The Longest War In US History Is The One They Fight Back Home

The longest US war is officially the one that is fought when they come home!
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 10, 2015

If you've been tracking the military/veteran suicides, you'll find this a stunning reminder of the massive failure committed by the Department of Defense.

I am sure you saw the numbers of deployed going down as the number of suicides went up with Iraq War over in 2011 and lower levels of deployments into Afghanistan. Yet somehow the press has not even thought of that simple fact. What can we expect when they keep repeating that Afghanistan is the longest war in US history?


From The Wall

The first American soldier killed in the Vietnam War was Air Force T-Sgt. Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr. He is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having a casualty date of June 8, 1956. His name was added to the Wall on Memorial Day 1999.

First battlefield fatality was Specialist 4 James T. Davis who was killed on December 22, 1961.

The last pilot killed in the Vietnam war was Air Force helicopter pilot Second Lieutenant Richard Vandegeer who was killed on Koh Tang Island, Cambodia. This occurred during the Mayaguez incident when his helicopter crashed on May 15, 1975. It is considered the last combat action of the Vietnam War.

Wars do not end when they leave the battlefield. The longest war is the one they fight when they come home and are supposed to be out of harms way. The majority of the suicides tied to military service are over the age of 50 and veterans commit suicide double the civilian rate.  For younger veterans, they are triple their peer rate. Female veterans are 6 times female civilian rate and young female veterans are 12 times their peer rate.

“Their rates are astronomically high and climbing,” said Jan Kemp, VA’s National Mental Health Director for Suicide Prevention. “That’s concerning to us.”

Reasons for the increase are unclear, but Kemp said the pressures of leaving military careers, readjusting to civilian life and combat injuries like post-traumatic stress disorder all play a role in the problems facing young male vets.

Female veterans saw an 11 percent increase in their suicide rate over the same span. Overall, suicide rates for all veterans remain significantly above their civilian counterparts.

The fact is when the DOD started to "prevent" suicides it was due to the 26 year high number of suicides in 2006. Back then there were 99 for the whole year.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its scheduled release Thursday, found there were 99 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers during 2006, up from 88 the previous year and the highest number since the 102 suicides in 1991 at the time of the Persian Gulf War.

In 2012 these were the number of suicides

Army had 182 active-duty suicides, the Marine Corps, 48; the Air Force, 59 and the Navy, 60, Army National Guard 96, Army Reserve 47

And for this year,

In the first quarter of 2015, there were 57 suicides among service members in the active component, 15 suicides among service members in the reserve component and 27 suicides among service members in the National Guard. (99)

In the second quarter of 2015, there were 71 suicides among service members in the active component, 20 suicides among service members in the reserve component and 27 suicides among service members in the National Guard. (118)

Yes, the U.S. still has troops in Afghanistan. Graphics tell the story

In fact, about 9,800 U.S. troops provide training and support in Afghanistan. They are to remain until the end of the year -- a change from the Obama administration's initial plan to reduce the number to 5,500. A military withdrawal is set be completed by end of the 2016.

So yes CNN, graphics do tell the story but the rotten part is, no one seems curious enough to read between the lines and actually tell the true price of war. They are still fixated on the "22 a Day" for veterans committing suicide even though that number is false as well as being heartbreaking considering veteran suicides rates have gone up as well.