Military suicides: an unspoken tragedy

Military suicides: an unspoken tragedy
Roanoke.com
by RODNEY A. FRANKLIN
Sunday, June 30, 2013

Franklin served in the Navy during the Korean Conflict and in the Air Force during Vietnam. He lives in Bedford County.

When Marine Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer put a pistol to his head and pulled the trigger, the gun misfired. Had he died that night sitting in his pickup in Kentucky, his death would have been added to the growing number of active duty military personnel who have committed suicide.

Since 2001, more than 2,700 have taken their lives. In 2012 alone, the Army reported 168 suicides; the Navy, 53; the Air Force, 56; and the Marines, 46.

While researchers list financial problems, substance abuse and spousal breakups as causes for this upsurge, in reality they are only manifestations. Most agree the real cause boils down to repeated deployment. Many have pulled three and four tours in Iraq or Afghanistan. After being in a “survival mode” for a year, it takes time to come down, and when they finally do, they find themselves again on deployment, and the cycle begins all over again.

Self-inflicted wounds prior to battle have always plagued military commanders. Since 2001, however, military men and women have taken their lives after they return home because they cannot reintegrate. Kim Ruocco, head of Tragedy Assistance for Survivors, said, “We should expect our troops to need psychological care after all we’ve asked of them.” Ruocco’s husband, a Marine Corps Major, hanged himself between Iraq deployments in early 2005. (“Grim Record: Soldier Suicides Reach new High,” Time magazine, Aug. 16, 2012.)

If re-integration is difficult for men, it is doubly so for our women soldiers. In the minority, they often feel alone. Where a man can always find a fellow soldier with whom he can relate, women find it more difficult. Too, they have issues unknown to men.
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If you think he is wrong on redeployments, here is a good reminder

They did it anyway. Now they say that most of the suicides were not connected to deployment. They never seem to manage to bring up the other causes of trauma like sexual assaults (male and female) abuse of all kinds and training with bombs blowing up.