Months of Training To Serve, Worse Than None To Go Home

When Will the DOD Train Them To Live?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 11, 2016

Suicides tied to military service are always complicated.  While lives always end for the same reason, loss of hope tomorrow will be any better, how they get to that point is a series of events complicated by human encounters.

Men and women decide to take the hardest, most demanding jobs.  It isn't just about the low pay, endless hours, rules and regulations.  It isn't just about the unknown they are willing to accept, such as being deployed, but all the hardships that come with the job.  They are even willing to be killed, sacrificing their lives for someone else.

So how do they go from being like that to someone unable to live one more day?

We can keep finding the easy villain to blame and usually folks simply blame the VA. Yet if we actually think about all of this, it all begins with the Department of Defense itself. That is where they transition from civilian to servicemember and where they are supposed to transition from servicemember to veteran. Unfortunately, the DOD has not been interested in that part.

The new Army training is 10 weeks. For the Marines training is 12 weeks. The Air Force training is 8 weeks and so is the Navy training. While the DOD considers all physical conditions for recruits, they also consider mental health issues. In other words, they are supposed to be of "sound mind" when they join.

The DOD also started addressing prevention around 2006, which was supposed to be training their brains to become mentally tough and avoid PTSD. (Yep, like that would work since they were already mentally tough to being with.) While there is no evidence anyone can be trained to be resilient, but plenty of evidence this did not work, the military continued to push it. Suicides went up and so did suicides in the Veterans Community.

As a matter of fact, the newer veterans are committing suicide triple their peer rate.  Veterans are double the civilian rate of suicides with the majority over the age of 50. So that clearly shows the DOD efforts in prevention failed. It also shows that after all these years, the VA has not done enough.  None of the new charities with all their "awareness" talk have done enough.

With all that in mind, then consider the other thing the DOD has been reporting. They point to the fact that suicides are high for the non-deployed forces. The following is from the story of one of them.  A young Marine who only wanted to be a Marine since the age of 6.

"Thompson, the VA's deputy director of suicide prevention, said recent studies found that more veterans who have never been deployed and have never seen combat die by suicide than those who have been deployed — a fact that surprises most people."

If all that training was not good enough for the non-deployed, how did they expect it to work on those with multiple deployments?

A mother mourns; the VA promises to do more to prevent veteran suicide
Springfield News Leader
Jackie Rehwald
June 10, 2016

When he was 6, police caught Kindall Johnson trying to cross Sunshine Street by himself. The Marine-obsessed child had discovered the recruitment office, then located in the Elfindale Center.

His mother, Kathy Davis, seemed to enjoy sharing that memory.

"One night I'm cooking dinner and there was a knock at the door. It was two police officers and Kindall was standing there smiling," she said. "He had bumper stickers, lanyards, pencils, pads of paper. And he goes, 'I found this really cool place and they give you all this free stuff.'"

Johnson stayed in touch with the recruiters and never wavered on his plan to enlist.

A strong runner, Johnson was invited to train with recruits who were getting ready to ship out. He was just 15 years old.

A few days after high school graduation, he was sent to boot camp.

Five years later he died of a gunshot wound. The Marine was not killed by enemy fire.

Shortly after attending a Missouri State University homecoming tailgate party on Oct. 17, 2015, Johnson drove to the police station on Chestnut Expressway. He sent several messages to friends and family, apologizing and saying goodbye.

He then called 911 before shooting himself twice.
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UPDATE
Here is General Peter Chiarelli talking about suicides in February. "It is the highest we've seen in any single month since we've been keeping track."

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Army suicides at all time record high, no one held accountable

They are still pushing "Resilience Training" and it appears no one has been removed from duty after this outcome. The Senate has not held anyone accountable. The Pentagon has not held anyone accountable. No one is accountable and all we get are excuses and claims every year they "get it" when families still have to stand at graves that did not have to be filled!

325 Army suicides in 2012 a record
By Tom Watkins and Maggie Schneider
CNN
Sat February 2, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The Army reports 325 suicides last year among active and non-active military personnel
"Our highest on record," says Lt. Gen. Howard Bromberg
The total for 2011 was 283

(CNN) -- The U.S. Army reported Thursday that there were 325 confirmed or potential suicides last year among active and nonactive military personnel.

"Our highest on record," said Lt. Gen. Howard Bromberg, deputy chief of staff, manpower and personnel for the Army.

The grim total exceeds the number of total U.S. Army deaths (219) and total military deaths (313) in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, according to figures published by the military's Defense Casualty Analysis System.

For all of last year, 182 potential active-duty suicides were reported, 130 of which have been confirmed and 52 of which remain under investigation, it said.

And 143 potential not-on-active-duty suicides were reported (96 Army National Guard and 47 Army Reserve), 117 of which have been confirmed and 26 remain under investigation.

The total for 2011 was 283 -- 165 confirmed active-duty suicides and 118 confirmed not-on-active-duty suicides (82 Army National Guard and 36 Army Reserve). No cases were under investigation.

The toll comes despite what the military touts as extensive support and counseling programs.

"The Army continues to take aggressive measures head-on to meet the challenge of suicides as every loss of life impacts our family," said Bromberg. "In spite of the increased loss of life to suicide, with calendar year 2012 being our highest on record, the Army is confident that through our continued emphasis in the services, programs, policies and training that support our Army family, we will overcome this threat to our Force."
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Is the DOD just renaming same kind of failures?

I've been reading, and reading, and reading about different programs the Army claims will work better than the other programs they've had. What I'm not reading is that they have learned anything new. This all boils down to just one more program that will replace another program that didn't work. When the DOD comes up with any kind of understanding of why some end up with PTSD and why some don't that's when I'll have some kind of hope for the soldiers. Until that day comes, plan on the numbers for PTSD go up every year along with attempted suicides and suicides. Too many years as these numbers rise but to this day, they have not shown they understand PTSD any better than they did after Vietnam. Who is in charge over these programs anyway? You can call a cat a "dog" all you want but at the end of the day, the cat will still meow instead of bark and instead of warming your feet, he'll bite them.

No waiting: New Army program puts rescue before the crisis

Enemy fire isn't the only occupational hazard of military service. Whether it's one deployment or four, those who fight face an elevated risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicide and a host of other disruptions to their lives.

This week the Army deployed another weapon against one of the biggest adversaries - stress. It's called Master Resilience Training.

The program, initiated at Fort Jackson, S.C., focuses on helping soldiers maintain psychological as well as physical health, rather than on treating those who have already been tripped up or knocked down.

The emphasis is on positive thinking, but the training isn't an endless recitation of Norman Vincent Peale's greatest one-liners. In fact, it isn't the rank and file who will be trained at Fort Jackson. These "trainees" will be sergeants and young officers taught to mentor soldiers both before and during deployments.
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http://www.fayobserver.com/Articles/2010/04/06/988889

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey wants more programs like Fort Bliss have

Chief: Replicate PTSD Program
July 18, 2008
Army News Service|by Virginia Reza

FORT BLISS, Texas - Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey visited Fort Bliss July 13 and said that an innovative program there to treat post-traumatic stress disorders ought to be replicated at other locations across the Army.

The "Restoration and Resilience Center" at Fort Bliss is a specialized treatment facility for Soldiers with PTSD who want to remain in the Army. The center is run by Dr. John Fortunato, a Benedictine monk, Vietnam veteran and clinical psychologist.

"Unfortunately you can't package John Fortunato and move him around and it really takes someone with that passion to drive these kinds of operations," Gen. Casey said, "but there are some of the elements of this that are clearly exportable, and we will do that."

Fortunato opened the unique treatment facility one year ago in July 2007. It all started when he worked at the Soldiers' outpatient clinic at Bliss, treating servicemembers who were coming back from deployment and diagnosed with PTSD. Their treatment consisted of medication and group counseling and very little individual counseling, due to insufficient staff. If, in the course of three months Soldiers were not fit for duty, they had to be medically discharged.

"There were two things about that, that didn't seem right," Fortunato said. "I got tired of Soldiers crying in my office, telling me they did not want to get out, that the Army was their life, and that's all they knew, and all I could say is, 'Sorry, we have to discharge you.' It tore me up."

The other thing that didn't seem right to him was signing paperwork stating Soldiers had derived "maximum benefits on inpatient and outpatient treatment."

"I thought, that is not true, because we haven't really tried hard enough to rehabilitate them. There were so many issues we were not addressing."
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‘Little Miracles’ in Treating Combat Stress

Center Creates ‘Little Miracles’ in Treating Combat Stress

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
FORT BLISS, Texas, May 9, 2008 – A revolutionary treatment program here is demonstrating “little miracles” as it gives new hope to soldiers afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder who want to stay in the Army, its director reports.
The new program is the brainchild of clinical psychologist John E. Fortunato, who uses a holistic approach to treating PTSD at the new Fort Bliss Restoration and Resilience Center.

Fortunato conceded that his proposal “wasn’t an easy sell” initially, particularly because it wove yoga, massage therapy and other nontraditional approaches into its treatment program. But driven by the frustration of seeing soldiers with PTSD forced to leave the Army against their wishes, Fortunato pressed forward and won approval for his prototype program.

With $2.2 million in initial funding and a 1940s barracks building to rehab, he set out to launch the Restoration and Resilience Center in June 2006. The center opened last summer.

Fortunato was convinced traditional PTSD treatments weren’t long enough, intense enough or comprehensive enough. “So we set out to create a program to address all aspects of PTSD and treat the whole soldier,” he said.

The participants, all volunteers, take about one-half the doses of medications they’d typically get through community mental-health programs. “That’s because we’re doing a bunch of other things,” Fortunato said.

Many PTSD-afflicted soldiers experience “hyper-arousal,” which the center staff treats with techniques like medical massage and “Reiki,” a Japanese stress-reduction technique. Acupuncture has proven to be “extremely effective” in treating the anxiety, panic, and tension-induced physical pain many experience, Fortunato said.

There’s a big physical component to the program, too. The soldiers must walk at least 10,000 steps a day, including a daily 45-minute “power walk.” They play water polo three times a week, forcing interaction that Fortunato said many would rather avoid.

“That’s another piece of PTSD. They want to socially isolate. They don’t like to interact with other people,” he said. “So we have them interact with the people they feel most comfortable with: other soldiers with PTSD.”

Field trips during the program take the soldiers to the local mall and Wal-mart, “two hells” to many of them because they’re too big, too crowded and too noisy, Fortunato said. “We teach them ways to regulate their stress level so they can handle those kinds of environments.”

Many afflicted soldiers have trouble with concentration and memory, Fortunato said. For them, the program’s mix of physical activity and calming techniques appears to help. They do yoga; tai chi, a Chinese martial art; “Quigong,” a centuries-old Chinese self-healing method; and biofeedback, which uses the mind to heal the body. “We have a meditation room that looks like it came out of a Zen monastery,” Fortunato said.
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http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/showthread.php?t=45980


Does any of this sound familiar?

Fort Bliss PTSD work praised by Gates

Military's policy for dealing with post traumatic stress disorder changing, defense secretary says
By Chris Roberts/For the Sun-News
Article Launched: 05/02/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT



Bracing against a blasting wind that reminded him of his native Kansas, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates spent a day at Fort Bliss touring a mental health center, watching a demonstration of the Army's newest technology, and meeting with soldiers and community leaders.

Gates said the recent announcement that two additional brigades will come to Fort Bliss as part of a plan to expand the Army "will be the final major additions for the time being."

The total increase in the number of soldiers expected to be stationed at the post since the Base Realignment and Closure process in 2005 is nearly 30,000.

Gates had high praise for a Fort Bliss center designed to treat soldiers suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and return them to their units, which he said would serve as a prototype for the Army.

"They are doing some amazing things here in terms of helping soldiers who want to remain soldiers but who have been wounded with post traumatic stress disorder," Gates said of the Restoration and Resilience Center. "I think it's an extraordinary program. I think it's a prototype. And one of the things that I will carry back to Washington with me is the question of whether we can replicate this at other posts
around the country."

During a morning press conference in front of the center, Gates also formally announced a change in government policy he said will allow soldiers to seek help for PTSD without hurting their careers. Getting help for PTSD related to the "combat environment" will no longer be a reason to deny security clearances, he said.

The Fort Bliss center also is looking at finding ways of helping soldiers in combat zones deal with stress, Gates said, adding that those techniques "are clearly worth additional attention as well."
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http://www.lcsun-news.com/news/ci_9126689?source=rss