19, 2012
by The Military Suicide Report

ODIERNO: Resilience Training to Counter Suicides

Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Ray Odierno opened the service-wide suicide prevention stand down Sept. 27 by announcing that 237 Soldiers have potentially taken their lives so far this year and that the Army will step up its resilience training to combat the problem.

by J.D. Leipold
Army News Service
Oct. 4 2012

Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Ray Odierno opened the service-wide suicide prevention stand down Sept. 27 by announcing that 237 Soldiers have potentially taken their lives so far this year and that the Army will step up its resilience training to combat the problem.


”I think one of the most important things we want to do is to start thinking about how we build Soldier and family resilience, so we’re going to establish a Ready and Resilient Campaign plan to build the capabilities within our Soldiers to solve problems on their own and to help families deal with numerous stresses that are put upon them,” Odierno said.


Addressing the Army staff of 150 general officers and senior civilian leaders at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., the chief said the Army lost 283 Soldiers to suicide in 2011, but the rate in 2012 is higher than at this time last year.
… this is about the lives and the well-being of our most important asset, our people. — Gen Ray Odierno, Army Chief of Staff

So where do they really stand on preventing military suicides? Think about what kind of message this sends the troops. When this program has been a failure, they insist on pushing it. We just saw the Army suicide data released. More than one a day without counting Marines only because their numbers have not been released yet.

(In case you were wondering, this is the post I was doing when I discovered my work had just been taken for a fundraiser)