Fort Hood Military families put out 'emergency call' for support

Military families put out 'emergency call' for support
By: Chie Saito


Military families put out what organizers described as an emergency call for support and resources this week in Washington D.C.

As part of “Homefront 911: Military Family Monologues,” military families from across the country told stories of the struggles they faced with a family member serving in active duty. The stories were told in the visitor’s center of the U.S. Capitol Building.

Fort Hood Army wife Tricia Radenz told the story of her 12-year-old Daniel who battled emotional wounds caused by his father’s repeated deployments.

"My husband came home from Iraq on emergency leave and 14 days after he came home, Daniel hung himself and took his life," Radenz said.
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15 percent of the active forces aren’t able to deploy for medical reasons

Army says number of medically unfit GIs on rise
By Patricia Kime - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Oct 10, 2011 17:33:29 EDT
As the Army faces a prospective drawdown, it is grappling with a growing percentage of soldiers who aren’t medically fit for duty, Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker said Monday.

About 15 percent of the active forces aren’t able to deploy for medical reasons — a growing problem that has “begun to erode the readiness of the Army as a whole,” Schoomaker said during a forum on soldier resilience at the Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington.

With the elimination of stop-loss, attrition of surge forces and expansion of medical programs that better identify troops’ medical needs, the pool of those who are considered medically “not ready” for duty is broadening, and the Army must act quickly to ensure the burden doesn’t overwhelm the force, Schoomaker said.

Many of the soldiers involved are not those injured in combat, he added. For a variety of reasons, troops might not meet unit health standards for deployment, parameters set by the strategic commands for combat or they reside on the temporary disability retirement list awaiting discharge, under the Army fold of administrative oversight and personnel support.
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Fort Hood Soldier Dies During 4th Deployment To Iraq

Fort Hood Soldier Dies During 4th Deployment To Iraq
A 30-year-old Fort Hood soldier from Texas has died during his fourth deployment to Iraq, the military said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (September 21, 2011)—Fort Hood Staff Sgt. Estevan Altamirano, 30, of Edcouch died Sunday of injuries he received in what the military described Wednesday as a non-combat-related incident.

Further details weren’t released.

Altamirano was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division’s 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

He joined the Army in January 2001 and had deployed to Iraq from January 2004 through February 2005, October 2006 through January 2008, January 2009 through December 2009 and most recently in May.
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Widow of Army Ranger forced to leave Rumsfeld's book signing

"As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." Donald Rumsfeld

Well that was the way they all seemed to think about sending troops into Iraq as the talk about Afghanistan was forgotten about even though there were still troops there, risking their lives while being ignored.

FOX news took the lead on omitting any harm being done to the troops making people believe the administration cared but like the above piece, reality was under-reported. Suicides went up and the DOD was scratching their heads to figure out why. The Army came out with a stunning study saying that redeployments increased the risk of PTSD by 50% but the administration was not about to make any changes. They continued the practice. A like study showed the need for dwell time between deployments, yet men like Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann received hardly no time home. He was do to return into combat for the 9th time. Troops were sent into Afghanistan 10 years ago in October yet this was supposed to be his 9th time?

Did any of this bother Rumsfeld? Cheney? Bush? Did the lives of the men and women sent bother any of them? All of them have books and PR agents to spin what happened but families left behind have graves to visit and heartaches to heal.

Ranger's widow expelled from Rumsfeld book signing
Two people were removed from a Donald Rumsfeld book signing Friday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, including the Yelm widow of an Army Ranger who blames the military for her husband’s suicide.

JORDAN SCHRADER; STAFF WRITER
Published: 08/28/11

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld begins to sign a copy of his book for Jorge Gonzalez while Ashley Joppa-Hagemann looks on. Gonzalez and Joppa-Hagemann were later escorted from the event Friday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. (PHOTO COURTESY OF COFFEE STRONG)

Two people were removed from a Donald Rumsfeld book signing Friday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, including the Yelm widow of an Army Ranger who blames the military for her husband’s suicide.
Security officers for the former secretary of defense escorted Ashley Joppa-Hagemann out by the arm, she said Saturday. She and Jorge Gonzalez, the executive director of Coffee Strong, a Lakewood-based anti-war group, confronted Rumsfeld as he promoted his memoir, “Known and Unknown.”
According to an account posted on Coffee Strong’s website: “Mrs. Joppa-Hagemann introduced herself by handing a copy of her husband’s funeral program to Rumsfeld, and telling him that her husband had joined the military because he believed the lies told by Rumsfeld during his tenure with the Bush administration.”
Joppa-Hagemann complained about Rumsfeld’s response Friday to her account of Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann’s multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and his death at age 25. Hagemann belonged to the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.


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Stress rising in families, but programs can help

MILITARY: Stress rising in families, but programs can help
CHILDREN BEARING EMOTIONAL BRUNT OF MULTIPLE DEPLOYMENTS
By RICK ROGERS - For the North County Times
Posted: Friday, April 29, 2011
Marine Corps and Navy officials say military families are seeing an uptick in stress-related problems because of multiple deployments, including high levels of anxiety and depression among children.

Kirsten Woodward, director of the Family Programs Division for the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, said one of the military's best programs for reducing stress is available at Camp Pendleton.

"The level of distress (among families) is distressing," said Woodward, who spoke at the Combat and Operational Stress Control conference held this week in Mission Valley. The four-day forum brought together military mental health professionals from across the country.

"But there are avenues for help, and the FOCUS program, which has been recognized as a best practice program by the Defense Department, is one of them."

FOCUS stands for Families OverComing Under Stress. The program has been a fixture at Camp Pendleton since 2008. While no figures were available for the North County base, the total number of service members, spouses and others using the program has grown from 20,000 three years ago to 200,000 today.

Woodward said FOCUS has been shown to reduce behavior problems among children by almost 50 percent and emotional issues by nearly 33 percent. It's been so successful that the Army and the Air Force want the program on their bases, too.
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Stress rising in families, but programs can help

'Stop loss' bonuses go unpaid to 35,000 soldiers

'Stop loss' bonuses go unpaid to 35,000 soldiers
Christopher Collette
WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) -- The Army is struggling to find about 35,000 soldiers, most of them veterans now, who are owed bonuses because they were forced to remain in the military beyond their normal enlistment.

The government authorized the "special pay" in 2009 following criticism from some troops and Congress who said the "stop loss" policy that extended enlistments amounted to a "back door draft." Most of the troops fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Veterans groups have faulted the Pentagon for not being able to locate the troops.

"In this economy, I haven't met a single stop-loss veteran who can't use this money for their family or school," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

The Army has paid $245 million in bonuses for 84,000 soldiers since the law passed, said Army Maj. Roy Whitley, who is managing Army efforts to provide the special pay.
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'Stop loss' bonuses go unpaid to 35,000 soldiers

Army has learned nothing and redeployed soldier after suicide attempts

The Army declared him fit for duty and ordered him to Afghanistan after he had twice attempted suicide at Fort Campbell, Ky., and after he had been sent to a mental institution near the base, the home of the 101st.

Several Warnings, Then a Soldier’s Lonely Death

By JAMES RISEN
Published: January 1, 2011

WASHINGTON — A gentle snow fell on the funeral of Staff Sgt. David Senft at Arlington National Cemetery on Dec. 16, when his bitterly divided California family came together to say goodbye. His 5-year-old son received a flag from a grateful nation.

But that brief moment of peace could not hide the fact that for his family and friends and the soldiers who had served with him in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, too many unanswered questions remained about Sergeant Senft’s lonely death in a parked sport utility vehicle on an American air base in Afghanistan, and about whether the Army could have done more to prevent it.

Officially, the Army says only that Sergeant Senft, 27, a crew chief on a Black Hawk helicopter in the 101st Airborne Division’s aviation brigade, was killed as a result of “injuries sustained in a noncombat related incident” at Kandahar Air Base on Nov. 15. No specific cause of death has been announced. Army officials say three separate inquiries into the death are under way.

But his father, also named David Senft, an electrician from Grass Valley, Calif., who had worked in Afghanistan for a military contractor, is convinced that his son committed suicide, as are many of his friends and family members and the soldiers who served with him.

The evidence appears overwhelming. An investigator for the Army’s Criminal Investigative Division, which has been looking into the death, has told Sergeant Senft’s father by e-mail that his son was found dead with a single bullet hole in his head, a stolen M-4 automatic weapon in his hands and his body slumped over in the S.U.V., which was parked outside the air base’s ammunition supply point. By his side was his cellphone, displaying a text message with no time or date stamp, saying only, “I don’t know what to say, I’m sorry.” (Mr. Senft shared the e-mails from the C.I.D. investigator with The New York Times.)

With Sergeant Senft, the warning signs were blaring.
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Then a Soldier’s Lonely Death

5 tour veteran arrested for killing two men at party

5 tours, Master Sgt. and top that off with Chaplain's assistant. He was honorably discharged but ended up shooting two men and killing them at a party. Does any of this fit together? There has to be a lot more to this story that I'm sure will come out.

Vet accused of fatally shooting 2 at party

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Aug 24, 2010 8:28:05 EDT

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina military veteran who had served five overseas tours has been arrested and accused of killing two men.

Multiple media outlets reported that 39-year-old Leslie Todd Parvin of Columbia is charged in the deaths.

Investigators say Edgar Lopez and Pablo Gutierrez-Guzman of Columbia were shot to death at a party July 30.
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Vet accused of fatally shooting 2 at party

Stiff upper lip not biggest reason behind lower PTSD in UK

Deployment durations, dwell time and the use of National Guards and Reservists is more responsible than anything else, and the DOD knew this. They reported on the fact PTSD would be increased with redeployments but did it anyway just as they knew dwell time would affect the rates as well. Now maybe they will hear this!

Study: British troops less likely to get PTSD
Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes online edition, Monday, May 17, 2010
British combat troops are far less likely to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder than their American counterparts, The New York Times reported Monday, citing a recent psychiatric study of the British military.

Just 4 percent of Brits who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan exhibit symptoms of PTSD compared with 10 to 20 percent of Americans, though both have seen comparable levels of combat in recent years, according to the study.

“This is truly a landmark study, in its size and rigor, and the findings are surprisingly positive,” said Richard J. McNally, a psychologist at Harvard, told the Times. “The big mystery is why we find these cross-national differences.”
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http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=70043

Marine unit hit hard by casualties in Iraq deploys again

Brook Park: Marine unit hit hard by casualties in Iraq deploys again
Paul Thomas

BROOK PARK -- Nilda Bermudez fought back tears as her 23-year-old grandson left Ohio Sunday for deployment to the Middle East for the second time in five years.


"I told him, 'don't move until you ask God to protect every move you do,'" Bermudez said. "I know how bad it was the last time. We hope this time they all come back."

In 2005, the 3rd Battalion 25th Marines lost 46 Marines and two Navy Corpsmen during a tour in Iraq.

On Sunday, before hundreds of family members, the Marine reserve unit based in Brook Park lined up and filed out of the city recreation center to board buses.

Weeks of training in California await the Marines before they travel to Afghanistan on a security mission.

All five of Gary Scott's sons have served in the military.

On Sunday, as Scott's youngest son headed out to his second deployment, he thought about the tradegy the 3rd Battalion 25th Marines endured five years ago.
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Marine unit hit hard by casualties in Iraq deploys again

Revolving Door of Multiple Tours Linked to PTSD

We knew this would happen back in 2006 but since no one did anything about it, it has gotten worse for the men and women we send over and over again. What good does it do to know something if no one does anything with it?

Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds

By Ann Scott Tyson

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, December 20, 2006; Page A19

U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health........
Ignoring risk of PTSD at our peril

We also knew here

Monday, August 11, 2008

Five deployments, a bad omen

The percentage of soldiers who have served multiple deployments has jumped, as well. Today, 31 percent of soldiers have been to war zones more than once. That compares with 20 percent in 2006. The number of soldiers with more than five tours has increased to 2,358 in 2008, compared with 961 in 2006.
Martin said commanders should carefully monitor soldiers and Marines who face the most stressful combat assignments, calling them “canaries in the coal mine.”
“Those who are most exposed and in the most challenging spots are at greater risk for post-traumatic stress,” he said.

They didn't learn much since then. They keep redeploying them over and over again. If they have to do this then it is not only their responsibility but their duty, to make sure they are able to care for the wounded because of this and stop allowing them to suffer when they come home wounded by PTSD.

Revolving Door of Multiple Tours Linked to PTSD
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 11, 2010

Filed at 12:47 a.m. ET

It wasn't his first tour in Iraq, but his second and third when Joe Callan began wondering how long his luck would last -- how many more months he could swerve around bombs buried in the dirt and duck mortars raining from the skies.

It was only natural, considering the horrors he'd seen: One buddy killed when a mortar engulfed his tent in flames. A fresh-faced Marine sniper dead (also a mortar) on his first day in Iraq. A 9-year-old Iraqi boy, blood trickling from his head, after he was mistakenly shot by U.S. troops.

Three tours in four years and Callan wanted out. Out of Iraq, out of the Marines.

''I became numb,'' he says. ''I just wanted to be home. And that became more intense each time.''

When Callan did return to New Mexico, he couldn't sleep. He drank heavily. He had a short fuse. ''I knew,'' he now says, ''I was different. But I didn't think it was going to be that bad.''

Maj. Jeff Hall's world imploded after his second tour in Iraq.

Overwhelmed with guilt and rage, the 18-year Army veteran became so depressed that one day he lay on the ground and pointed a pistol at his head. The only reason he didn't kill himself, he says, is he didn't want his two daughters to discover him. ''I couldn't do that to my kids,'' he says. ''I had seen people with their heads blown off.''
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Revolving Door of Multiple Tours Linked to PTSD

Stress symptoms rise with multiple tours

Deployments take heavy toll
Stress symptoms rise with multiple tours
Devon Haynie
The Journal Gazette

The day after President Obama announced the Afghanistan surge, Spc. Curt Kelley got a letter from the Department of Defense.


It was a letter he’d received twice before: First, in 2005, foreshadowing a tame tour of central Iraq. And again in 2007, foreshadowing a far more dangerous deployment – the bloody kind that he says still haunts his dreams.


As a former active Army soldier with two years left in the U.S. Army Individual Ready Reserve, Kelley feels honor-bound to go back to Iraq a third time. But his other side, his civilian side, is concerned about how his next deployment will affect his sleeping problems, his anxiety and his changing personality – symptoms he chalks up to self-diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly referred to as PTSD.
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http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20100117/LOCAL12/301179914/1002/LOCAL

2 million men and women have shouldered deployments

A million soldiers deployed since 9/11

By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 18, 2009 14:35:33 EST

Eight years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, American troops have deployed almost 3.3 million times to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Defense Department data.

The numbers, as of October 2009, show that more than 2 million men and women have shouldered those deployments, with 793,000 of them deploying more than once.

Here’s a look at how the numbers break down, by service.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/army_deployments_121809w/

The Growing PTSD Plague

The Growing PTSD Plague
November 15, 2009: For the last six years, the U.S. Army has been conducting mental health surveys of troops in the combat zone. As expected, troops on their second or third trip to the combat zone, have more stress related mental problems. While 14 percent of troops on their first combat tour have stress problems, that goes to 18 percent for those on their second tour, and 31 percent for those on their third.

A growing proportion of NCOs and officers are doing their third or fourth combat tours (in Iraq or Afghanistan), and that means more and more of them are approaching the point where they will have to take a non-combat job. Otherwise, they risk severe mental problems from the accumulated stress. In effect, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) epidemic has been created by the unprecedented exposure of so many troops, to so much combat, in so short a time. Once a soldier has PTSD, they are no longer fit for combat, and many troops headed for Afghanistan are falling into this category. PTSD makes it difficult for people to function, or get along with others. With treatment (medication, and therapy), you can recover from PTSD. But this can take months or years. In extreme cases, there is no recovery.
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http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/articles/20091115.aspx

Multiple deployments take toll on military families, experts say

Multiple deployments take toll on military families, experts say

By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News
myoung@dallasnews.com

One day back from a year's tour in Iraq, Army Capt. Nick Jefferson had just come home after running errands when he flipped on the TV and heard about the shootings at Fort Hood, where his wife, Erica, was working.

"She had called and left a message while I was out, telling me about it and saying that everything was OK," Jefferson said by phone from Killeen. "But you sure don't expect something like this to happen here, after you've come back from Iraq."


No one knows for certain what led to the mass shootings at the Soldier Readiness Center, where troops about to be deployed and others returning from overseas are processed. The suspect, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was reportedly about to be deployed to Iraq.

But mental health experts and those who work with military families say the multiple deployments today's soldiers face lead to stresses that are different than those in past wars.
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Multiple deployments take toll on military families

GI shot himself to avoid deployment

Police: GI shot himself to avoid deployment

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Oct 29, 2009 13:30:02 EDT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Police in Colorado Springs say a Fort Carson soldier set to return to Afghanistan intentionally shot himself in the shoulder to avoid deployment.

They say 26-year-old Robert Murchison and his girlfriend found a parking spot near Penrose-St. Francis main hospital on Wednesday night and then he shot himself in the car.

Murchison and 28-year-old Chasaity Peoples allegedly first told police that they had stopped to help a stranded motorist and that the driver shot him.

Sgt. Jim Meyers says officers were suspicious and continued to question them. He says Peoples finally confessed to what happened.

Murchison is expected to remain hospitalized for the next few days but is expected to recover. He and his girlfriend could be charged with false reporting.
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GI shot himself to avoid deployment

Gen. George W. Casey Jr. seems to have a problem when it comes to PTSD

Gen. George W. Casey Jr. seems to have a problem when it comes to PTSD.


This is a quote from him. I read it yesterday but didn't post about it because I needed time to think about what this was actually saying.

"There's a common misconception," he said. "A lot of people think everyone that goes to combat gets post-traumatic stress syndrome." Not true, said Casey. All soldiers are stressed, but most succeed in difficult circumstances and it makes them stronger.

"Makes them stronger?" Does this mean he thinks if they end up wounded by PTSD they are suddenly weak? Does he have a clue what PTSD is or what causes it or what it actually does to the wounded? Does he think if someone has a bullet hole they are weak? If they loose a limb they are weak?

I don't know who he has been talking to or what he's been reading but it's clear Casey doesn't know many PTSD veterans.

They are not wounded after they come home and are safe. They are wounded in combat, when their lives are in danger and the lives of their friends. Yet what do they do after being wounded? Do they suddenly say they want to go home because they are not strong enough to finish the fight they are engaged in, the same fight causing the wound? No. They finish the fight because they are needed. Does he know what kind of strength that takes to do that?

They finish their tours after most of the time they stuff the pain, they push on past the nightmares and flashbacks because they are needed. It is not until they and their friends are out of danger before they allow themselves to acknowledge the pain inside of them. Does Casey understand this?

The redeployments have been happening as they are coming to understanding the gravity of the wound inside of them, yet they still go back. Does he know what kind of strength that takes?

Stronger? I have never met such fine men and women in my life than the veterans of combat carrying this wound inside of them. Their strength, commitment, integrity and courage is a testament to their character. They cared more about the people they served with than they did for themselves! If Casey understood them, he'd know that. They didn't walk away with just their own pain but the pain they felt from everyone around them. The fallen, they carried with them. The physically wounded, they carried with them. The weight of the world came crashing down on them but they held up and stood strong putting the mission and those they served with above all else. They were not weakened by this wound but showed over and over again exactly how strong they were because they did it all after being wounded.

PTSD does not mean a veteran is weak and it's time people in leadership positions understood this. PTSD comes from being a sensitive person able to feel deeply. That same place where compassion lives offers the courage to act on that compassion. It is what allows a simple human to rush out to save someone else. It is that same compassion that allows them to run into where everyone else is running away from. We see it in police officers running to save lives. We see it in firefighters rushing into burning buildings. Above all, we see it in the men and women willing to lay down their lives for the sake of this nation they serve. The men and women wounded by PTSD are not weaker simply because their hearts are stronger and feel more than others.

If Casey wants to see true strength and courage, let him see a PTSD veteran get up every morning after another night of nightmares so real it takes them time to understand they are in their own home. Let him see them overcome people with no understanding of "who" they are inside and still find the courage to look them in the eye and say, "I have PTSD" when all other generations of combat veterans also had it but were too afraid to speak of it. Let him see the strength of the veterans from Vietnam so courageous to overcome their own pain for the sake of others that they devote the rest of their lives helping them.

General Casey has a lot to learn but his ignorance of what PTSD is at this point when we knew what it was in 1978 is truly appalling. Men like him are under the truly idiotic thought that people can "prepare" or "strengthen" their brains to prevent PTSD. They can't understand that while it does change how the brain works, it has nothing to do with the brain itself. It comes from an outside force and it is a wound striking the soul. They will never, ever, be able to take care of the wounded until they understand it. After all these years you would think they would be a lot closer to accomplishing that but they have their priorities and this is not one of them for far too many.

Casey: Army wants to give more time at home
May 7, 2009 - 8:01 PM
BILL REED
THE GAZETTE
Soldiers' families can look forward to their warriors being home for longer periods between deployments, maybe, hopefully, in a few more years.

Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. visited Fort Carson on Thursday.

He met with soldiers' spouses to hear their concerns, and said his top priority is to give troops more time at home to bring balance back to the force. His goal is nine-month deployments sandwiched between two years at home.

But there's no hope to achieve that, he said, until the troop drawdown in Iraq begins in 12 to 18 months, and even then only if the situations in Afghanistan and Pakistan don't demand more troops than are already accounted for.

Casey didn't mince words. He said the Army is out of balance, deployments are too long and too often, and that seven years of war have taken a toll on soldiers and families.

On the plus side of the ledger, Army recruiting numbers have been strong, said several Army sources, helped along by a rotten economy. Coupled with fewer troops in Iraq, this should spell relief unless world events dictate otherwise. click link for more

`Real World' cast member leaves for Iraq on Sunday

`Real World' cast member leaves for Iraq on Sunday
By ERIN CARLSON –

NEW YORK (AP) — Ryan Conklin, the impish, guitar-playing merry prankster of this season's "The Real World: Brooklyn," was packing his guitar to head off to Iraq on Sunday.

The former cast member of the MTV reality show was feeling more than a little anxious. "I want to get this thing started, because the sooner I do it, the sooner it'll be over," he said Wednesday.

"I'm kind of just getting antsy with time."

He hopes to serve a rotation of just nine months.

The 23-year-old Gettysburg, Pa., native was on the front lines three years ago. He received his deployment notice while living in the "Real World" house. It was one of show's most poignant moments: His brother called with the news, and Conklin's emotional reaction ran the gamut from denial to disbelief to tears.

Conklin, who voiced his opposition to the war and participated in a Veterans Day parade on the show, touched the hearts of viewers who sympathized with his predicament.
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`Real World' cast member leaves for Iraq on Sunday

Police: Iraq a factor in Puerto Rico soldier's suicide

Police: Iraq a factor in PR soldier's suicide
1 hour ago

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A soldier who had told his family he did not want to return to Iraq apparently killed himself in a Puerto Rican motel days before he was to join his unit and head back to the war zone, police in the U.S. territory said Monday.

Army Spc. Nokware Rosado Munoz, 28, had been arguing with his pregnant wife about his upcoming redeployment before hanging himself Sunday, said Lt. Edilberto Rivera Santiago, director of the police homicide division in the San Juan suburb of Bayamon.

"They were having problems because he had been activated again," Rivera said.

Rosado was scheduled to rejoin his unit at Fort Bliss, Texas, this week, before moving on to Iraq.
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Police: Iraq a factor in PR soldier's suicide

Medically unfit still being deployed?

Medically unfit being deployed?

By Tony Lombardo - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 31, 2009 16:33:47 EDT

Conflicting policies, inaccurate records, and uninformed commanders and medical providers all could play a role in the Army’s deployment of soldiers medically unfit to serve, according to an Army inspector general’s report.

It was obtained Monday by Army Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The report is a response to “numerous Congressional inquiries, media releases and complaints from soldiers and veteran organizations regarding the growing perception that the Army is deploying soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan who are medically unfit,” the executive summary states.

Army Secretary Pete Geren called for an inspection of the Army’s medical deployment process June 18. Seven inspectors general and a team including representatives from Army G-1, Army Medical Command, the National Guard and the Army Reserve conducted the inspection.
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Medically unfit being deployed?