Will this Secretary of Defense Pay Attention to Military Suicides?

Senate Gives Approval for Defense Secretary, if Not His Boss’s Policies
Ashton B. Carter Is Confirmed as Defense Chief, Replacing Chuck Hagel
New York Times
By EMMARIE HUETTEMAN
FEB. 12, 2015

Ashton B. Carter answered questions during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week. The committee approved his nomination unanimously. Credit Jabin Botsford/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday confirmed Ashton B. Carter to be the next defense secretary, installing a new Pentagon chief as the United States increases military action against the Islamic State.

Mr. Carter, a former deputy defense secretary who is President Obama’s choice to replace Chuck Hagel, was approved by a vote of 93 to 5, a striking scene of accord as tensions mount over the wait to confirm Loretta E. Lynch as the next attorney general. Five Republicans opposed Mr. Carter’s confirmation.

The transition to a new Pentagon chief comes as Congress considers a number of pressing defense issues, including a request

Republicans were cautious to draw a distinction between supporting Mr. Carter and supporting Mr. Obama, especially as many lawmakers expressed reservations about the parameters of the authorization regarding the use of ground troops and its place with an existing authorization for military action.

Senator Mark S. Kirk, Republican of Illinois, who voted against Mr. Carter, said, “Mine is a vote of no confidence in the national security decisions of this administration.”

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, called Mr. Carter “one of America’s most experienced defense professionals.” But he said he did not think Mr. Obama would put his full faith in Mr. Carter.

“When it comes to much of our national security policy, I must candidly express concern about the task that awaits Dr. Carter and the limited influence he may have,” he said.
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Blast from the past since 2001,

Donald H. Rumsfeld served as the 21st Secretary of Defense from January 2001 to December 2006. Before assuming this post, the former Navy pilot had also served as the 13th Secretary of Defense, White House Chief of Staff, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, U.S. Congressman and chief executive officer of two Fortune 500 companies.

Secretary Rumsfeld had directed the actions of the Defense Department in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Thus far, the Global War on Terror has resulted in the liberation of 25 million Afghanis and 27 million Iraqis, with free elections in both of those nations. Two-thirds of known Al Qaeda leaders have been captured or killed.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld faced renewed criticism Sunday from lawmakers, including one prominent Republican, after he said he has not personally signed letters sent to family members of troops killed in action.

Rumsfeld made the acknowledgment in a statement to military newspaper Stars and Stripes, saying that he would begin signing such letters.

Stars and Stripes had reported that Rumsfeld's letters carried a mechanical reproduction of his signature, which angered some military families.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, a leading GOP critic of Rumsfeld, called the news about the letters "astounding," and noted that President Bush signs each of his letters to military families.

"I think it's very reflective of how out of touch this crowd is," the Nebraskan said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "My goodness, that's the least that we could expect of the secretary of defense."

2006 Suicide Rate for Soldiers Sets a Record for the Army

Officials reported 948 suicide attempts, but there were no comparisons for previous years. In the 500,000-member Army, the suicide toll translates to a rate of 17.3 per 100,000, the highest since the Army started counting in 1980, officials said. The rate hit a low of 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.

Dr. Robert M. Gates served as U.S. Secretary of Defense from December 2006 to July 2011.
Dr. Gates was the only Secretary of Defense in U.S. history to be asked to remain in that office by a newly elected President. President Barack Obama was the eighth president Dr. Gates served.

Before becoming the , Dr. Gates was the President of Texas A and M University, the nation's seventh largest university. Prior to assuming the Texas A and M presidency, on August 1, 2002, he served as Interim Dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A and M from 1999 to 2001.

Active-Duty Soldiers Take Their Own Lives at Record Rate
General Chiarelli held the news conference to release a new report, “Generating Health and Discipline in the Force,” a review of the overall health of the Army after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the longest period of conflict in the nation’s history. The report, printed well before Thursday, did not include the final number of 164 suicides among active-duty soldiers for 2011. General Chiarelli disclosed that statistic at the news conference, as well as the number of suicides among active-duty troops from 2008 to 2010.

General Chiarelli said that if nonmobilized National Guard and Reserve units were included, Army suicides dropped to 278 in 2011, from 305 in 2010.

Active-duty Army suicide rates have been higher than civilian rates since 2008, when there were nearly 20 suicides per 100,000 in the Army, compared with close to 18 suicides per 100,000 in a civilian population that was adjusted to be comparable to Army demographics. The Army projects that final 2011 numbers will be more than 24 suicides among active-duty soldiers per 100,000, another record high.

Leon Edward Panetta served as the 23rd Secretary of Defense from July 2011 to February 2013. Before joining the Department of Defense, Mr. Panetta served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from February 2009 to June 2011. Mr. Panetta led the agency and managed human intelligence and open source collection programs on behalf of the intelligence community.

Each branch of the service showed an increase. The Army had by far the highest number of suicides and probable suicides -- 182, a numbmber that was up from 166 in 2011. The Navy had 60 suicides in 2012 compared with 52 the year before, followed by the Air Force with 59 (up from 51) and the Marine Corps with 48 (up from 32).

For years, the Pentagon has struggled with how to identify service members at risk for suicide and to provide counseling and other services. The Army and Navy have focused on teaching "resiliency" to troops in hopes of helping them cope with stress. Military experts have long said one of the enduring challenges is that there doesn't appear to be a direct link between suicides and the stress of being in the combat zone.

Chuck Hagel is the 24th Secretary of Defense. Over his tenure, he directed significant steps to modernize America’s partnerships and alliances, advance the rebalance in Asia-Pacific, bolster support for European allies, and enhance defense cooperation in the Middle East while overseeing the end of America’s combat mission in Afghanistan. In addition, he led major initiatives for service members and their families, including increasing resources for suicide prevention, combating sexual assault, and accounting for missing personnel. Further, Secretary Hagel improved partnerships with the Department of Veterans Affairs, to include health record interoperability, service treatment record transferability, and continuity of mental health services and support. Secretary Hagel launched the Defense Innovation Initiative to better prepare the Pentagon for future threats, and enacted comprehensive reforms to the Nuclear Enterprise and Military Health system. He is the only Vietnam veteran and the first enlisted combat veteran to serve as Secretary of Defense.

And not one of them got the Department of Defense to stop their resilience training. Not one of them actually noticed that when they started to "address" military suicides and reduce the stigma, suicides went up. Not one of them paid attention to what was happening in the Warrior Transition Units. Not one of them actually made sure the DOD was in fact doing post deployment screenings. Not one of them made sure they stopped kicking out PTSD troops under personality disorders and other excuses to get them out instead of helping them heal.

Not one of them have held leaders accountable. Will this one?

Are National Reporters Really Stupid, Lazy or Just Lying?

Deadly Silence
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 14, 2015

I remember Valentines Day and looking at the 4 day old engagement ring on my finger. That was 31 years ago. My husband couldn't wait and asked me to marry him on the 10th. Ever since then what war does to the people we send has been my vocation.

One of the other gifts he gave me over the years was a ruby ring in the shape of a heart. After all these years the prongs had worn down on both rings, so I took them to be fixed. I was told it would be an easy fix and wouldn't take long.

When I went to pick them up, I noticed the ruby had a mark on it. Considering I never take it off and it wasn't exactly clean, after they cleaned it, I knew something was wrong. I asked the jeweler about it and he said the heart was bruised.

As I drove home I thought about how the jeweler said it was a strong stone but it had been abused and was only showing signs of how it was treated. "A bruised heart" kept popping into my head. 

There is a very long history of bruised hearts in this country. As the years go by more and more are showing signs of how they were treated but no one is telling the whole story of how they ended up that way.

Everyday my email box is full of glowing reports about the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act being a "good first step" and how it is vital to reducing suicides.

On the local level, reporters take what the national news reporters say as the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth. They turn around and spread false statements instead of reporting that this bill was stepping backwards to what was already done and failed!
This is a report out of Iowa KWWL News.
Local veterans react to suicide prevention act

Jesse McCunniff has been a soldier in the Iowa National Guard for nearly two decades.

He's been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

He's seen the toll PTSD has taken on his fellow soldiers, including some of who've taken their own lives.

"We've had some in our battalion and some I've served with, real tragic, have ended their own life. It's affected everyone in the unit past or present. It's really a tough time to go through and it lasts for a long time after," said McCunniff.

He says a suicide prevention act signed Thursday is a good first step.
That's also how President Obama characterizes it.

The great national reporters have vanished. The scandal revolving around Brian Williams is just part of the story. For years veterans have been telling a totally different story about Williams but the press wasn't interested in what they had to say about him or what really happened. Stars and Stripes reporters were the first to pay attention and now we are getting a better idea of what they wanted us to hear.

Unfortunately that fine reporting didn't carry onto the truth behind military suicides. Statements about the Clay Hunt bill make it seem as if nothing had been done before the IAVA pushed for the passage of the bill that Senator Colburn called "redundant"

Coburn argued before the Senate late Monday that "almost everything that's in this bill has already been authorized and approved with the $10 billion [Veterans Choice Act] that we sent to the VA."

Actually Colburn was being uncharacteristically kind. This has been going on to the tune of billions a year but suicides went up afterwards and they just repeated the same old bullshit instead of doing something that wasn't simply deadly!

"From that moment, we wanted to find way to honor his memory and not lose any more friends," said Paul Rieckhoff, head of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, an advocacy group Hunt had worked with extensively after his return to the states.

Rieckhoff said Thursday's signing was a "bittersweet" moment in a journey that he described as "incredibly challenging." The group's members held hundreds of events across the country last year, from NASCAR rallies to visits with lawmakers.

"I think we're finally seeing a tone change we needed to see a decade ago," he said, explaining that attitudes about combats veterans and dealing with their mental health finally seem to be changing.

But Stars and Stripes didn't to that report. They simply posted what the Houston Chronicle reported, "Signing of Clay Hunt act ends long, painful journey for mother and father."

What we know is a totally different story. We know about all the other bills that have come out and all the abuses that came with all the "reform" and first steps to reduce suicides. We know these "efforts" started after WWI and began in the proper step down the ladder.

They began within the military when a psychiatrist went to be with the troops and study them. It was carried on into WWII when psychiatric evacuations went up 300% from WWI and then into the Korean War when they tried something new. They sent clinicians to remove soldiers in psychological distress, removed them from combat, treated them and then sent them back to duty. Psychological evacations went down to 3%. Then we knew what they did during Vietnam with their nasty little trick of 12 month deployments so that by the time they knew they had problems, they were already on their magical honeymoon readjustment back to civilian life when everything was brewing but they were too busy "adapting" to notice the war came home with them.

We also know that for OEF and OIF veterans these "first steps" started in the military with the theory of building resilient soldiers with Battlemind and Comprehensive Soldier Fitness in 2009 even though it was already predicted to add to the numbers of dead. Sam Stein just reported what he was told for the Huffington Post. He repeated what he heard in a speech.

U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey laid out the virtues of the newly formed initiative, which he called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.

"We have been looking very hard at ways to develop coping skills and resilience in soldiers, and we will be coming out in July with a new program called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness," said Casey. "And what we will attempt to do is raise mental fitness to the same level that we now give to physical fitness. Because it is scientifically proven, you can build resilience."

There were a lot of speeches that should have inspired a lot of questions, follow-up and then investigations.

MAY 1, 2008
Defense Department Health Issues
Defense Department officials spoke to reporters and answered questions about mental health programs for personnel exposed to combat and recent calls by the Defense Secretary Gates for soldiers to use the program.

Transcript

WITH 56 NEW POSITIONS ADDED SINCE JANUARY OF 2003 -- SEVEN -- 2007. 30 ARE ON BOARD AND 19 OTHERS ARE SELECTED AND WE ARE HIT RECRUITING FOR THE OTHER SEVEN POSITIONS. THIS IS AN INCREASE OF 34% OVER THE STAFF PRIOR TO JANUARY OF 2007. WE HAVE ALSO DEPLOYED SOME OF OUR MENTAL HEALTH PROVIDERS TO INSTALLATIONS EXPERIENCING INCREASED DEMANDS FOR THOSE SERVICES AS UNITS RETURN FROM DEPLOYMENT TO OIF AND OEF. OUTPATIENT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ARE CRITICAL CARE AND A CRITICAL PART OF SUPPORT FOR WARRIORS IN TRANSITION.

MANY WARRIORS ASSIGNED TO WALTER REED'S TRANSITION UNIT RECEIVED TREATMENT FOR PTSD AND BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SYSTEM -- SYMPTOMS ASSOCIATED WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY. AS COMMANDER OF THE WALTER REED HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, I AM PROUD OF THE SOLDIERS WHO PROVIDE ALL ASPECTS OF HEALTH CARE TO ALL THOSE ENTRUSTED TO OUR CARE AND EQUALLY PROUD OF THOSE WHO HAVE DEPLOYED AND RECOGNIZE THE NEED AND SAW OUT BELOW HEALTH TREATMENT AS PART OF THEIR HEALING.

WE WOULD WELCOME ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS.

PEOPLE WILL STILL BE SKEPTICAL

This is the same women denying reports of soldiers in Warrior Transition Units being abused. But then someone else decided to tell the truth and admit it was happening.

Army official admits Bliss Warrior soldiers were mistreated

Col. Chris Toner, the head of the Army's Transitional Command, last week at a congressional hearing in Washington.

Toner replied: "There were challenges at Fort Bliss, beyond a shadow of a doubt." According to reports, some warrior transition unit soldiers were called "slackers" and told to "man-up and move on."

"Was it leadership, was it processes, was it procedures, a lack there of?" O'Rourke inquired.

"All of the above," Toner responded. "We're talking about a period of time from 2009 to 2013. We had multiple issues over that time, everything from cadre members that did not have the right approach to the soldiers and the family members to failure to implement procedures and policies that created some issues in the program down there."

Patricia D. Horoho Commander Walter Reed Health Care System

Major General Horoho’s most recent assignment as Commander of Walter Reed Health Care Systems began 24 May 2007.

In February of 2007, the Washington Post released the report on the Walter Reed scandal.

Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility
By Dana Priest and Anne Hull
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, February 18, 2007

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The common perception of Walter Reed is of a surgical hospital that shines as the crown jewel of military medicine. But 5 1/2 years of sustained combat have transformed the venerable 113-acre institution into something else entirely -- a holding ground for physically and psychologically damaged outpatients. Almost 700 of them -- the majority soldiers, with some Marines -- have been released from hospital beds but still need treatment or are awaiting bureaucratic decisions before being discharged or returned to active duty.
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That reporting was so good that it earned both reporters a Pulitzer

For a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper through the use of its journalistic resources which, as well as reporting, may include editorials, cartoons, photographs, graphics and online material, a gold medal.

Awarded to The Washington Post for the work of Dana Priest, Anne Hull and photographer Michel du Cille in exposing mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital, evoking a national outcry and producing reforms by federal officials.

We read all these reports but we don't forget what we read last year, or the year before that or decades before that. So now, full circle. Spin, spin and more spin and the reporters let them just get away with it. So where have all the good national reporters gone? Why haven't they been on suicide watch as if these lives actually mattered enough?

Routh Told Deputy He Shot Kyle and Littlefield for Not Talking to Him?

PTSD comes with a lot of things but Routh must not understand using it while using it as a reason to murder 2 people.

Former Erath County sheriff’s deputy Gene Cole testified Friday that after Routh was jailed, he heard him say: “I shot them because they wouldn’t talk to me.” He said Routh said he had been riding in the back seat on the way to the shooting range. Cole, who is now a police officer elsewhere, said Routh also said, “I feel bad about it, but they wouldn’t talk to me. I’m sure they’ve forgiven me.”

Routh’s mother had asked Kyle, a former Navy SEAL whose wartime exploits were depicted in his 2012 memoir, to help her son overcome troubles that had at least twice led him to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Routh had been a small arms technician who served in Iraq and was deployed to earthquake-ravaged Haiti before leaving the Marines in 2010.

That is from AP reporting on Competence at center of ‘American Sniper’ murder trial February 14, 2015. Having hurt feelings because they wouldn't talk to him is not the same as feeling his life was threatened.

Deputy: Routh said he killed ‘American Sniper’ Chris Kyle, friend because ‘they wouldn’t talk to me’
Dallas News
Dianna Hunt
Staff Writer
13 February 2015

STEPHENVILLE — Eddie Ray Routh felt snubbed.

He’d climbed into the truck with acclaimed former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and a buddy for an afternoon at a shooting range, and nobody had a thing to say. So he shot them.

That’s the explanation he gave for the slayings while sitting in the Erath County Jail awaiting trial on capital murder charges, according to a former sheriff’s deputy who overheard the confession.

“I heard Mr. Routh say, ‘I shot them because they wouldn’t talk to me,’” former Deputy Gene Cole, now a Belton police officer, told jurors late Friday during Routh’s capital murder trial. “‘I was just riding in the back seat of the truck and nobody would talk to me. They were just taking me to the range, so I shot them. I feel bad about it, but they wouldn’t talk to me. I’m sure they’ve forgiven me.’”

The exchange on June 22, 2013, is the first glimpse from prosecutors at a possible motive for the killings.

Kyle, 38, whose bestselling book American Sniper was recently made into a blockbuster movie, and his close friend Chad Littlefield, 35, were fatally wounded at a shooting range that Kyle had designed at the upscale Rough Creek Lodge and Resort near Glen Rose, southwest of Fort Worth.
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But KVUE ABC News shows how even the PTSD is been doubted. It appears that Routh lied making a claim to the VA for PTSD compensation.

Since he was arrested for the February 2013 murders of Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield, much has been made of Routh's alleged PTSD from his time as a Marine.

But prosecutors now cast doubt on it all.

In a brief filed with the court on Tuesday that detailed other offenses, prosecutors said Routh "lied about shooting a child in Iraq, pulling dead bodies out of the water, or piled up dead bodies in Haiti or [having] seen multiple dead babies."

The filing goes on to claim that Routh told a friend "he was making false claims to [the VA] to get benefits."

On multiple occasions, prosecutors outlined that Routh smoked marijuana and used methamphetamine for at least a decade beginning in 2003 — before his military service.

The state even said Routh was high in 2013 when he is suspected of murdering Kyle and Littlefield.

"Even if he had the condition, and it was merely exacerbated by voluntary intoxication, I think the defense may have an uphill battle," said Ward.

Parents Speak Out After Narcotics Used to Treat PTSD

Parents move son out of Tomah VA, but he later dies in Milwaukee 
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin calls for criminal investigation into Tomah VA
WISN News
By Terry Sater
Feb 13, 2015

MILWAUKEE —Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin is now calling for a criminal investigation into the VA Medical Center in Tomah.

She points to concerns about the use of prescription drugs and the deaths of three veterans, one of whom died in downtown Milwaukee.

“He was in Iraq in 2004, 2005, and he came back not the same kid that he was when he left,” Lorraine Ward said.

Lorraine and John Ward's son, Jacob Ward was an Iraq war veteran who served as an Army scout.

“He saw things that were just horrible there that he could never get over,” Lorraine Ward said.

Jacob Ward died drug addicted and alone at the Berkshire Apartments in Milwaukee.

“That was the worst day of my life,” John Ward said.

The Wards point a finger at the VA Medical Center in Tomah. That's where Jacob Ward was first treated for post-traumatic stress disorder with narcotics.

The facility is now under investigation for excessive use of prescription painkillers. The Wards also questioned how narcotics were used, and they had Jacob moved to the VA Medical Center in Milwaukee.
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Parents say son asked them to intervene in his treatment at Tomah VA
Jason Simcakoski, 35, died of mixed drug toxicity
WISN News
Mike Gousha
Feb 10, 2015

Jason Simcakoski, 35, died of mixed drug toxicity Aug. 30 at the Tomah VA Medical Center. An autopsy report said that 14 different medications were in his system at the time of his death.

All of them were prescribed by VA physicians.

"He was proud of being a Marine," said Marv Simcakoski, Jason's father. "Proudest thing he's done in his life."
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Army Officials Admit Wounded Mistreated at Fort Bliss

Army official admits Bliss Warrior soldiers were mistreated 
KVIA News ABC
Darren Hunt
Feb 11, 2015

EL PASO, Texas -

Hundreds of Wounded Warriors, including at Fort Bliss, were reportedly harassed and abused by staff between 2009 and 2013.

It has top military officials talking. There were allegations of "disrespect, harassment and belittlement of soldiers" at a place where they should have been getting help -- the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Bliss.

"Was there in fact cause for concern at the WTU at Fort Bliss?" El Paso Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-El Paso) asked Col. Chris Toner, the head of the Army's Transitional Command, last week at a congressional hearing in Washington.

Toner replied: "There were challenges at Fort Bliss, beyond a shadow of a doubt."

According to reports, some warrior transition unit soldiers were called "slackers" and told to "man-up and move on."

"Was it leadership, was it processes, was it procedures, a lack there of?" O'Rourke inquired.

"All of the above," Toner responded. "We're talking about a period of time from 2009 to 2013. We had multiple issues over that time, everything from cadre members that did not have the right approach to the soldiers and the family members to failure to implement procedures and policies that created some issues in the program down there."
read more here

It is a lot different than what Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho claimed.

"I thought the investigation was very thorough," said Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, regarding the investigation at the Colorado fort. "I believe it gave the facts and verified there wasn't a systemic problem, but it did show we had two clinicians who treated one Soldier with a lack of dignity and respect."

Speaking with the Pentagon press in a roundtable, Feb. 6, Horoho said a doctor and social worker had been disciplined. The doctor was removed from his leadership position and the civilian received disciplinary action at the local level, she said.

Horoho said the incidents between the Soldier and the two health care providers occurred between February and May 2014. She also said there had been complaints by other Soldiers stretching back to 2011, but after review they were determined "not to contain problematic behavior by the providers."