Suicide Prevention? No amount of money can fix what failed already

With the posting of Senator Baucus Sponsored another Suicide Prevention Bill it is a good time to look back at other things our elected officials tried to do over the years. When you think of the millions of dollars spent repeating the same things over and over again yet discovering such deplorable results as increased military suicides along with attempted suicides, you should really be wondering when they will get a clue no amount of money can fix what has already failed.

The Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act

H.R. 327 would direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to develop and implement a comprehensive program designed to reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans. Detailed Summary

(This measure has not been amended since it was passed by the Senate on September 27, 2007. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act - Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) suicide among veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious problem; and (2) the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, in developing and implementing the comprehensive program outlined in this Act, should take into consideration the special needs of such veterans and of elderly veterans who are at high risk for depression and experience high rates of suicide.

Directs the Secretary to develop and carry out a comprehensive program designed to reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans. Requires the program to include: (1) mandatory training for appropriate staff and contractors of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) who interact with veterans; (2) mental health assessments of veterans; (3) designation of a suicide prevention counselor at each Department medical facility; (4) research on best practices for suicide prevention; (5) mental health care for veterans who have experienced sexual trauma while in military service; (6) 24-hour veterans' mental health care availability; (7) a toll-free hotline; and (8) outreach and education for veterans and their families.

Authorizes the Secretary to develop and carry a peer support counseling program as part of such program.

Requires the Secretary to report to Congress on the program.

Status of the Legislation

Latest Major Action: 10/24/2007: Presented to President.

Omission of Bean bill described as baffling
Holt and East Brunswick family vow to continue fight for improved veterans’ services
BY LAUREN CIRAULO Staff Writer

EAST BRUNSWICK — A bill named for a Middlesex County veteran and intended to strengthen treatment resources for returning soldiers will not be funded this year.

The bill’s sudden removal from the federal Defense Authorization Act of 2011 has angered a local family as well as Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), who introduced the legislation in honor of East Brunswick native, U.S. Army Sgt. Coleman Bean.

According to Holt, it was Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Ranking Member U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who yanked the measure, believing it to be unnecessary.

A call to McCain’s office requesting comment was not immediately returned.

“When I learned that Sen. McCain removed this provision at the last minute, I was furious,” Holt said. “A serious gap exists in military suicide prevention efforts — a gap that needlessly cost the life of one young central New Jersey resident.”

Coleman Bean took his life on Sept. 6, 2008, at the age of 25, a few months after returning from his second tour in Iraq. He had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after his first tour, but Bean had limited access to veterans services as a member of the U.S. Army’s Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) and was called back to duty without receiving treatment.

Armed Forces Suicide Prevention Act of 2011

For Immediate Release August 31, 2012
Fact Sheet: President Obama Signs Executive Order to Improve Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members, and Military Families

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Obama will sign an Executive Order directing key federal departments to expand suicide prevention strategies and take steps to meet the current and future demand for mental health and substance abuse treatment services for veterans, service members, and their families.

Ensuring that all veterans, Active, Guard, and Reserve service members and their families receive the support they deserve is a top priority for the Obama Administration. Since September 11, 2001, more than two million service members have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan with unprecedented duration and frequency. Long deployments and intense combat conditions require optimal support for the emotional and mental health needs of our service members and their families. The Obama Administration has consistently expanded efforts to ensure our troops, veterans and their families receive the benefits they have earned and deserve, including providing timely mental health service. The Executive Order signed today builds on these efforts.

President Obama’s Executive Order

The Executive Order signed by President Obama:

Strengthens suicide prevention efforts across the Force and in the veteran community: The Executive Order directs the VA to increase the VA veteran crisis line capacity by 50% by the end of the year.

Under the Executive Order, VA will ensure that any veteran identifying him or herself as being in crisis connects with a mental health professional or trained mental health worker within 24 hours or less.

VA will work with the Department of Defense to develop and implement a national 12 month suicide prevention campaign focused on connecting veterans to mental health services.

Enhances access to mental health care by building partnerships between VA and community providers:

In service areas where VA has faced challenges in hiring and placing mental health service providers and continues to have unfilled vacancies or long wait times, the Executive Order Directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to work with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish at least 15 pilot sites. In pilot sites, VA will contract with community health centers, community mental health clinics, community substance abuse treatment facilities and other HHS grantees and community resources to help reduce VA mental health waiting lists. Under the Executive Order, HHS and VA will develop a plan for a rural mental health recruitment initiative to promote opportunities for VA and rural communities to share mental health providers when demand is insufficient for either to support a full-time provider.

Increases the number of VA mental health providers serving our veterans:

Under the Executive Order, VA will hire 800 peer-to-peer support counselors to empower veterans to support other veterans and help ensure that their mental health care and overall service needs are met. VA has launched an effort to hire 1,600 new mental health professionals to serve veterans. The Executive Order directs VA to use its pay-setting authorities, loan repayment and scholarships, partnerships with health care workforce training programs, and collaborative arrangements with community-based providers to recruit, hire, and place 1,600 mental health professionals by June, 2013. Since, 2009, the VA has expanded its mental health programs, hiring more than 3,500 mental health professionals since 2009.

Promotes mental health research and development of more effective treatment methodologies:

The Executive Order directs the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education to develop a National Research Action Plan that will include strategies to improve early diagnosis and treatment effectiveness for TBI and PTSD.

The Executive Order further directs the Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a comprehensive mental health study with an emphasis on PTSD, TBI, and related injuries to develop better prevention, diagnosis, and treatment options.

Launch a government-wide collaborative effort to address these issues through a Military and Veterans Mental Health Interagency Task Force:

The Executive Order establishes an Interagency Task Force, including the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education, the Domestic Policy Council, National Security Staff, the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which will make recommendations to the President on additional strategies to improve mental health and substance abuse treatment services for veterans, service members, and their families.

Supporting our Military, Veterans, and their Families
The President has taken key steps to protect and strengthen the health of our military, veterans and their families here at home. Many of these initiatives are supported by agencies across the federal government and collaborative partnerships with states and communities.

Health Care
For the first time ever, 135 medical schools have committed to exchanging leading research on PTSD and TBI and will also train future physicians to better understand veteran health needs. More than 150 state and national nursing organizations and over 650 nursing schools have committed to ensure our nation’s 3 million nurses are prepared to meet the unique health needs of veterans and their families by educating the current and future nurses of America to have a better understanding of PTSD and TBI.

President Obama signed the “caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010”, into law which helps our most seriously injured post-9/11 veterans and their family caregivers with a monthly stipend; access to health insurance; mental health services and counseling; and comprehensive VA caregiver training and respite care. The Department of Labor has proposed new regulations for the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to support military families and caregivers. This rule would implement statutory changes to the FMLA, expanding leave to family members caring for veterans who have suffered a serious injury or illness.

In July 2010, the VA published a historic change to its rules, streamlining the process and paperwork needed by combat veterans to pursue a claim for disability pay for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The VA expanded its workforce by over 2,600 people to handle applications for disability pay. The VA is also using technology and new approaches to help veterans get their benefits by accepting online applications for initial disability benefits, initiating an innovation competition, launching pilot initiatives, and investing over $128 million in a paperless Veterans Benefits Management System.

The administration is utilizing partnerships to reduce the stigma associated with seeking treatment for behavioral health issues. Make the Connection, a campaign launched by the Department of Veterans Affairs, is creating ways for veterans and their family members to connect with the experiences of other veterans and access the information and resources to help these families confront the challenges of transitioning from service to daily civilian life.

Licensing and Credentials
Nearly 35 percent of military spouses in the labor force require licenses or certification for their profession. Many military spouses hold occupational licenses and routinely move across state lines, causing licensing requirements to disproportionately affect the military spouse population. The First Lady and Dr. Biden encouraged all 50 governors to pass legislation by 2014 to reduce the financial and administrative strains that 100,000 military spouses incur from trying to get their state licenses or certification credentials to transfer from state to state as they move. Mrs. Obama and Dr. Biden encouraged governors to take Action in February 2012 when only 11 states had legislation on the books. 26 states now have measures in place to support military spouses and the initiative is on-track to meet the 2014 goal.

Education
The Department of Defense has awarded $180 million in grants to support military-connected public school districts. These grants support improved academic programs for military children. More than 400,000 students from military families across all grade levels are impacted by these grant projects.

The Department of Defense has awarded approximately $25 million to military-connected Local Education Agencies (LEAs) this summer to focus on increasing student achievement and easing transitions through research-based academic and support programs.

The Department of Defense, in collaboration with the Council of State Governments' (CSG) National Center for Interstate Compacts developed the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children (the Compact) to address the educational transition issues of children of military families. The Compact covers transition issues including class placement, records transfer, immunization requirements, course placement, graduation requirements, exit testing, and extra-curricular opportunities. States adopt the Compact through legislation, and as a result, join the Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission (MIC3). To date, 39 states have approved the Compact and these states are home to 89 percent of school age children whose active duty parents are assigned to military installations in the United States. We will continue to work with leaders to encourage the 11 remaining states approve the Compact and become members of MIC3.

VA eased the Post-9/11 GI Bill application process within the eBenefits portal, including transferability to spouses or children for service members with over six years of service. Servicemembers can now apply on-line to transfer the benefits of their Post-9/11 GI Bill to eligible beneficiaries.

Housing
On top of the historic settlements completed by the Federal government and 49 state Attorneys General, major mortgage servicers will be providing relief to thousands of service member and veteran households. A review will be conducted of every service member household foreclosed upon since 2006. Those wrongly foreclosed upon will be compensated equal to a minimum of lost equity, plus interest and a refund for money lost because they were wrongfully denied the opportunity to reduce their mortgage payments. Additionally, these organizations will pay $10 million into a VA fund that guarantees loans on favorable terms for veterans.

The Administration is working to end veteran homelessness through leveraging broad support at Federal, State, and local levels in both the public and private sectors. Working with over 4,000 community agencies, the VA and HUD have successfully placed more than 37,000 veterans in permanent housing with dedicated case managers and access to high-quality VA health care since 2009. To ensure we reach out to our homeless veterans, the VA created a National Registry for Homeless Veterans and established a National Homeless Hotline. Veteran homelessness was reduced by nearly 12 percent between January 2010 and January 2011.

In 2011, VA helped save 72,391 Veteran and military borrowers with VA-guaranteed loans from foreclosure, a 10% increase from the prior year. VA has helped nearly 59,000 borrowers avoid foreclosure so far in 2012. The home loan guaranty program helps Veterans and their families purchase homes, often with no down payment required. The program expects to guaranty the 20 millionth loan in early November 2012.

Using their Interest Rate Reduction Refinancing Loan, also known as the Streamline Refinance, VA refinances existing VA loans into new loans with lower interest rates, or adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) into fixed rate mortgages. In 2011, this program saved an average of $202 per month in individual payment reductions and 1.42% in interest rates. This equates to saving military and veterans $24 million a month and $293 million per year.

Financial Readiness
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Financial Education and Financial Access has helped military families identify predatory lending practices. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) established an office of service member affairs to ensure that the CFPB addresses the financial challenges that confront military families and strengthens protections against abusive financial practices.

President Obama not waiting for congress to stop Military Suicides

UPDATE

We read the news about the troops and our veterans everyday, so while we are very well aware of what they come home to, you'd think the party claiming for so long they are "pro-military" would actually think about them enough to mention them during the convention that nominated the man they want to lead this whole nation including taking on the role of Commander-in-Chief.

They fight so hard for the wealthy and so hard against women's rights but they don't seem to take much interest in the men and women serving this country or the veterans.

Obama: ‘I Meant What I Said’ on War, Veterans’ Care
By Devin Dwyer
ABC News
Aug 31, 2012

FORT BLISS – President Obama told several hundred troops with the 1st Armored Division here that he kept his promises as commander in chief during the past three and a half years, ending the war in Iraq, drawing down forces in Afghanistan and redoubling care for returning veterans.

His record, he said, was proof that he can be trusted at the helm for four more years.

“I told the American people that all our troops would be out of Iraq by the end of [2011],” Obama said. “At the time I know some folks didn’t believe me. They were skeptical. Some thought the end of combat was just word games and semantics. But I meant what I said.”

“Two years ago I also told you that we’d keep up the fight in Afghanistan,” he said. “I’ve got to tell you the truth. This is still a very tough fight…. Just as in Iraq, we are going to end this war responsibly.”

The message, coming on the heels of the Republican National Convention and exactly two years after the U.S. ended combat operations in Iraq, was as much an appeal to war-weary voters as it was to the troops he leads. Both constituencies are seen as key voting blocs by Obama’s re-election campaign.

As Obama spoke, his top aides pointed out that campaign rival Mitt Romney made no mention of war – or the troops – in his prime time convention address on Thursday night. It was the first time since 1952 that a Republican nominee failed to mention war, even as the U.S. remains engaged in its longest, according to a review of historical transcripts by the Associated Press.

“In an almost 45-minute speech, Romney didn’t find a moment to mention our troops in Afghanistan or how we’re providing for our veterans when they return home,” said senior Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod. “So American people last night didn’t get any straight answers from Mitt Romney. They got nothing but evasion, distraction and insults.”
read more here

Obama to order VA to add staff, see suicidal vets within 24 hours
By MEGAN MCCLOSKEY
Stars and Stripes
Published: August 30, 2012

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will sign an executive order Friday directing the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand mental health services and suicide prevention efforts.

The president will make the announcement in a speech to troops at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he’ll also hold a roundtable with soldiers and their families.

Much of what's outlined in the executive order are initiatives that were previously announced earlier this summer by the VA.

Obama is instructing the VA to ensure that any veteran with suicidal thoughts is seen by a mental health professional within 24 hours -- a standard already set for the VA, but which the department often fails to meet.
read more here

There is a poll on this blog asking if Congress should be held accountable for military suicides or not. So far over 70% of the respondents voted YES.

The suicides have been going on for far too long with nothing substantial being done for their sake and they began before Obama took office. While Congress has passed bills to "stop" the suicides, they did not work. It is almost as if Congress felt they had to do something so they were willing to do anything to just show they cared.

The Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Bill Oct 23, 2007 was passed but did not do enough to stop the suicides.

The House debates the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, which directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to develop and implement a comprehensive program to reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans. The bill is named for an Iraq veteran who took his own life, and recognizes the special needs of veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and elderly veterans who are at high risk for depression and experience high rates of suicide. The bill follows hearings in the Oversight and Veterans Affairs committees seeking to address the tragic mental anguish experienced by many veterans, and is part of ongoing, comprehensive efforts by the new Congress to make veterans a top priority. Rep. Bruce Braley speaks in favor.

In 2011 they had to come out with Sgt. Coleman S. Bean Reserve Component Suicide Prevention Act

When I was a member of NAMI, I attended a conference when then Senator Obama was running for the Presidency. He sent an aid to address the conference. I asked why people like me were not used to help our veterans heal. She said she'd check it out but apparently when President Obama became Commander-in-Cheif, he didn't get the message. He didn't know how many people were working on Military PTSD and suicides all over the country. If he knew then he would have known that we had used 40 years worth of research to help us all come out with the best way to help our veterans heal. As for me, I've only been doing this for 30 years but I have also been living with it everyday. We could have made great progress in saving their lives if someone in Congress listened. But they held hearing after hearing on the problem and not on the solutions.

We can talk all we want about military suicides but no one has the real total of suicides simply because if they are no longer on active duty and do not have a VA claim, no one is counting them. No one is counting the deaths that could be suicide but could also be accidental. No one is asking why the Suicide Prevention Hotline gets so many calls, yet the suicides still went up. No one is asking why the Bills passed by Congress have not worked anymore than they are asking for any accountability from Congress.

President Obama has proven he cares about our veterans but Congress has not done the same. As the reports come out about Combat veterans surviving combat but dying back home by their own hands, no one is talking about the families and friends left behind or the fact they didn't know what they could have done to help.

The money for the VA budget comes from Congress and they control hiring. We can talk all we want about the wasted money on the conferences, but when we stop and think about how Congress has refused to hire enough workers to do the job, we should all be sick to our stomachs. We can talk about the Federal budget but then we won't look at our own State budget for the VA. But then again, they don't want us to think. They don't want us to think about the Military Suicide Prevention they have been pushing that is a failure under "resiliency" training.

He can enforce his directive all he wants but if they only have what they have already been given, it won't mean a damn thing to them. And I'll have to keep making videos like this one.

New Jersey Vets4Warriors gets 300 calls a week

Fighting military suicides with peer counseling
CBS News
By Elaine Quijano
August 22, 2012

(CBS News) The Pentagon granted a six-month extension Wednesday to a pilot call-in program for American military personnel considering suicide.

The suicide rate among both active-duty troops and reservists is alarming, and it's increased dramatically this year.

One effort to save troubled lives is led by veterans who understand the problem all too well.

Marine reservist Tim Arora served in 2006 near Fallujah, Iraq. He saw some of the most intense fighting of the war.

Arora returned with deep psychological wounds so severe he requested a service dog for companionship and comfort.

"I was thinking of suicide pretty much on a daily basis," Tim said. "Now it's just how I help others with it."

Arora works at a call center at New Jersey's University of Medicine with 25 other veterans. It's called "Vets 4 Warriors." It's a place veterans can call to talk confidentially with other vets. They get 300 calls a week here.

"When they come home they come home to their communities. They are not coming home to army bases or military mental health centers. They're coming home to their parents," said Linda Bean, whose son Coleman committed suicide in 2008 after two tours in Iraq.

He killed himself on the 8th anniversary of his enlistment in the Army.
read more here

$40M secured for military suicide prevention efforts

$40M secured for military suicide prevention efforts

East Brunswick’s Linda Bean says services must be immediately accessible, 24 hours a day
BY CHRIS ZAWISTOWSKI
Staff Writer

The figure, Rep. Rush Holt said, is stunning: Eighteen veterans commit suicide each day.

“That’s a daily average that is intolerable,” he said. “We can’t let that continue.”

And now, after years of advocacy and the work and support of East Brunswick residents Linda and Greg Bean, whose son died by suicide after serving two tours in Iraq, Holt (D-12th District) announced he has secured funding that just might help to turn these tragic figures around. Holt announced during a teleconference on Monday that $40million will be allocated in the final 2012 federal budget to support military suicide prevention.

“These funds will help to convey a critical message to America’s soldiers and veterans: You are not alone,” Holt said. “If you have suffered such trauma in service to this country that you are considering suicide, America stands ready to help you.”

Holt said that the funding — which will be split equally between the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs — will be used to enhance current suicide prevention programs, create new ones, and work to publicize these services for the soldiers and veterans who need them. Both Holt and Linda Bean said this final part is key. Before her son died in September 2008, Linda said, she had no idea what soldiers and veterans faced when they were looking for help.

U.S. Army Sgt. Coleman Bean suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after his first tour of duty, but he had limited access to veterans’ services as a member of the U.S. Army’s Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) and was called back to duty without receiving treatment. After returning home from his second tour, Coleman took his life on Sept. 6, 2008, at age 25.

read more here

Sgt. Coleman S. Bean Reserve Component Suicide Prevention Act

NJ mom of Iraq vet suicide victim joins Rep. Rush Holt to push prevention act
Published: Wednesday, March 16, 2011

By JOAN GALLER
jgaller@trentonian

East Brunswick resident Linda Bean — the mother of an Iraq combat veteran who committed suicide after being denied treatment for post-traumatic stress — joined Rep. Rush Holt, D-12, to reintroduce legislation that provides “a safety net” for all who serve.

“In 2010, we lost more troops to suicide than to combat in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Bean said yesterday, standing beside Holt outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

“Deaths by suicide among members of National Guard and Reserve units rose from 80 in 2009 to 145 in 2010,” she added. “We don’t know how many members of the IRR fell to suicide; no branch of the service tracks those losses.”

The Sgt. Coleman S. Bean Reserve Component Suicide Prevention Act, co-sponsored by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), would help close a critical gap in military suicide prevention efforts by requiring treatment, counseling and follow up services for members of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), Inactive National Guard (ING), and Individual Mobilization Augmentees (IMAs).

Bean, who served two tours in Iraq as a member of the Individual Ready Reserve, suffered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and took his own life in 2008.
read more here
Rush Holt to push prevention act

Holt brings Sergeant Coleman Bean bill back amid rise in vets’ suicide rate

Holt brings Bean bill back amid rise in vets’ suicide rate

Army report says 145 Guard, Reserve members took own lives in 2010
BY LAUREN CIRAULO
Staff Writer


EAST BRUNSWICK — Rep. Rush Holt (D-12th District) is renewing efforts to pass a bill intended to strengthen treatment resources for returning soldiers.

His reintroduction of the measure, which was suddenly removed from the federal Defense Authorization Act of 2011 in December, was bolstered by a Jan. 19 announcement from the U.S. Army that suicide rates among National Guard and Reserve veterans had increased significantly.

“In the coming weeks, I will be reintroducing the Sergeant Coleman Bean Reserve Component Suicide Prevention Act, which has passed the House unanimously twice but was blocked by members of the Senate minority,” Holt said. “My legislation, named in memory of a constituent who tragically took his own life after serving two combat tours in Iraq, would directly address the lack of follow-up with at-risk Guard and Reserve members …”

Army Chief of Staff Peter Chiarelli issued a report in January indicating that in 2010, the Army’s active-duty force saw a slight drop in the number of suicides, from 162 in 2009 to 156. However, there was a significant rise in the number of suicides among National Guard and Reserve units, nearly doubling from 80 deaths in 2009 to 145 in 2010.

“I am thankful that the efforts of Army Chief of Staff Peter Chiarelli and the Army as a whole has led to a slight reduction in the number of suicides among our active duty soldiers,” Holt said. “However, as Gen. Chiarelli acknowledged today, the doubling in suicides among Guard and Reserve members is both alarming and a call to action.”

For East Brunswick resident Greg Bean, whose son Coleman was 25 when he took his life Sept. 6, 2008, a few months after returning from his second tour in Iraq, the numbers demonstrate the need for action.
read more here
Holt brings Bean bill back amid rise in vets’ suicide rate

Only human after all

Only human after all
by
Chaplain Kathie

After the training is over they are rough, tough, combat ready Marines. Their bodies are young, conditioned, able to be pushed past where most others would collapse. Their senses sharpened by training and the sense of individuality beaten out of them by the Drill Instructor's constant taunting. They are ready to face any enemy, any obstacle and any harsh condition. This training also attempts to prepare them to forget about being human.

Marines try to explain that when they come home from combat, after watching bombs blow up friends, seeing buddies burn, picking up pieces of what used to be someone they knew, they are not supposed to cry. They have witnessed the worst man is capable of at the same time they have witnessed courage beyond all measure from their buddies and themselves. While back home they may reflect on the actions of others in full perspective, they often forget about their own. They focus on the pain they finally allow themselves to feel when the danger to their buddies is over. They tell themselves Marines don't cry because it means they are weak.

What they don't see is the Marine who did their duty no matter how much pain they were in, no matter how much they were grieving and no matter how much PTSD had already taken away from them. They had a duty to do and they carried it out but they forget that part when they are back home and then they blame themselves for not "preparing their brains" for not being "tough enough" and for being human.

We talk a lot about PTSD and what it does to them when they come home but what we don't talk about is the magnificence of their spirit when they are able to endure so much while deployed and others are counting on them to be fully engaged in the battle. This they do no matter what but once out of harms way, when they are alone, when they are back home, the greatest danger awakens. There is no one there to remind them of their courage rising above the weight of the world on their shoulders.

"Never leave a man behind" is often regarded as an action taken in combat but should be always part of what happens when they come home and one of their own is in danger from the enemy within. They need to be retrained to accept the fact they are only human after all.

I've held Marines in my arms as they run out of words to explain the pain they are carrying but the silence is broken with apologies for falling apart because I was dealing with a "Marine" who thought that returning to a human state of mind meant they did not train properly.

I've talked to soldiers in shock as they wonder what the hell happened to them. When they couldn't wait to go home and then once there, they couldn't wait to go back into hell. The hell of combat became a familiar place and home became foreign territory because the person inside of their skin changed.

National Guards tell a familiar story but for them it is more complicated because they return home to civilian life in communities facing the same demands and problems everyone else has but carrying the memories of combat while they listen to their neighbors complain about the trivial details of their own lives. They hear co-workers complain about having to stay an hour late to finish a project after they had just returned from days without much sleep at all and a year on a project that could have cost them their lives.

With all of this, somehow they got the message that being human, suffering from PTSD, is their fault. Somehow they got the message that they should be tough enough to defeat this enemy on their own. No one told them they were not deployed into combat alone, didn't fight the enemy alone over there and they should not have to fight the enemy inside of them alone either.

We read about the rates going up and shake our heads wondering when it will stop being too late to save the lives that managed to survive combat but cannot survive coming home.

Here is one of their stories

A Marine's Suicide Brings The Battle Home
by Wade Goodwyn

Tina Fineberg/AP
Mary Gallagher, photographed at her home in October 2007, the year after her husband, Marine Gunnery Sgt. James Gallagher, took his own life.

'Lot Of Ugly Things'

Mary Gallagher said when her husband returned stateside, he kept the worst of it to himself: "Most Marines were not ones to really talk at all. Jim always said he'd placed it in his heart, and he said, 'I'll carry it forward because that's what I have to do and that's how I'll get through it.'

"I'm sure he saw a lot of ugly things. I just don't know all the ugly he did see."

After he returned home, Sgt. Gallagher was soon sent to the Marines advanced course. Mary Gallagher said her husband seemed mostly fine.

"I didn't really see it coming at all. I think that people are a little misled at the fact that PTS is very visible, but it's not as visible as people think," she said.

PTS refers to post-traumatic stress.

It is only in retrospect that Mary Gallagher can see what she missed at the time.

"To me, he just seemed sad. You know, he was not quite himself, but, you know, I just had no idea that he was really struggling as bad as he was," she said. "And obviously he was struggling a lot.

"And that's the hardest part for me. You know, it's something I carry with me every day, that I didn't notice that I didn't realize how much he was hurting."

A Sergeant's Suicide Brings The Battle Home
NPR
July 30, 2010
A U.S. Army study released Thursday says it suffered a record number of soldier suicides last year, pointing to a military that has been stretched thin by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.


The report says 160 soldiers took their own lives in 2009; another 1,800 tried to commit suicide. The report says multiple deployments and too little time at home are part of the underlying problem.

"Our last phone call of that day, he just repeatedly told me how much he loved me and, you know, if I truly knew how much he loved me, and I said, 'I do, Jim, and we can get through this together.'

"And my children and I came home, and my daughters actually found their father before I could protect them from that — and he was hanging in the garage in our home."

click link above for the rest of this

This can help because too many are not getting any mental health counseling at all.

N.J. Sen. Frank Lautenberg introduces mental health counseling bill for U.S. soldiers
Published: Friday, July 30, 2010
MaryAnn Spoto/The Star-Ledger


WASHINGTON, D.C. — A day after the U.S. Army released a report showing alarming increases in suicide rates among its soldiers, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg today introduced legislation to help more military personnel get mental health counseling.

Called the Sgt. Coleman Bean National Guard and Reserves Mental Heath Act, the bill extends to National Guard and Reserves members the same access to mental health as active-duty personnel.

Last year’s National Defense Authorization Act amended added a provision requiring five in-person mental health screenings for military personnel returning from combat. But that provision did not extended to the Inactive National Guard, the Individual Ready Reserves and Individual Mobilization Augmentee, who, unlike full-time Army personnel, have a more difficult time accessing mental health services after returning from combat because they return to civilian life.
read more here
Lautenberg introduces mental health counseling bill

Here's some more links you may want to read
• U.S. House of Representatives passes suicide-prevention measure named after N.J. soldier
• N.J. Army soldier's death highlights gap in military suicide prevention efforts
• U.S. Rep. Rush Holt introduces military suicide prevention bill named for N.J. soldier
• Military suicides: Cases of post-traumatic stress mount at alarming rate
• Military suicides: Army Sgt. Coleman Bean's downward spiral ends with gunfire
• Military suicides: Hero's life transforms to nightmare for Marine James T. Jenkins
• VIDEO: Military suicides: U.S. soldiers struggle with torment of war

The Late Army Sgt. Coleman Bean's Mom Fights For Others

Mother of N.J. veteran who killed himself testifies before Congress
Published: Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Rohan Mascarenhas/The Star-Ledger

Today’s hearing came at a crucial time for the American military, which has struggled with a troubling wave of suicides among veterans and service members.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Linda Bean went to Washington today on a mission.

Nearly two years ago, her son, Army Sgt. Coleman Bean, committed suicide after serving two tours in Iraq. As she grieved, Bean heard from her son’s former comrades, many of them describing situations they were dealing with, ones similar to those her 25-year-old son could not endure.

Recalling her family’s experience — the delayed appointments at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the "daunting" website she could not navigate — she worried about their futures.

Something had to change, the East Brunswick resident told herself.

"If Coleman were here, he would have wanted to do whatever he could to help his friends," said Bean, who was featured in the Star-Ledger in November chronicling her son’s ordeal. "We owe them."
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Mother of NJ veteran who killed himself testifies before Congress

Suicide prevention bill a tribute to Sgt. Coleman Bean

Suicide prevention bill a tribute to local veteran

Holt says government failed Army sergeant from East Brunswick
BY BRIAN DONAHUE Staff Writer

After two combat tours in Iraq, Coleman Bean of East Brunswick sought treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but he did not receive the support that is in place for many returning veterans.

Bean was a member of the U.S. Army’s Individual Ready Reserve, with which he had signed a four-year commitment after completing his first tour of duty. This meant that Bean, who fought in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, could be called back to active duty at any time and assigned anywhere the military had a need. Bean was called back in 2007 and assigned to a unit of the Maryland National Guard, with whom he served his second tour in Iraq.

Bean fought in Northern Iraq through much of 2007 and early 2008. Upon returning that May, the Maryland soldiers had access to the services and help of their Army base, but the IRR soldiers went back to their home states, basically left to their own devices. A few months after returning to New Jersey, Bean, whose PTSD symptoms included extreme anxiety attacks and depression, took his life in the early hours of Sept. 6, 2008, at the age of 25.

Bean’s parents, Greg and Linda, of East Brunswick, have corresponded with Holt since Coleman’s passing, and support the legislation.

“It is important not only as a suicide prevention measure, but because it also will help Individual Ready Reserve soldiers find the assistance they are currently lacking in other areas of their lives, like career and medical needs,” said Greg Bean, former executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers. “These fine men and women served America with courage and integrity, and now it is up to us to make sure that their needs are met as well. Too many IRR veterans have slipped through the safety net provided to other returning members of the armed forces, and this legislation will help close the gaps.”

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Suicide prevention bill a tribute to local veteran

Sgt. Coleman Bean, 2 Iraq tours, a tailspin and a tragic end

AP COURTESY OF GREGORY BEAN In this 2007 photo provided by Gregory Bean, Coleman Bean, left, his younger brother Padraic Bean, center, and his older brother Nick Strickland pose at Fort Dix, weeks before Coleman's second deployment for Iraq. Coleman shot himself dead at his New Jersey home on Sept. 6, 2008 at age 25.

2 Iraq tours, a tailspin and a tragic end

By Sharon Cohen - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Apr 26, 2010 7:09:22 EDT

Coleman Bean went to Iraq twice, but his father remembers a stark difference in his son’s two parting messages.

Before his first tour, his father recalls, his son said if anything happened to him, he wanted to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Before his second, four years later, he said he didn’t want that any longer.

“He still was very patriotic, he believed in duty,” Greg Bean says. “But he had sort of lost his commitment to what we were doing over there. His first tour ... had changed him.”

Bean enlisted in the Army six days before the 9/11 attacks. He parachuted into Iraq in the first chaotic weeks of the war. When he returned a year later, he offered PG-rated, sanitized versions of his experiences.

“We got glimpses,” the elder Bean says. “He didn’t give us a lot of details.”

Only later on, the elder Bean says, did he learn from Coleman’s friends and Army buddies that his son was among those who’d witnessed a horrifying bus explosion across the street from a safe house in Iraq where he and other soldiers had holed up. Several Iraqis, including children, burned to death before their eyes.
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2 Iraq tours, a tailspin and a tragic end

U.S. soldiers struggle with torment of war

Have you ever gotten the idea in your head that there was help available for whatever you're facing? For our soldiers, that idea is always there but until they start to look for help, they never imagine the help they are seeking cannot be found. It happens all the time.

While we read about the military and the VA trying to play catch up to the long line of combat veterans needing help to heal, they are still trying to figure out why they need the help in the first place. A recent report came out on another study to figure this out. Amazing considering how many years of studies they have already paid for.

If they are still trying to figure it out then why have they been investing millions on "treating" what they do not understand? None of what we're seeing is new in PTSD. There are very few programs treating the whole veteran even though most research has shown treating the mind-body and soul have the best results.

They know PTSD only comes after traumatic events. The term actually means after trauma and trauma is Greek for wound. They know it strikes the part of the brain where emotions live. They know there is survival guilt so deep they are remorseful they "were chosen" and survived when someone else didn't. They know they feel like criminals when they are in positions where they have to decide to take a life or not, take it and then find out the one they killed was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They know the pack reactions after facing extreme events can cause them to forget the body in front of them is not less than human but their minds remind them of the fact constantly.

They know medication alters the way the mind reacts but in most cases, talk therapy with the right fully PTSD educated psychologist, has the best results. Once they are able to talk about what it haunting them, it is no longer allowed to keep control. They also know that reconnecting the spiritual soul back to God, faith, forgiveness, mercy and compassion, restores hope and healing.

There is much they already know but too much they still don't understand. That's frightening. When you consider what is being done in the civilian world addressing the whole person's needs after traumatic events as crisis teams rush in. Some deliver food and water, clothing, shelter, all depending on the need. Some deliver a calming presence to listen to survivors talk and they remind them someone does care. In times when what help is available at that moment is not enough, then they are sent to the help they need. This is not done in the military. It's almost as if they forget the troops are still humans and still have the same reactions and needs as everyone else.

So they come home, after not getting what they need as soon as they need it, try to adjust to life as humans again in their own country, then they must come to terms with the need they have for help. Once this step is taken, then they have to find the help they need. Too often they are being sent to Chaplains without a clue what PTSD is. They are sent to psychologists and psychiatrists without a clue and end up being misdiagnosed leading to being treated for the wrong mental health need. This happens all the time because whatever mental illness the doctors are looking for, they will find it.

If they are looking for bipolar, they'll find it, just as they will find depression, paranoia, schizophrenia and "personality disorder" which caused the erroneous dishonorable discharges of over 22,000 soldiers. Yes, sometimes help does more harm than good.

They will not be able to stop the escalation of suicides and attempted suicides until they finally understand what makes humans human. Otherwise, claiming to be doing everything possible will only lead to more of the same mistakes and mistreatments they have been doing all along.

Military suicides increase as U.S. soldiers struggle with torment of war
By Star-Ledger Staff
November 22, 2009, 1:30PM


Reported by Tomas Dinges & Mark Mueller
Written by Mark Mueller

"His whole body just shut down," said Bean’s older brother, Nick. "He said he felt like he was being strangled by nothing."



The nightmares came back, too. And the rages, so intense they sometimes drove him to look for fights. Bean began drinking again, dulling the anxiety and the memories.

He’d seen women and children reduced to charred husks in a burning bus. He’d shot up a car as it charged a military checkpoint, finding afterward that he and his squad had killed not a suicide bomber but a child. He’d survived mortars and rocket-propelled grenades and snipers.

"The things he saw in Iraq ate at him," said his father, Greg Bean. "He was just drifting. And little by little, bits of hope dropped away."

On the morning of Sept. 6, 2008, after a late-night crash and his second arrest for driving under the influence, Army Sgt. Coleman Bean killed himself with a single shot to the head in his South River apartment. He was 25.
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http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/us_military_suicides_increase.html

The story behind HR 2647 is Sgt.Coleman Bean

Legislation would help some returning veterans
Coda • GREG BEAN
This Fourth of July was certainly a bittersweet holiday in our home. Those who know me know that our son Coleman, an Army sergeant who served two tours in Iraq, took his own life last September.




In the months since, our family has learned a lot about the problems faced by returning vets, and the difficulties they sometimes have finding and obtaining services like psychological and career counseling.

We don't know that better availability of services would have changed our own personal outcome, and we will never know. But we did make a decision to do whatever is in our power to make a difference for some other soldiers and those soldiers' families.

As part of that effort, I reached out to U.S. Rep. Rush Holt this spring and I found him to be a truly caring man.And at the end of one of our conversations, he told me that he would begin working on legislation to address some of the problems, and he put me in touch with Patrick Eddington, his Senior Policy Advisor for Defense and Intelligence Issues. I spoke with Patrick Eddington at some length, and he assured me of the congressman's commitment to the issue and his determination to do something meaningful.

That conversation was several months ago, and I don't know that I believed anything would ever come of it. So I was overjoyed last week when Rep. Holt called me to tell me that an amendment he had proposed had passed the House and has a good shot at becoming law. First, however, it must pass a conference committee with the Senate, but there's great optimism the amendment will survive intact.

The amendment to H.R. 2647 would require the Secretary of Defense to call returning Individual Ready Reserve veterans once every 90 days to determine the emotional, psychological, medical and career needs of the veterans. It would also require any IRR veteran identified as being at risk of selfcaused harm to be referred to the nearest military medical treatment facility or accredited TRICARE provider for immediate evaluation and treatment by a qualified mental health care provider.
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http://ems.gmnews.com/news/2009/0708/greg_bean/016.html

Sgt. Coleman Bean did not have to die

Sgt. Coleman Bean did not have to die
by Chaplain Kathie

He didn't have to die and another 6,000 more a year didn't have to either.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Remembering a hero Sgt. Coleman Bean
Remembering a hero
Family and friends mourn the loss of Coleman Bean, 25
BY BRIAN DONAHUE Staff Writer
Coleman Bean was a lot of things to a lot of people. He was a son, a brother, a soldier, and to seemingly everyone who knew him, a good friend. He was someone they could count on to be there, in times of need and in happy times.
When he took his life on Sept. 6, he left those who knew him in shock. But he also left them with 25 years of cherished memories, the kind that could only come from a fun and thoughtful kid who became a loving, caring young man. It's Coleman's indelible character, and not the way he left, that his East Brunswick family — his parents Greg and Linda, younger brother Paddy and older brother Nick — will always hold on to.
Greg Bean, who is executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers, knows how he'll recall his middle son. Most prominent in his mind is the memory of Coleman stopping by unannounced the night before he died."I was sitting here watching TV, and he poked his face in the dining room window and made a funny face at me,"
Greg recalled, adding that Coleman, living in South River after returning from his second tour in Iraq, had been dropping over for dinner often, knowing Greg was on leave from work and was cooking a lot."He came in and said, 'What'd you make for dinner?' I said, 'I didn't know you were coming, so I didn't make enough for you.' So he made a triple-decker peanut butter sandwich and chips, and sat here and talked baby talk to my new dog, who he had just fallen in love with. … But I'm going to remember that night, because he was just happy and joking, and we made plans to go to the movies the next day and to the gym together on Monday. … I've got a million memories; we went through pictures the other day, and all of them bring back lots and lots of memories, but the one I'm gonna keep with me is just the way he was the day before he died."
In the early hours of the next morning, the family would learn, Coleman got into a one-car accident in West Long Branch, was hospitalized briefly, returned home to his apartment in South River and shot himself. His family and friends would react with shock and sadness, and also with anger that he would leave them this way.
Greg Bean's anger is also directed at the U.S. Army. After Coleman returned from nearly a year in Iraq in 2004, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for issues including extreme anxiety attacks and depression. Despite the diagnosis, the Army sent him back to the war in 2007."He had gone to the V.A. and seen a bunch of people [at] the Lyons campus. … He was diagnosed with PTSD and some other troubling issues, just lingering issues from Iraq," his father said. "The problem is that the V.A. doesn't really have anything to do directly with the Army.
When he got called back, the Army said, 'Well, we don't care what the V.A. says about you. If you want a deferment from that, you have to get it from an Army psychiatrist.' "Coleman feared that if he went to an Army psychiatrist, he'd spend the next deployment cleaning latrines or some other unwanted duty."The fact that he was diagnosed with [PTSD] didn't have any impact on him being deployed a second time. I think that's wrong. I think that's horrible that a soldier could be seeing a Veterans Administration doctor and that carries no weight with our Army," Greg said.
go here for moreRemembering a hero Sgt. Coleman Bean

I had to repost this because of a comment left on the post.

CarlynHelene left a comment that should be a wake up call. She made a video for Coleman, her friend, that is now gone too soon. Coleman, as you can read from above, had a lot of lives left behind because he was not helped the way he needed to be. We've lost too many like him. We'll keep losing them until we finally get it right.

If you look up the symptoms of PTSD, you can find it throughout every history book on warfare and, as a matter of fact, in the Bible itself. It's not new. It's just a human response to traumatic events. Nothing more traumatic than combat and out of the "normal" world the rest of us live in. What has changed is that we are a lot more aware of what makes people tick. We can see inside the brain. We can see chemical changes to it and the way it functions. What we cannot see is the soul. The soul that makes us all unique, special, loving and the part in each of us that also feels pain. Not the physical pain but a pain much deeper than that. A pain so deep most people cannot find the words to explain it. The pain within the soul crying out in anguish.

With two thirds of the American public oblivious to this wound, even though regular people are wounded by it from the other causes, the DOD and the VA have done an abysmal job of raising awareness. Imagine if they informed the whole country about PTSD so that the veterans of combat as well as the public at large finally understood what it was and what was "wrong" with them. Believe me. They know something is wrong when they come home or after a traumatic event, but they just don't know what the "it" really is. What a public service the government could be providing the citizens if they did do all they can!

How many parents will have to bury their children because of PTSD? How many wives and husbands will have to go to an empty bed wondering what they could have done to prevent the suicide of someone they loved? How many friends will have travel to a grave site instead of a doorway to visit someone they cared about? How many will have to do so because they simply didn't know?

I receive emails all the time from people just like that, wondering what they didn't do or what they did wrong. The point is, they did what they could and what they knew how to do. The information was out there but they didn't know how to find it. How could they when they didn't even know the name of it? Two thirds don't know it! With all these years behind us, everyone in the country should know what it is and what it means. Above all, they should know what help is available and how they can help the wounded to live a better life instead of shutting them out or unknowingly making the suffering worse by the way they react to it.
The above video says "rest in peace" but I doubt he can if the rest of us ignore why he couldn't find what he needed to heal or the fact so many more are suffering the same fate he did.


It's time to get this right. How many more centuries of humanity do we need to get it right?

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Remembering a hero Sgt. Coleman Bean

Remembering a hero
Family and friends mourn the loss of Coleman Bean, 25
BY BRIAN DONAHUE Staff Writer
Coleman Bean was a lot of things to a lot of people. He was a son, a brother, a soldier, and to seemingly everyone who knew him, a good friend. He was someone they could count on to be there, in times of need and in happy times.

When he took his life on Sept. 6, he left those who knew him in shock. But he also left them with 25 years of cherished memories, the kind that could only come from a fun and thoughtful kid who became a loving, caring young man. It's Coleman's indelible character, and not the way he left, that his East Brunswick family — his parents Greg and Linda, younger brother Paddy and older brother Nick — will always hold on to.

Greg Bean, who is executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers, knows how he'll recall his middle son. Most prominent in his mind is the memory of Coleman stopping by unannounced the night before he died.

"I was sitting here watching TV, and he poked his face in the dining room window and made a funny face at me," Greg recalled, adding that Coleman, living in South River after returning from his second tour in Iraq, had been dropping over for dinner often, knowing Greg was on leave from work and was cooking a lot.

"He came in and said, 'What'd you make for dinner?' I said, 'I didn't know you were coming, so I didn't make enough for you.' So he made a triple-decker peanut butter sandwich and chips, and sat here and talked baby talk to my new dog, who he had just fallen in love with. … But I'm going to remember that night, because he was just happy and joking, and we made plans to go to the movies the next day and to the gym together on Monday. … I've got a million memories; we went through pictures the other day, and all of them bring back lots and lots of memories, but the one I'm gonna keep with me is just the way he was the day before he died."

In the early hours of the next morning, the family would learn, Coleman got into a one-car accident in West Long Branch, was hospitalized briefly, returned home to his apartment in South River and shot himself. His family and friends would react with shock and sadness, and also with anger that he would leave them this way.

Greg Bean's anger is also directed at the U.S. Army. After Coleman returned from nearly a year in Iraq in 2004, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for issues including extreme anxiety attacks and depression. Despite the diagnosis, the Army sent him back to the war in 2007.

"He had gone to the V.A. and seen a bunch of people [at] the Lyons campus. … He was diagnosed with PTSD and some other troubling issues, just lingering issues from Iraq," his father said. "The problem is that the V.A. doesn't really have anything to do directly with the Army. When he got called back, the Army said, 'Well, we don't care what the V.A. says about you. If you want a deferment from that, you have to get it from an Army psychiatrist.' "

Coleman feared that if he went to an Army psychiatrist, he'd spend the next deployment cleaning latrines or some other unwanted duty.

"The fact that he was diagnosed with [PTSD] didn't have any impact on him being deployed a second time. I think that's wrong. I think that's horrible that a soldier could be seeing a Veterans Administration doctor and that carries no weight with our Army," Greg said.
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http://ems.gmnews.com/news/2008/0917/front_page/015.html

Redeployed with PTSD, another soldier dies by suicide

Gregory Bean was forthcoming in telling his son's story in hopes it can prevent a similar tragedy. "If another young man hears his story, and we can do something to change another outcome, a story can have a positive result," he said.

East Brunswick soldier kills self after returning from second Iraq tour
Bean, 25, had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder
By RICK MALWITZ • STAFF WRITER • September 9, 2008


EAST BRUNSWICK —When the final tally is made of American casualties in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Sgt. Coleman S. Bean will not be listed among the war dead.

The 25-year-old Bean served two tours of duty in Iraq. He landed there with paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Division during the first days of the war, and saw combat duty in Northern Iraq.

Upon returning home he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Despite the diagnosis, he was deployed to Iraq for a second time, returning home in May. A third deployment remained a possibility.

Saturday night, following a car accident and a brief hospital stay, Bean returned to his home in South River and took his own life.

Wednesday night at 5, family, friends and several dozen army buddies from around the country will gather for a memorial service at the United Methodist Church on North Main Street in Milltown. The service will include an honor guard, taps and a presentation of the American flag to his family.

"He was a casualty of this war in a different way," said his father, Gregory Bean, who remains angry that his son was returned to the war, despite a diagnosis of PTSD he calls "dramatic."

Sixty-two active-duty soldiers committed suicide so far this calendar year, according to Col. Eddie Stephens, the Army's deputy director for human resource policy. Another 31 deaths are being investigated as possible suicides.

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Another death that will not be counted just because the enemy came home inside of a soldier. What was he doing be redeployed with PTSD and why in the hell wasn't someone helping him when he came home? What is wrong with the DOD they keep this dangerous practice going on? They were thinking of sending him back a third time!

Gregory Bean is a hero to all who serve and come home wounded. Because he is willing to understand what wounded his son, what actually claimed the life of his son, he will end up saving some lives. He understand what PTSD is and finds no shame in his son being wounded but what we are doing to all of them is something to be ashamed of. How many more will die and not be counted? How many more will have to be buried when they could have been healing? kc