Thursday, November 5, 2015

Thousands of Soldiers With PTSD Abandoned by Army

From the DOD
OEF OIF
FORT HOOD, 2,579
Fort Sill, 1,768
FORT BRAGG 1,865
FORT BLISS 1,332
FORT LEWIS 1,559
FORT CARSON 1,595
FORT CAMPBELL 1,508
Including all soldiers all of these are over 2,000 since 2009.
(There are more you can find on the report below from NPR)

But looking back even further, it gets worse
More than 140,000 troops have left the military since 2000 with less-than-honorable discharges, according to the Pentagon.

Of those suicides, 403 were among ex-service members whose discharges were "not honorable" — for a wide range of misconduct, from repeatedly disrespecting officers to felony convictions. An additional 380 occurred among veterans with "uncharacterized" discharges, the designation used for troops who leave in fewer than 180 days for a variety of nondisciplinary reasons.
Ex-troops with highest suicide risk often don't qualify for mental care
Add this into it
The Army shed 57,835 soldiers from 2010 to 2014. Over that time, 57,060 soldiers were kicked out for discipline issues. The Army says the similarity of the numbers is a coincidence. Army cleaning up its ranks
Factor in all of this and then add in the number of suicides and then you arrive at the point where you are ready to call for an investigation into every member on the Armed Services Committee. For all the money and time they wasted, producing more suicides in the military and out of it, it should be considered crimes committed against the soldiers and their families. Less serving means there are more suicides but if they get booted out, no one has to count them and they have no one to count on other than you!
Lawmakers Call For Army To Investigate Misconduct Discharges Of Service Members
NPR
NOVEMBER 04, 2015
"We are concerned that it may be easier to discharge service members for minor misconduct — possibly related to mental health issues — than to evaluate them for conditions that may warrant a medical discharge."
A group of 12 U.S. senators, led by Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., is calling for the Army inspector general to investigate the discharges of tens of thousands of service members diagnosed with mental health disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries.

The formal letter sent to top Army officials Eric Fanning and Gen. Mark A. Milley was motivated by last week's "Missed Treatment" investigation by NPR's Daniel Zwerdling and Colorado Public Radio's Michael de Yoanna, which revealed that since January 2009, the Army has separated 22,000 soldiers for misconduct after they returned from Iraq and Afghanistan and were diagnosed with mental health problems such as PTSD or TBI. As a result, many of those soldiers won't receive benefits or have access to the treatment they need.

"I mean the fact that there are 22,000 individuals who had a diagnosis who were then discharged, really suggests that we're only looking at the tip of the iceberg," Murphy tells NPR.
read more here

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