When do reporters care about our troops committing suicide?

Is anyone paying attention to military suicides?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 15, 2018

When do reporters care about our troops committing suicide? Talk to families in the military and they tell you there is a huge problem with suicides. If the numbers the DOD reports are any indication, they are right. The question is, why hasn't the press picked up on any of this?

Are they that unobservant?


Suicide Prevention Office 
History

The Defense Suicide Prevention Office (DSPO) was established in 2011 and is part of the Department of Defense's Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. The Secretary of Defense designated a Defense Health Board Task Force to examine efforts to prevent military suicide. The creation of DSPO was the result of the Task Force recommendations.

Approach

DoD integrates a holistic approach to suicide prevention, intervention, and Postvention using a range of medical and non-medical resources. Grounded in a collaborative approach, DSPO works with the Military Services and other Governmental Agencies, Non-Governmental Agencies, non-profit organizations, and the community to reduce the risk for suicide.

They let the Generals get away with saying most of the ones committing suicide, were never deployed. The trouble with that is, every member of the military was trained in "prevention" but this did not work for even those not deployed. Why did they continue it if this is the outcome?

Department of Defense Suicide Report

2012

Active 321

Reserve 72

National Guard 132

525

2013

Active 256

Reserve 86

National Guard 134

476

2014

Active 276

Reserve 79

National Guard 91

446

2015

Active 266

Reserve 89

National Guard 125

480

2016

Active 280

Reserve 80

National Guard 122

482

2017 3 Quarters

Active 198

Reserve 76

National Guard 107

381

And yet Congress does not seem to care about any of this. Reporters do not even ask why this is the outcome of what they funded.
How much did this cost and who made money on it?

Community Shows Love on Valentine's Day Military Funeral

Community gathers for funerals of veterans who had no family
Caller Times
Meagan Falcon
February 14, 2018

Silence filled the air Wednesday at Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery.

Tears rolled down the cheeks of strangers as they honored and remembered two veterans, who had no other family.

Although their families could not be found, over two hundred people visited Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery to attend the funerals of retired Army Cpl. Howard Mason Lyman and retired Navy Hospital Corpsman, First Class Randy Glade Shultz.

"We may have not known the veterans, but it is important to have the public remember what these men sacrificed when they served our country," said Eric Brown, deputy director for the Texas State Veterans Cemetery. "They did not know us, but that didn't stop them from from raising their right hand to defend us."
read more here

SWAT and Police Standoff With Army Veteran

UPDATE: Not Army veteran but Navy SEAL

Police Wound Standoff Suspect Barricaded In Churchill Home
CBS News
By Amy Wadas
February 14, 2018


CHURCHILL (KDKA) — A man is in the hospital following a lengthy standoff and officer-involved shooting in Churchill Wednesday evening.

The incident began around 4:15 p.m. at a home in the 2200 block of Harmain Road.

The sound of gunfire was in the air as SWAT officers tried to get the 50-year-old man inside of the home to surrender.“He is a Navy SEAL war veteran. They said he had high-powered weapons in his home,: said neighbor Tami Warfield. read more here

Police, SWAT Team Surround Army Veteran’s Home In Churchill
CBS Pittsburg
February 14, 2018 at 6:32 pm

CHURCHILL (KDKA) — Police and the SWAT team have surrounded the home of an Army veteran in Churchill.

The incident began around 4:15 p.m. at a home in the 2200 block of Harmain Road.

Officials were reportedly called to the scene by neighbors who claim the man was fighting with his wife. He then refused to come out of the home.

There are numerous police agencies on the scene.

PennDOT was forced to shut down the Parkway East in both directions near the Greensburg Pike exit as a result of the standoff. The highway was closed from Wilkinsburg to Churchill, but has since reopened.

Traffic was expected to be backed up for a while as a result.
Stay with KDKA for the latest on this developing story.

Other-Than-Honorable Discharge Attributable To 'Invisible Wounds'...Yep!

Advocates Seek Benefits For Vets With Other-Than-Honorable Discharge Attributable To 'Invisible Wounds'
Hartford Courant
Sandra Gomez-Aceves
February 14, 2018

At 20 years old, Thomas Burke sat on an Afghan riverbank with the barrel of his rifle in his mouth. By then, he had experienced the tragedies of war — he had seen children blow up in an attempt to help American forces and had been left to pick up their remains and place them in the back of trailer — but his deployment wouldn’t end for another three months.

File photo. Veterans who receive other-than-honorable discharge are barred from accessing state benefits and programs accessible to other veterans. (Richard Messina, Hartford Courant)

Burke, now 28, a native of Bethel and a soon-to-be Yale University graduate, was saved by a fellow marine “who followed me out to nowhere” and embraced him in a hug.

After experiencing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Burke returned home with substance-abuse disorders and combat-induced post-traumatic stress disorder. In an effort to get help, Burke took an other-than-honorable discharge in exchange for rehabilitation, he said.

In Connecticut, though, his other-than-honorable discharge barred him from accessing vital state benefits available to more than 200,000 other veterans.
read more here

VA Secretary David Shulkin sought approval after he did it?

VA Secretary David Shulkin misused government resources, agency watchdog report says
USA TODAY
Donovan Slack
Published Feb. 14, 2018

Craig Holman, an ethics specialist with Public Citizen, said Shulkin didn't seek ethics clearance to accept the tickets until months later, when a Washington Post story about the trip was imminent.

WASHINGTON – Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets and airfare for his wife during a European trip last summer that cost taxpayers more than $122,000, according to a VA inspector general report released Wednesday.

His chief of staff, Viveca Wright Simpson, made false representations to a VA ethics lawyer and altered an official email to secure approval for taxpayer funding of Shulkin’s wife’s flights, which cost more than $4,000, the VA inspector general found.

Shulkin told ethics officials the tennis tickets were provided by a personal friend, Victoria Gosling, an adviser for the Invictus Games, a sporting event for wounded warriors. The inspector general concluded that was not the case.

The inspector general found the excursion led to a “misuse of VA resources.” Shulkin and his wife, Merle Bari, took the trip with three other VA executives and a six-member security detail ostensibly to attend meetings in Denmark and a summit on veterans’ issues in London.
read more here