UK has military suicide problem too

Suicide watch: What is being done to stop our soldiers killing themselves?
UK Metro News
Monday 18 Feb 2013

The numbers are shocking.

Every 65 minutes, a US military veteran takes his own life, the equivalent of 22 former soldiers committing suicide every day.

The statistics, published this month by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, follow figures released earlier this year which show more active-duty US soliders killed themselves (177) in 2012 than died in war zones (176).

Across all services, 349 military personnel committed suicide last year, compared to the 311 American troops killed in combat.

The British military has come to pride itself on the support it provides its troops to avoid such harrowing figures, but there remains concern that more could be done to help service personnel returning from combat, as well as those being discharged back into civilian life.

Studies into the mental health issues suffered by British troops show those under the age of 24 are most at risk, with a report in 2009 suggesting young servicemen were three times more likely to kill themselves compared to civilians in the same age bracket.

Louis Appleby, national director of Mental Health in England, concedes the issue of military suicide is ‘difficult to talk about’.

He said: ‘People are nervous about saying [anything] that could sound a little bit negative about soldiers because they do a job that most of us would not be prepared to do.’

Earlier this month, it was revealed that between 2001 and 2011, 50 British troops committed suicide after tours to Iraq and Afghanistan, with eight taking place during the conflicts and 23 of the remaining 42 killing themselves on Ministry of Defence property.
read more here

I left this comment

The numbers are wrong. US military suicides for 2012 are, 168 soldiers, 84 Army National Guards, 42 Army Reservists, 46 Marines, 53 Sailors, 56 Airmen. Veteran suicide numbers were taken from death certificates with "veteran" and only done in 21 states. In other words, the numbers are not all there. There are also questionable deaths where they are not sure if it was an accident or on purpose.

Tampa disabled veterans take on Kilimanjaro to help others

Disabled veterans climb Kilimanjaro to assist research
By Howard Altman
Tampa Tribune
Published: February 18, 2013

TAMPA -- Army Sgt. 1st Class Mike Rodriguez struggled, losing his balance and falling every so often as he worked his way up Africa's highest peak.

But the higher he went up Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, something unexpected happened.

The effects of his traumatic brain injury -- the result of more than 20 years of combat and training as a Green Beret -- seemed to diminish. The often debilitating migraine headaches he suffers at sea level ceased.

"I have a theory that it may be because I was concentrating so hard on breathing to get up the mountain," Rodriguez said.

It is a theory that will be tested 8,000 miles away from Tanzania at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, by Stephen Scott, the chief of the hospital's spinal cord injury center.

The eight-day trek up and down the 19,340-foot summit of Kilimanjaro, aided by the Alaska Mountaineering School, was no tourist trip.

Rodriguez, 38, was taking part in a research mission run by the Combat Wounded Veteran Challenge, a nonprofit organization created by Dave Olson, a retired Navy captain from Palm Harbor.

Rodriguez was on a team of men -- some missing limbs, some suffering from post traumatic stress disorder -- helping researchers on the climb learn more about the effects of altitude and stress on their maladies and prosthetics.

And to prove that losing a limb doesn't mean losing the ability to serve.
read more here

Army SFC Michael Rodriguez talks about the TBI research

Army SSG Tommy Costello prepares to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro

Troy veteran upset after GI Bill not offered

This is what happens when one generation of veterans is treated differently from all veterans.

Troy veteran upset after GI Bill not offered
Oakland Press
Published: Monday, February 18, 2013
By JERRY WOLFFE

A retired Army veteran says he and thousands of others in the military in the late 1950s and early ’60s were cheated out of veterans benefits.

Cicero Acton, now 73 and a retired veteran who spent his career as a Troy history teacher and coach, said communication with veterans was lacking.

During the administration of Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, the GI Bill was terminated.

The 1959 repeal provided that persons entering the military after Jan. 31, 1955, would not be entitled to any benefits at all, and those in the service prior to that date who had not signed up for its benefits by July 25, 1956, would receive nothing.

The U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs failed to inform them the GI Bill was reinstated in 1966 by President Lyndon Baines Johnson and made retroactive to those who served in the military from 1955.

“Those of us that graduated in the late 1950s (and were in the Armed Services) didn’t get the GI Bill,” Acton said.

“I am really bitter about it, not so much for myself but for others who could not afford to go to college. But I’m not the story, the story is the military didn’t inform those like me that they were entitled to educational benefits,” he said.

Veterans officials in Oakland County said Acton was mistaken about the GI Bill. The benefits were reinstated on March 3, 1966, by Johnson.
read more here

Loan program for veteran entrepreneurs

Loan program for veteran entrepreneurs
New legislation could offer small business loans
WPRI.com
Updated: Sunday, 17 Feb 2013
By: Stephanie Mangano

PROVIDENCE, R.I (WPRI)-- New legislation could help veterans looking to start a small business.

Legislation was introduced in the General Assembly last week to set up a loan program for veteran entrepreneurs
read more here

President Washington would be ashamed

President Washington would be ashamed
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
February 18, 2013

Today is Presidents' Day selected in honor of our first president, George Washington's birthday. While most Americans have the day off, a group of Americans are still working. They are standing watch over this nation, deployed all over the earth and risking their lives in Afghanistan while too many Americans have forgotten all about them. They return to their hometowns as veterans but again, forgotten about by the other Americans enjoying their freedoms because of their efforts.

President Washington was the first president and knew what it was like to fight for this nation and be ready to pay any price asked to defend these shores. He also knew what it was like to be a veteran.

"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 the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation."
President George Washington

He was not alone among Presidents with the dual title of President and Veteran.

Chester A. Arthur
James Buchanan
George H. W. Bush
George W. Bush
Jimmy Carter
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Millard Fillmore
Gerald Ford
James A. Garfield
Ulysses S. Grant
Benjamin Harrison
William H. Harrison
Rutherford B. Hayes
Andrew Jackson
Thomas Jefferson
Andrew Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
John F. Kennedy
Abraham Lincoln
Did not experience combat but served during Black Hawk War burying the dead shortly after battles ended.
James Madison
William McKinley
James Monroe
Richard Nixon
Franklin Pierce
James K. Polk
Ronald Reagan
Theodore Roosevelt
Zachary Taylor
Harry S. Truman
John Tyler

We have never really lived up to George Washington's dream of treating veterans right but now with Congress has been playing political "chicken" with the budget causing sequestration cuts to hit almost everything, it will be hitting the troops and their families hard in a time when they need more than they have been getting. Families are on the front lines standing watch over the troops. If they are not supported then we cannot say we support the troops when we cannot support their families.

"Funding for soldier and family programs such as the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program, Soldier Family Assistant Centers and the Army Substance Abuse Program will be reduced," the Army memo stated.

But that is not all. Military suicides at an all time high and this is what is coming.

Odierno warned that even programs to boost the number of counselors and therapists to combat military suicides – one of the Army's top priorities – would be at risk under sequester.

"We will not be able to afford the number of counselors we have today," Odierno said.

Army Planning Cuts on Family Programs
Feb 18, 2013
Military.com
by Richard Sisk

The Pentagon has begun a "deep dive" review of more than 170 military family and recreation programs on bases worldwide to identify redundancies and efficiencies -- all the while insisting that the effort is not aimed at scrapping facilities in the new era of tight budgets.

Pentagon officials said that Army daycare programs, the focus of an ongoing investigation over the hiring of more than 30 workers with criminal backgrounds Fort Meyer, Va., were also included in the 120-day task force review.

"We're going to be peeling these back, looking for redundancies," said Charles Milam, the acting deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy, about the programs targeted for the data-driven review that he leads.
read more here