Military suicides percentages went up

We read their stories every week. We read how they sought help. Did everything experts said they needed to do. We read how their families tried to help them but just didn't know what to do. Then we read some General claim the military is not the problem. They claim it is the fault of the war fighters or that they didn't have the right kind of supportive family. It has always been the fault of someone else including what Major General Dana Pittard of Fort Bliss said a few years ago. “I have now come to the conclusion that suicide is an absolutely selfish act,” he wrote on his website.

"Some of it is just personal make-up. Intestinal fortitude. Mental toughness that ensures that people are able to deal with stressful situations."

According to another General. But this one went on to blame the family as well.

"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."

General Raymond Odierno said that last year in an interview with Huffington Post.

We have heard so much pure BS over the years but there is no way they can get around the facts. As they talked about the drop in suicides they failed to mention the number of enlisted also went down. Iraq was over and troops were withdrawing from Afghanistan, but as the claims of what they were doing finally working came out, the truth was much different for the troops and their families.

Read this on USA Today along with the other news reports that came out today.

War-years military suicide rate higher than believed
USA TODAY
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE
Gregg Zoroya
April 25, 2014

Rates of suicide in the military were slightly worse during the war years than what the Pentagon previously reported, according to new calculations released by Defense Department officials Friday.

The new arithmetic shows that from 2006 forward — during the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan — the true suicide rate across the U.S. military was actually several tenths of a percent to 1% or more higher than what was being reported.

"It took us time and effort to sit down and really just kind of figure out a better way to do the math," says Jacqueline Garrick, director of the Defense Suicide Prevention Office. She said the delay was a need to standardize how suicides are counted across the military.

The problem with the old, now-abandoned calculation, is that it relied partly on an estimated figure in determining a suicide rate rather than precise numbers, says Army Lt. Gen. Michael Linnington, the military deputy to the under secretary of Defense for personnel and readiness.

The old rates were calculated by the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, according to the Pentagon,

"It's jaw-dropping that the Pentagon would use this kind of crass calculation to measure the impact of the suicide epidemic within their ranks," says Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a senior member of the Veterans Affairs Committee. "If that recalculation in any way indicates a need for additional funding or new services, the Pentagon and Congress must respond to address a problem which is clearly worse than we had been led to believe."
read more here

What good does it do to be wrong but defend it instead of admitting and learning? It does about as much good to be right and no one listened.