Army Veteran Newport News Police Officer Andrew Gohn Prevented Suicide

Newport News officer stops suicide attempt [Warning: Graphic Content]
Daily Press
Sarah J Pawlowski
December 19, 2014

The man was lying on the sidewalk when officers arrived, an 8-inch butcher knife firmly pressed against his stomach. He was crying. He said he didn't deserve to live.
The incident happened at about 9 p.m. Dec. 9 alongside Jefferson Avenue near Oyster Point Road in Newport News.

Body-mounted cameras on officers recorded as Newport News police officer Andrew Gohn knelt to the ground. He asked the man about his problems and encouraged him to talk about his kids.

Gohn said the incident was somewhat personal to him. A former member of the U.S. Army, he decided to complete the advanced course because he witnessed the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. A relative also committed suicide when he was a teen, he said.

He said he hopes people considering suicide will recognize it's not a solution.
read more here

PFC Joseph P. Dwyer Project Peer Support Groups for PTSD

BELLONE INITIATES VETERANS SERVICES OUTREACH EFFORT IN RESPONSE TO RISE IN PTSD RELATED SUICIDE
Long Island Press Releases

County Executive Steve Bellone, center, announces a veteran support outreach effort to veteran families in response to rise of PTSD related suicides. Photo Credit: Suffolk County.

(Long Island, NY) County Executive Steve Bellone was joined by Congressman-elect Lee Zeldin, Legislator Bill Lindsay III, Legislator Tom Muratore, the Suffolk County Veteran Services Agency and family members of veterans lost to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the Farmingville VFW Post 400 today to announce a veteran support outreach effort in response to the rise in PTSD related suicides around the region. County officials encouraged veterans affected by PTSD to enroll in their local PFC Joseph P. Dwyer Project support groups.

“There is no greater obligation we have than to make sure the men and women of our armed forces have the support and services they require when they come back home,” said County Executive Steve Bellone. “PTSD related suicide is an American tragedy and we need to do more to help our veterans work through the challenges they face.”

 The Joseph P. Dwyer Peer to Peer program is overseen by the Suffolk County Veteran’s Service Agency and is designed to serve veterans, active duty, reserve and National Guard troops suffering from PTSD and allows veterans the opportunity to share and discuss their issues and problems with trained veteran personnel in a secure and anonymous setting.

The unique nature of the program is that veterans are serving as the facilitators of the groups which provides a comfort and familiarity level to those veterans seeking assistance.

Since its inception in 2012, over 2,000 veterans have participated in the Joseph P. Dwyer Project where they share their experiences with fellow veterans and allow the healing process to begin. As part of the outreach effort, the Suffolk County Veterans Service Agency issued an informational pamphlet on the Joseph P. Dwyer Project to veteran households throughout the County.
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Who was PFC. Joseph Dwyer?

Warren Zinn / Army Times file
Joseph Dwyer carries a young Iraqi boy who was injured during a battle between the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment and Iraqi forces near the village of Al Faysaliyah, Iraq, on March 25, 2003.

A photograph taken in the first days of the war had made the medic from New York's Long Island a symbol of the United States' good intentions in the Middle East. When he returned home, he was hailed as a hero. But for most of the past five years, the 31-year-old soldier had writhed in a private hell, shooting at imaginary enemies and dodging nonexistent roadside bombs, sleeping in a closet bunker and trying desperately to huff away the "demons" in his head. When his personal problems became public, efforts were made to help him, but nothing seemed to work.

This broken, frightened man had once been the embodiment of American might and compassion.

If the military couldn't save him, Knapp thought, what hope was there for the thousands suffering in anonymity? read more here

Another family faced pain of suicide with hope of bill redo

Another family hopeful others will be spared the pain of losing a service member to suicide. How many more families will have to push a member of congress to do something before they do something right? These rules in this bill have already been done and the Joint Vice Chiefs of Staff admitted years ago they do not do post deployment screenings. No one did anything to enforce the bills that were already done so this will be more of the same.

Families touched by military suicide thankful for new federal law
FOX 59
BY DAN SPEHLER
DECEMBER 19, 2014

INDIANAPOLIS (Dec. 19, 2014) – It’s a problem that’s affected far too many of our Hoosier Heroes and their families, but now there’s a new federal law aimed at preventing military suicide.

Sen. Joe Donnelly’s office said they were anticipating President Obama would sign the Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act into law by the end of the day. The new law requires annual mental health assessments for our military- including guardsmen and reservists.

Sexton’s parents, from Farmland, joined Donnelly Friday at the Indiana War Memorial to discuss the new law.

A few years ago, Sexton took his own life while home on leave.

“My son’s name on this bill will help other soldiers and that’s very important to me,” said Jacob’s mother, Barb Sexton. “I’m very proud this is going into law and I truly know this will help other families that are dealing with PTSD.”

Gregg Keesling’s family dealt with the same pain- when his son Chance took his own life in Iraq.

“I’m convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt this bill, if it had been in place, my son would be alive today,” said Keesling. “And when you lose a child all you have is hoping the death can help save other people.”
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In 2008 it was another National Guardsman's family getting attention after he committed suicide. Spc. Chris Dana of the Montana National Guards got the attention of then Senator Obama. We had hope back then but as suicides went up, hope left a bitter taste from tears across the country.

Troop suicide rates declined and so did the number of enlisted

Troop suicide rates decline in second quarter 
Fort Campbell Courier
by Amaani Lyle, Defense Media Activity
December 18, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Defense Department released the quarterly suicide report for April through June of 2014, and the numbers, officials said, indicate a drop from first-quarter statistics for all services and components.

The second-quarter report showed 70 suicides among active duty service members, 14 suicides among Reserve component service members and 20 suicides among National Guardsmen.

In an off-camera briefing, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren reported comparison first quarter statistics of 74 active duty members, 24 Reservists and 22 National Guardsmen.
read more here

Have you ever noticed they don't seem too willing to mention the fact there are also less serving when they talk about the number of suicides?

Well in this case, they actually did.

"Garrick noted that DOD and VA recognize the need to help transitioning service members, as some 250,000 separate or medically retire from the military each year."

This is why we are not impressed by suicides going down by a few all too slowly.

Picking Political Sides Left Military Crushed in the Middle

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 19, 2014

There are many things we should argue about politically because that is how things change. There are somethings that we should never argue about. One of them serves this country everyday and the other served her yesterday.

It seems as if everyone has a strong opinion about how things got so bad for our troops and veterans. The truth is, both sides did it. Both sides continue to feed the myth of everyone in this country picking their side but the truth is most of us are just average folks. I am a full time American.

Republicans think I am a Democrat and Democrats think I am Republican. No one wants to claim me and that is a good thing.

"I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member."
Groucho Marx

The issues facing the troops range from not getting enough pay to provide for their families, unsure future for their careers, to being mistreated for claiming benefits they were promised if they needed them. The veterans face the same things they have faced for decades. Sorry but not much has changed.

Both sides of politicians got us to believe it was the other side's fault but again, truth is stranger than their fiction. Everyone complain about how sequestration hurt the military when Republicans controlled the House and Democrats controlled the Senate and both sides refused to work together. Strange thing is, no one was paying attention to the troops risking their lives in other parts of the world, working together as a team, putting their lives on the line ready to die for each other and those folks couldn't manage to even talk to each other to at least support them.

When I was young, I wanted to change to world. I had an opinion on every topic. I lost every argument and never managed to change a single mind on any of them. My Mom, a very wise woman told me it was time for me to pick just one battle, learn everything I could about it and give it all I had. It was not until I received an email from a Marine serving in Iraq that I finally, really understood what she meant. Back then I was politically twisted. I was so involved in supporting my own political views, I settled for what I was being told. The Marine asked me if I was doing what I did for them or myself. The answer made me cry. I wasn't serving them no matter how hard I tried to convince myself I was. That's when Wounded Times started 7 years ago.

The truth is all of this falls back on Congress and both sides put a pox on both sides of the House. Troubles in the military started long ago and kept going just as they did for veterans. Media and online posers like me had the ability to research and understand basic history but they must have not thought it was all that important or they would have known the truth in our history. The truth is we always sucked at taking care of the most unselfish among us.

"Odd how that seems to work all the time. They give all they have and ask for little in return, so that is exactly what Congress gives them."

Kathie Costos

"Congress meets tomorrow morning. Let us all pray: Oh Lord, give us strength to bear that which is about to be inflicted upon us. Be merciful with them, oh Lord, for they know not what they're doing. Amen."
Will Rogers

While there are thousands of postings right now on Bradley Stone and the people he killed, other stories far more pressing have fallen into the abyss. Bradley Stone cleared by Veterans Affairs doctor one week before murders, suicide was the headline on the Washington Times. "A Department of Veterans Affairs psychiatrist cleared former Marine Bradley Stone of suicidal or homicidal tendencies just a week before he went on a killing spree, slaying six others and then taking his own life."

The headline we needed to pay attention to was on the Dallas Morning News because it involved a lot more lost lives but no one seemed to care. INJURED HEROES, BROKEN PROMISES about PTSD wounded soldiers in the Warrior Transition Units being treated, well, like crap. They were told to get over it and suck it up for 7 years. This after hearing from the DOD they got it. Understood it and were addressing the problems apparently with the wrong address and stamping them with return to sender families.

"As far back as 2008, the House committee received similar complaints from soldiers, Thornberry said. At that time, the committee required improvements from the Army." Rep. Mac Thornberry, the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee

Things were so bad that the Army actually had to issue orders to stop abusing them.

The training order required all WTU leaders to attend a day of training. The order highlighted the need to treat all soldiers and family members “with dignity and respect.” It includes the warning: “There is zero tolerance for hazing, abuse, or discrimination in our Army.” Col. Chris Toner, head of the Warrior Transition Command

Who is to blame? Congress obviously for starters but suggest you pick up a mirror because no matter which letter you voted for, if you didn't pay attention to what was going on, you may as well have picked up a shovel to dig their graves and made yourself useful.