11 airmen and Air Force civilians died by suicide first 4 weeks in 2019

Air Force calls for culture change in bid to reduce suicides

STARS AND STRIPES
By Brian Ferguson
Published: February 12, 2019

Air Force senior leaders issued a memo calling for a culture change after a total of 11 airmen and Air Force civilians died by suicide in the first four weeks of 2019.

The number of suicides within the ranks has remained relatively flat in recent years; however, the service wants to do more to bring the suicide rate down, stated a Feb. 5 memo signed by Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson, Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David Goldfein and Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Kaleth Wright.

In January, five active duty airmen, four civilian employees, one Air National Guard member and one reservist died by suicide, according to data provided to Stars and Stripes by the Air Force.

In the first quarter of 2018, the Air Force had 11 servicemember suicide deaths, a Pentagon report found last year. The report did not include civilian deaths.
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Wow that is a bad report. It is also a exceptionally incomplete.

The DOD seems all too ready to blame everything...and everyone, as long as they do not have to take responsibility for any of it.

So who will be the "one too many" we keep hearing them say "One is too many" before they change? This is far beyond a SNAFU. It passed that point about a decade ago. Ever since then we've heard all kinds of excuses and slogans that have changed nothing for the better.

How many more will it take before that "one" proves to them once and for all, it is time to take a serious look at clusterfuckish "programs" they have been pushing? Is this really all proving the rumors true, that this is all about money going into the contractors' bank accounts? If this is the result of billions of bucks being spent every year, then someone needs to get damn refunds PDQ so they can help pay for the funerals that did not need to happen.

Considering that the troops still have not clue what PTSD is, wouldn't that be a good place to start?

After all, since the stigma keeps them from talking about what surviving is doing to them, should they begin to understand why PTSD is not a sign of any kind of weakness, then they have a chance at healing ASAP. This point needs to be made clear right from the start so that PTSD does not have a chance to dig-in and infiltrate to the point where they end up facing being kicked out or flipped out.

Gee it may even allow them to feel encouraged to get it out and find reinforcements to help them work through it. That won't happen until everyone gets it straight. That it hits them after they survived whatever it was that was the one too many times it happened for them. It hit the strongest part of them. 

The strongest part of them, in case you didn't know, was their emotional core that made them want to serve in the first place. Yes! PTSD comes into survivors because of the strength of their emotional core. Oh, sure some egotistic-self-serving jerk will challenge that one, but the evidence makes that point very clear.

PTSD strikes the emotional part of the brain after surviving the "event" that set it off. Therefore, the more they feel everything else, including the good stuff, the more they will be invaded by PTSD.

It is also why there are not only different levels of PTSD, but different types of it. Face it~ If we can understand a civilian with PTSD after one event, then it should be easy to understand what someones job demands they face them as part of their job requirements.

Within all of this BS, we're wondering why we knew so much back in the 70's and 80's than they do now. 

Want to keep reading headlines like this one? Then just relax and forget about all of this. Want to change the outcome? Then get busy, get educated and then, get pissed off enough to make sure that the media cannot simply do a hit job and then walk away until the next report makes us sick to our stomachs.