U.S. Army Secretary Mark Esper said reducing suicides in the Army is a priority, and he and his staff are working to study and resolve problems leading to them.After spending the day at Fort Riley speaking with soldiers and their families, Esper spoke with The Mercury Friday afternoon.
How long are we going to hear the same claim while they change absolutely nothing!
When will reporters tell us the truth?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 5, 2018
Why are reporters ignoring the data on military suicides? That is a question we've been wondering about for over a decade, yet, there has been absolutely no answer.
The Department of Defense responds when suicide reports come out, and reporters being what they are, settle for what they are told. They say "most have not been deployed" but then never have to explain how they were supposed to be trained to prevent suicides. If the training did not work for non-deployed, how did they expect it to work for those sent to risk their lives in combat?
No one seems to wonder how it is that when the number of men and women serving in the military has gone down, the number of men and women serving in the military committing suicide remains close to 500 per year.
Active Duty Decreased
This chart shows the number of suicides between 2013 and 2015
2014 273 Active, 170 "Reserve Components" Total 443
2015 266 Active, 209 "Reserve Components" Total 475
2017 285 Active, 219 "Reserve Components" Total 504
Congress started to hold hearings and passed bills with their names on it back to 2007. No reporter has bothered to ask then to account for the loss of life increasing at the same time the numbers of those serving decreased.
No reporter has asked the Department of Defense to account for any of this after they implemented mandatory "prevention" training after spending millions on funding programs that did not work.
No reporter has tied that training to the increase of suicides in the younger veterans population after they survived combat and had this training.
No reporter has tied the report of suicides from the VA to the decrease in the number of veterans living in the country while the numbers they know of remained about the same.
The simple truth is, when we say we value the "free press" that should never equate to them being free from responsible reporting.
Had they been paying attention to all the facts, all along, how many lives could have been saved because the American public had the facts? Do you think all the "awareness" raisers out there would have gotten away with using a number that is not even close to real if reporters paid attention?
In April of 2007, I wondered why we had a non-caring media about the non-combat deaths.
When I was searching for reports on suicides it became apparent that more were dying because they served than from combat itself. Why am I still asking the same question?
No comments:
Post a Comment
If it is not helpful, do not be hurtful. Spam removed so do not try putting up free ad.