National Guards and Reservists dying after combat, forgotten by media

National Guards and Reservists dying after combat, forgotten by media
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
March 10, 2013

Reading in the Austin Statesman More Guard soldiers dying from car crashes, suicide than in combat by Jeremy Schwartz, I was reminded of all the National Guards families I've talked to over the years. It is much harder on them because when they come home, they go back to life as civilians surrounded by people without a single clue about where these men and women were. While active duty forces are surrounded by their buddies, they also return to the same type of civilian population as veterans. There is very little support for them among the 7% of the population because they were only 1% of the population fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan for all these years.

Veterans will not be deployed again when they come home to return to civilian jobs, the National Guardsmen don't have the luxury. Unless they leave the guards, they come home, pick up where they left off with the knowledge they can, and usually do, get redeployed again. They also have to face the fact they can get called up in their states to help with disasters. Top that off with the fact most of them are either police officers or firefighters, continuing to risk their lives to help others.

They face the same issues everyone else does with financial problems and relationship problems. For those issues they can talk to their civilian peers however even these conversations get complicated when the added stresses of deployment are parts of the same problems.

Cops understand cops. Firefighters understand firefighters. Veterans understand veterans and since they are the smallest group yet the highest in suicides, that support vital to their survival is often too hard for them to find.

What is astonishing is for all of this when the yearly suicide numbers were released, National Guardsmen and Reservists were not included in the total. Every reporter jumped on this "news" without noticing what the DOD put out.

The Army sustained the heaviest suicide toll at 182, a dark tally that — as NBC News reported Jan. 3 — marked another frightening first as soldier suicides last year outpaced the 176 Army members who were killed in combat while serving Operation Enduring Freedom, according to Pentagon officials.
During 2012, there also were 60 suicides among active-duty members of the Navy, 59 in the Air Force and 48 in the Marine Corps. Throughout the U.S. military, suicides increased by nearly 16 percent from 2011 to 2012, figures show.

The problem with this is, with the Marines, Air Force and Navy, the report came out January 3rd, long before they would have added in what ever suicides happened in those groups in December. The numbers have not been updated including Navy SEAL Cmdr. Job W. Price since the published numbers of those groups came out before the end of the year. The DOD has not updated those groups, at least, none I could find in their archives.

This is what the DOD released on February 1, 2013 No. 056-13

Army Releases December 2012 and Calendar Year 2012 Suicide Information
The Army released suicide data today for the month of December and calendar year 2012. During December, among active-duty soldiers, there were seven potential suicides: three have been confirmed as suicides and four remain under investigation. For November, the Army reported 12 potential suicides among active-duty soldiers: four have been confirmed as suicides and eight remain under investigation. For 2012, there have been 182 potential active-duty suicides: 130 have been confirmed as suicides and 52 remain under investigation. Active-duty suicide number for 2011: 165 confirmed as suicides and no cases under investigation.
During December, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were 15 potential suicides (10 Army National Guard and five Army Reserve): four have been confirmed as suicides and 11 remain under investigation. For November, among that same group, the Army reported 15 potential suicides (12 Army National Guard and three Army Reserve): 10 have been confirmed as suicides and five remain under investigation.

For 2012, there have been 143 potential not on active-duty suicides (96 Army National Guard and 47 Army Reserve): 117 have been confirmed as suicides and 26 remain under investigation. Not on active-duty suicide numbers for 2011: 118 (82 Army National Guard and 36 Army Reserve) confirmed as suicides and no cases under investigation.

Later they added 1 soldier and 1 Guardsman for 2012 but the media didn't notice when they reported their military suicide numbers, they omitted all of these. As of today I have not been able to find the numbers for Marine Corps Reservists or Air National Guards.

The publicized numbers have not been corrected by the mainstream media. That is how much they have been paying attention to our "citizen soldiers" and that is why this article on National Guards and Reservists is so important to read.

A 2012 American-Statesman investigation into Iraq and Afghanistan veteran deaths found that 1 in 3 Texas veterans receiving disability benefits died of suicide or drug overdose, rates that far outpace their civilian counterparts.

In recent years, National Guard suicides have helped drive overall Army suicides to record levels. In 2010, the overall National Guard suicide rate eclipsed that of active-duty soldiers and the civilian population; last year, about 1 in 3 Army suicides was of a National Guard soldier. Officials say about half of National Guard suicide victims nationally had never deployed, a trend that appears to hold in Texas.

Cory Brown’s behavior became increasingly erratic, and, in April 2011, he fled his monthly drill when a drug test was announced. His National Guard commanders initiated the process of kicking him out of the Army with an other-than-honorable discharge, which could limit his ability to receive some medical services from the VA. His mother insists that instead of trying to discharge her son for going absent without leave, his commanders should have intervened and helped get him more intensive in-patient treatment.
In September 2011, shortly after an argument with his new wife, who was then seven months pregnant, and about a week after his mother says his medication was changed at the VA, Brown killed himself with a gunshot to the head. His son, Elijah, was born two months later.

Please go to the link and read the rest of this. They have been forgotten and so have their families yet these are the people we depend on everyday for our communities.

I made this video a few years ago to remind people of that.


The fact these men and women must turn to civilian mental health workers, not specializing in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, knowing very little about combat, is reflected in the deadly outcome of hopelessness and suicide.