Troubling report from DOD on military suicides

This sounded as if the DOD was trying to bring understanding as to why servicemembers keep committing suicide after all these years of "training" them to be "resilient" and heal. It is about a sailor "Navy Petty Officer Considers Suicide" but as we read more, we see that he tried to end his life when he was just a child.

They live for the sake of others in combat.

Navy Petty Officer Considers Suicide
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
by Shannon Collins
Sep 11, 2014

WASHINGTON -- This month is Suicide Prevention Month, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has said preventing military suicides is one of the Defense Department's highest priorities.

"As we observe Suicide Prevention Month," he said in a message to the department's workforce, "we must rededicate ourselves to actively working not only every month, but every day to fulfill our collective responsibility to watch out for each other and take care of each other."

This is the first article in a four-part series about a Navy petty officer who came close to taking his own life but did not do so, thanks to the intervention of his leadership and the use of support networks, and how he continues to brave his battle with alcoholism and depression.

Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Thompson, a mass communication specialist, is an instructor at a joint command in Maryland. He began his journey in Detroit as the child of a mother and stepfather who were drug users. He suffered physical and emotional trauma, he said, and his mother repeatedly told him he was a liar and a cheater, that he was stupid, and that life was only going to get worse.

Because of this, Thompson said, he first thought of suicide when he was 8 years old, and he attempted it when he was 9.
read more here

They are still pushing the notion that these men and women were already "damaged" before they joined the military. Very troubling considering the DOD has psychological tests they give to every recruit before they are allowed in. Saying a servicemember was already troubled when he joined is dangerous. It leaves us believing these men and women were trained to use weapons while mentally challenged by suicidal thoughts.

After all, they can't actually be honest with us and admit their "resilience training" does not work at best, at worse, prevents them from seeking help because they believe they are mentally weak. They have been pushing the same program since 2009. If I could see it would raise suicides as a "non-professional" then why didn't they? Why didn't they stop when the numbers went up? Why didn't they learn anything about the thousands they studied who lived after attempting suicide while in the military multiple times?

This article sold as being helpful only shows how the military doesn't get the simple fact they were already resilient before they joined.

No one can be trained to be resilient. The vast majority of servicemembers face deployments and push past all the pain they carry because their families, their military unit family, is counting on them so they can all go back home. Most suicides happen after deployments into combat and not during it.

The DOD reports on military suicides but they accept no responsibility when veterans commit suicide. Why should they when they are no longer held accountable for what they did to these men and women in the first place? The VA is responsible for veterans, but even they do not know how many veterans take their own lives after risking them for the sake of others.

If we let them get away with controlling the conversation, twisting the truth, then we're going to be counting higher numbers next year among servicemembers and veterans.