Last day of Suicide Awareness Month

Last day of Suicide Awareness Month
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 30, 2013

Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno recently told The Huffington Post something that was known a long time ago. The military thinks that the soldiers simply lacked training and they could teach them a lesson in being resilient. They came up with Comprehensive Soldier Fitness after they failed with a program called Battlemind.

CSF was based on a research project to address self confidence in school aged kids, not troops heading into combat. They thought it was the answer to preventing suicides and PTSD.

The Huffington Post did a fabulous job trying to bring attention to these tragic ends of soldiers lives all month. What they missed was the cause of most of the damage being done. The military told the soldiers they could train to become resilient. What the soldiers heard was that if they ended up with PTSD it was their fault for not training right and being mentally weak.

David Wood wrote in his article Army Chief Ray Odierno Warns Military Suicides 'Not Going To End' After War Is Over

The Army's chief of staff, Odierno is charged with recruiting, training and equipping the 1.1 million active-duty, reserve and National Guard soldiers. He's also responsible for the health and well-being of Army troops and their families.

In the article Odierno said something that confirms the soldiers deepest held belief and is more responsible for them not seeking help.

"First, inherently what we do is stressful. Why do I think some people are able to deal with stress differently than others? There are a lot of different factors. Some of it is just personal make-up. Intestinal fortitude. Mental toughness that ensures that people are able to deal with stressful situations."

"But it also has to do with where you come from. I came from a loving family, one who gave lots of positive reinforcement, who built up psychologically who I was, who I am, what I might want to do. It built confidence in myself, and I believe that enables you to better deal with stress. It enables you to cope more easily than maybe some other people."

Odierno blamed the troops and their families when it was obvious years ago this program was to blame. They pushed it no matter what the deadly results were.

Last year was the deadliest year for suicides on record. Years after this attempted began and after the withdrawal of many forces leaving less in combat and less in military while adding to the veterans population. More suicides and less serving didn't seem to inform the military they lacked the intelligence come to the obvious conclusion that this programming was behind it. So they pushed it harder and pushed soldiers over the edge.

They were coming home and apologizing for grieving. They said "I didn't train right" and that they "were not supposed to show weakness" so they didn't feel worthy of much at all.

We saw reports out of Oklahoma and Arizona that veteran suicides rates were double the civilian population. We also were fully aware of the fact that veterans are only 7% of the US population but across the country there are at least 22 suicides a day. The last report out of the VA on attempted suicides was that there were 1,000 veterans attempting suicide every month.

While most of the press has taken little interest in all of this, the truth has been out there for years.

I made this video in 2007. There was hope back then that awareness would save their lives. Last year, that hope slipped away. Now as the month of awareness comes to an end, we have lost many more lives but the DOD doesn't seem to think this deserves serious attention. Had they understood how this hits so many, they would have released the Suicide Event Report for 2012 and the suicide monthly report for August by now.

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.