Alternative Facts Leave Veterans Killing Themselves Without Counting

It is bad enough veterans can't count on being helped to heal but when they don't matter enough to actually read the reports about them, we have reduced "Grateful Nation" down to a slogan we don't live up to.

This is what it was from 2013 to 2015

In the first quarter of 2016, the military services reported the following:
 58 deaths by suicide in the Active Component
 18 deaths by suicide in the Reserves
 34 deaths by suicide in the National Guard

In the second quarter of 2016, the military services reported the following:
 57 deaths by suicide in the Active Component
 23 deaths by suicide in the Reserves
 23 deaths by suicide in the National Guard

In the third quarter of 2016, the military services reported the following:
• 82 deaths by suicide in the Active Component
• 18 deaths by suicide in the Reserves
• 27 deaths by suicide in the National Guard

Take a look at what it was in 2012 compared to 2016 

Then try to figure out when someone on Facebook raising awareness mentioned one word about this? They do a lot of posting about how they are raising awareness but the truth is far from what they say it is.

Those numbers were members of the Armed Forces and did not make it into the Veteran status. You know, the group everyone is talking about. The one where they leave out the facts. Leave out that majority of the veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50. Leave out the fact that it is the same number of released data as it was back in 1999.

My question is, if you support these groups dropping down to do some pushups, what do you think veterans getting out of it?

Answer, they are still getting out of their lives and ending up in a casket.

If you still spread the rumors, then does that make you a liar or you are just using alternative facts?

If the facts are not important enough to learn then how can you expect anyone to think that any of this really matters to you at all?

Veteran Finds Healing PTSD or “moral injuries”, injuries to one’s conscience

Veterans find solace in Israel experience through Heroes to Heroes Foundation 
The Daily Wildcat Arizona 
Rocky Baier 
March 24, 2017

In an effort to spread the word and help other veterans, two soldiers spoke to students at the Hillel Center and the Jewish Medical Student Association about their experiences with post-traumatic stress disorder, a spiritual visit to Israel and the Heroes to Heroes Foundation on March 21.

Heroes to Heroes is a non-profit organization that strives to provide support for veterans suffering from PTSD or “moral injuries”, injuries to one’s conscience. In order to do this, they send veterans of any religion to Israel to visit holy sites for spiritual therapy, and to meet both American and Israeli veterans from the Israeli Defense Force.

Sergio Lopez, one of the veterans who spoke, served as a U.S. Army staff sergeant with the 104 Airborne division from 2003-2010 in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was injured by an improvised explosive device that exploded underneath the vehicle in which he was riding. From his traumatic experiences during deployment and his injury, he developed PTSD.

According to evidence collected by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, traumatic experiences can lead to diminished faith in religious individuals.

read more here

If Veterans Committing Suicide Really Matter, Then Why Don't the Facts?

What good does it do to act as if something matters, then prove it doesn't matter enough to learn about it before opening your mouth? It is one thing to make a mistake. It is another to portray yourself as being on a mission to create some kind of change, when you didn't even show you care enough to read the rest of the report you are quoting.

An Op Ed on Miami Herald had my head exploding this morning. "Respect America’s volunteer military" by Delbert Spurlock is actually part of the problem.

"No Americans have sacrificed more on the altar of our current undeclared wars than veterans and their families. Their suicide rate is now 20 a day, haunting testimony to their betrayal by our Congress and citizens who send them to war without a declaration that joins all Americans in the commitment to sacrifice for its success." Delbert Spurlock

He should know better and that is the other part of the problem.

GENERAL COUNSEL OF THE U.S. ARMY, FROM 1981-82; ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE ARMY, MANPOWER AND RESERVE AFFAIRS FROM 1983-88; AND U.S. DEPUTY SECRETARY OF LABOR FROM 1991-93.

Given the fact that he has the credentials to be trusted, how many trust what he said about OEF and OIF veterans? How many trusted his numbers? Probably almost everyone who read it. Then even more receiving the information passed on via Social Media. So, how many do you think believe that is all there is to know?

Nothing really knew when folks seem fine with pushups, taking walks and pulling other stunts to raise awareness about what really didn't matter to them after all.

Here is the truth that he should have passed on.

Department Veterans Affairs Suicide Report 2012, the one with the quoted "22 a day"

To date, data from twenty-one (21) states have been cleaned and entered into a single integrated file...on page 12

Further, this report contains information from the first 21 states to contribute data for this project and does not include some states, such as California and Texas, with larger Veteran populations. Information from these states has been received and will be included in future reports... on page 15

By page 18 you find this,

The numbers have not changed after over a decade of "awareness" being pushed. Are you waking up yet? Are you angry yet? Good because your friends passing on all the bullshit are part of the problem as well.

These charts are from page 20.

And on page 22, there is this

Specifically, more than 69% of all Veteran suicides were among those aged 50 years and older...

Most states have veterans committing suicide double the civilian rate. Here in Florida, it is triple. California does not track them. Illinois does not track them. So where did these numbers really come from and oh, by the way, it looks like Spurlock forgot about current military at an average of one per day. Their numbers went up too.

By 2016, this story did not change

THE REPORT CONCLUDES: Approximately 65 percent of all Veterans who died from suicide in 2014 were 50 years of age or older. Veterans accounted for 18 percent of all deaths from suicide among U.S. adults. This is a decrease from 22 percent in 2010. Since 2001, U.S. adult civilian suicides increased 23 percent, while Veteran suicides increased 32 percent in the same time period. After controlling for age and gender, this makes the risk of suicide 21 percent greater for Veterans. Since 2001, the rate of suicide among U.S. Veterans who use VA services increased by 8.8 percent, while the rate of suicide among Veterans who do not use VA services increased by 38.6 percent. In the same time period, the rate of suicide among male Veterans who use VA services increased 11 percent, while the rate of suicide increased 35 percent among male Veterans who do not use VA services. In the same time period, the rate of suicide among female Veterans who use VA services increased 4.6 percent while the rate of suicide increased 98 percent among female Veterans who do not use VA services.

Are you disgusted yet? Then get busy and start telling the truth. Lord knows nothing will change until we actually prove that the topic of veterans surviving combat but unable to survive in their "golden years" matters enough TO ACTUALLY READ THE REPORT!!!!

Arkansas Suicide Prevention Hotline Passes House

Bill Instating Arkansas Suicide Prevention Hotline Passes House
Arkansas Matters
By: Jessi Turnure
Posted: Mar 21, 2017

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Right now... if you call the National Suicide Prevention hotline, you have no chance of speaking with someone in Arkansas.

We're one of two states without an in-state call center. A bill to change that passed in the House Tuesday afternoon.

The legislation calls on the Health Department to run a 24-hour call center that answers Arkansans' calls to the national hotline.

The Veteran's Coalition and Veteran's Mental Health Council brought the bill to Representative Bob Johnson, (D)-Jacksonville.

He says he's worked out the funding issues opponents have had concerns about.

The call center would cost nearly 700,000 dollars a year to run and evaluate.

Rep. Johnson says the Health Department has money to start program, and once it's up and running, it'll qualify for federal dollars.
read more here

Being Married to PTSD Came with Package Deal--Deal With It and Learn

This was a letter to 

Ms. Vicki: Is PTSD a Forgotten Problem?

"I am married to an Air Force officer who has been active for 15 years. He was diagnosed with PTSD after his last deployment in 2010. I am very disappointed because people don't talk about PTSD anymore. I feel that it's a forgotten illness because there is a draw down of forces and the wars are over....I don't think any of the professionals understand that I am suffering, too. What about the wives or other spouses? What can I do to try and make my marriage last and stand the test of time?"

Honestly, all I can think about is that with all the instant access to what this generation has, how can they know so little? After all, we learned, found support and when we couldn't we created the support for others. We did it without the internet. Shocking for the younger generation, I know, but life did happen before we even had cellphones.

I am sure you remember those days. Having to find a payphone when you were going to be late or needed directions. When you took long rides and actually listened to the radio or a cassette tape, instead of hearing the chimes of a new update about what someone posted on Facebook or Tweet from a friend...or the President. The times when we actually sat and talked over coffee instead of taking selfies.

Sometimes I wonder if the younger spouses think we were always this old! I met my husband when I was just 23! Good Lord! I am old! But it has been one hell of an experience being married this long. Some of it sucked. Most of it, after we left the doorway of hell, has left me wanting to see others make it this long. It was so worth the effort!

Maybe they are used to it...everything coming easy. After all, if they don't find the answers they need in their circle of linkers to their accounts, it must not exist! God forbid they do something like a Google search when we actually had to get into our cars and drive to the library. I don't know about you, but being an Army brat, I had to know what I was getting into. I read clinical books with a dictionary to understand what Vietnam did to my then boyfriend. All they have to do is sit with their laptops in their p-js and get all the answers they need.

So why don't they? Why haven't they discovered that none of this is easy and that is why their lives are a lot harder than they need to be?

Because it is hard work and far from something that can be reduced down to 140 characters. If they really want to save their marriages, or save the lives of their husbands, they need to actually be willing to fight for them.

One of the groups I belong to started just as long ago working on PTSD and offering support in tiny groups for veterans and families. Check out Point Man International Ministries and see what I mean. If you want an eyeopener on what was going on back before the flood (Yes, Noah) then discover what we knew back in the 80's when the best researchers started out and we found our own way our of the abyss.