Military Suicide Reports Leave Out Honesty

Honesty is Hardly Ever Heard 
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 16, 2015

When did it become acceptable to have less serving translate into more suicides? Less serving in the military, less facing combat but suicides didn't go down enough?

White House passes Blumenthal’s suicide prevention bill

On the senate floor on Feb. 3, Blumenthal said his motivation for reintroducing the bill after it was blocked in December 2014 came from 31-year-old Waterford resident Justin Eldridge, whom he had befriended before he died by suicide in 2013. When Eldridge returned from combat in 2008, he had PTSD and a traumatic brain injury. According to Blumenthal, he “slipped through the cracks” of his local VA facility, not getting the treatment he needed, and he later took his life.

It has happened far too many times and will keep happening unless we get drastically honest.

What he didn't say was that there were other bills just like this one, named after different veterans and soldiers after they committed suicide, before Eldridge killed himself.

What was just released in West Virginia is an indication of what the actual outcome will be.

As of the end of September, about 9 percent of West Virginians were military veterans, according to U.S. Census data. But veterans made up about 23 percent of state suicides from 2000-2013, according to the Department of Health and Human Resources’ Health Statistics Center.

Figures from the DHHR’s Health Statistics Center show that, from 2000 to 2013, 983 veteran deaths were documented as suicides. Of those, 881 were people 35 or older, and 413 were people over age 65.

These numbers have gone up in the veterans population after all the other bills had been passed and all the speeches were delivered. After all the headlines congratulating politicians, more families made headlines talking about how their beloved veterans paid the price of these "efforts" with their lives.

With troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, this is what they faced as veterans, less VA Service Reps

Veterans groups maintain that the backlog amounts to official negligence. Since the launch of the Iraq war more than four years ago, the number of people charged with reviewing and approving veterans' disability claims has actually dropped. According to the American Federation of Government Employees, the VA employed 1,392 Veterans Service Representatives in June 2007 compared to 1,516 in January 2003.

"Last U.S. troops leave Iraq, ending war" was the Reuters headline on December 18, 2011. The war didn't end for those sent to fight.

For U.S. President Barack Obama, the military pullout is the fulfilment of an election promise to bring troops home from a conflict inherited from his predecessor, the most unpopular war since Vietnam and one that tainted America's standing worldwide.

What the article didn't say was that it was already carved in stone that Iraq War would end before Obama became President,

In Washington, a senior military official said the deal has been accepted by the U.S. side, short of formal approval by President Bush, but is subject to final acceptance by Iraqi leaders. Some members of Iraq’s Cabinet oppose some of the provisions.

Also completed is a companion draft document, known as a strategic framework agreement, spelling out in broad terms the political, security and economic relationships between Iraq and the U.S., the senior military official said. The official discussed the draft accords on the condition that he not be identified by name because the deals have not been publicly announced and are not final.

In addition to spelling out that U.S. troops would move out of Iraqi cities by next summer, the Iraqi government has pushed for a specific date — most likely the end of 2011 — by which all U.S. forces would depart the country. In the meantime, the U.S. troops would be positioned on bases in less visible parts of the country, and would be ready to assist Iraqi forces as needed.

And combat in Iraq ended in 2011 but deaths did not. A year later military suicides broke in 2012 the record.

The Army, by far the largest branch of the armed forces, set a record for suicides last year with 325, almost two-thirds of all military suicides.

It also was a record year throughout the military, with 516 suicides across all branches.

That number may be one you have not heard but it included all branches with the National Guard and reserves.

Department of Defense Quarterly Suicide Report 2014

Troops leaving combat in Iraq didn't lower the rate of suicides. Troops leaving Afghanistan didn't lower the number of suicides. Between the end of so many deployments into combat zones and the reduction of forces within the military due to sequestration, these numbers are shockingly high and is reflected in this report from McClathcy in 2013.

Currently, there are about 535,000 Army personnel, 182,000 Marines and 11 Navy carriers. The review suggests cutting that to as few as 380,000 Army personnel, 150,000 Marines and eight Navy carriers.

Within all of this, they made more veterans they no longer have to count. There will be more veterans fighting to heal in a system that has not been able to keep up with their increased numbers. We're all going to complain about the VA not being up to the challenge without once considering that Congress has not done anything to fix anything veterans have faced for decades. Sure, they've done a lot but nothing that has fixed any of the issues reported over and over again.

We need to start having honest discussions about what has really been going on if anything will change for the better and live up to what we actually owe our veterans.

The other part that is missing is that while we waste time on what has failed, they are prevented from discovering what works and can help them heal.