President Obama and rise in military suicides

President Obama and rise in military suicides
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 26, 2014

The murder-suicide of a female soldier's family soon after she came home from Afghanistan, certainly raises a lot of questions. One of the questions is centered around military families and their need for mental health-support services.

Murder-suicide at Fort Hood raises questions Incident forces look at psychological stress on troops' families.

"Experts and advocates say the incident raises questions about whether, even after 13 years of war, the military is paying enough attention to the psychological stress on families during troops' overseas deployments."

The answer is simple. The military is not doing enough for the troops or families but they make a different claim saying that after all these years of "doing something" about all of this, it is working.

They said it but facts are supported by the outcome and not simple words uttered during a press conference. The number of enlisted personnel has gone down however the number of suicides has not gone down accordingly. Certainly not enough to show any real progress in addressing the psychological impact of stress without end.

Karen Ruedisueli, the deputy director of government relations for the National Military Family Association, said such a study will be vital.

"Anecdotally we have heard that suicide rates among military families have increased," she said. "As deployments decrease ... people may think that behavioral health resources for families are no longer needed. The residual effects will be long-lasting."

Yet while the questions need to be answered, the biggest question not being asked is how did the increase in suicides and mental health issues increase after President Obama pushed to reduce them?

August 28, 2008
Spc. Chris Dana's story told to Obama by step brother
Stepbrother tells guardsman's story to Obama
Helena soldier took his own life after tour of duty in Iraq
By LAURA TODE
Of The Gazette Staff

Montana National Guard Spc. Chris Dana will never know the impact his life and ultimately his death may someday have on the lives of veterans nationwide.

Dana took his life in March 2007, less than two years after returning from a tour in Iraq. His family believes he was a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, brought on by his combat experience.

Since Dana's death, his stepbrother Matt Kuntz has campaigned for more awareness of the costs of untreated post-traumatic stress syndrome in Iraq war veterans.

Wednesday, he was invited to meet with Sen. Barack Obama to share the message he's been spreading statewide for more than a year. At a quiet picnic table at Riverfront Park, Obama sat across from Kuntz, his wife, Sandy, and their infant daughter, Fiona.

The link to this story is long gone however the post is still up on Wounded Times. On August 13, 2008, Editor and Publisher had a question by Greg Mitchell, Why Isn't the Press on Suicide Watch? In 2007 I asked the same question with a long list of names attached.

Looking back, the truth is, while 2012 was the highest year for military suicides, the number of deployed troops was at the lowest during both wars.

Troops strength

But just looking at DOD numbers, we see only part of the story. To get a proper perspective, we have to take a look at the veterans these two wars created. This is as of 11/11/11

THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED

22,658,000

In the decade since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, 2,333,972 American military personnel had been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan or both, as of Aug. 30,2011. Of that total, 1,353, 627 have since left the military and 711,986 have used VA health care between fiscal year 2002 and the third-quarter fiscal year 2011.

The VA's Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a non-profit whose mission is to improve the lives of veterans, points out that 38 per 100,000 of all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans using VA health care committed suicide during latest data available. There is very little information about veterans not using VA health care. Compare that to 11.5 deaths per 100,000 for the general public.

The last Suicide Event Report from the Department of Defense was released in 2012 for 2011. In the report detailed information included branches as well as attempted suicides. As of January 2014, they have not released the report for 2012. We still do not know how many military personnel committed suicide in 2013 other than what the Army reported up to November.

For calendar year 2013, there have been 139 potential active duty suicides.

For calendar year 2013, there have been 139 potential not on active duty suicides (89 Army National Guard and 50 Army Reserve)

The exact same number. 139 Army and 139 Citizen soldiers.

In the same report, the DOD updated the numbers for Army suicides in 2012

Updated active duty suicide numbers for calendar year 2012: 185 (184 have been confirmed as suicides, and one remains under investigation).

They also updated the Army National Guards and Army Reservists

Updated not on active duty suicide numbers for calendar year 2012: 140 (93 Army National Guard and 47 Army Reserve): 140 have been confirmed as suicides and none remain under investigation.

2009 was the year they increased their efforts for addressing suicides and encouraging soldiers to seek help. Or at least that was what they claimed. Comprehensive Soldier Fitness feeding the term "resilient" has been behind the increase in suicides.

If you doubt this then all you have to do is take a look at Vietnam and see what the numbers were back then for the entire war.

Casualty Category for Vietnam War
Number of Records

ACCIDENT 9,107
DECLARED DEAD 1,201
DIED OF WOUNDS 5,299
HOMICIDE 236
ILLNESS 938
KILLED IN ACTION 40,934
PRESUMED DEAD (BODY REMAINS RECOVERED) 32
PRESUMED DEAD (BODY REMAINS NOT RECOVERED) 91
SELF-INFLICTED 382
Total Records 58,220

This has nothing to do with politics but everything to do with the lack of attention by the press on military suicides. They report on the headlines they want us to know but avoid asking any real questions. If you think things are as bad as they are going to get, they are going to get worse according to history. In October of 2007 there was this report 148,000 Vietnam Vets sought help in last 18 months and the number of Vietnam veterans committing suicide went up afterwards as well. The last deaths tied to the Vietnam War were in 1975 but as you can see, those numbers were not the end of the story. The end of the OEF and OIF wars have yet to be written but if we do nothing, the numbers will tell the story of how much we cared and what we did to change the outcome.

For starters, why have suicides gone up among the troops and veterans after President Obama pushed for changes? Why have they gone up after the DOD pushed "resilience" in Comprehensive Soldier Fitness? Why hasn't anyone been held accountable?

The story of the Fort Hood murder-suicide investigation deserves attention however the questions that should have been asked all these years have received no attention at all.