Female veterans are 25% more likely to commit suicide

Why women veterans are 25% more likely than civilian women to commit suicide

Military Times
By: Kate Henricks Thomas and Kyleanne Hunter
August 14, 2019

"We missed the sense of unit cohesion and good-natured support we’d so often enjoyed on active duty, and struggled to find that same sense of community in our civilian lives." Kyleanne Hunter

The Women in Military Service to America Memorial, the only national museum honoring military women, celebrated its 15th anniversary on Oct. 20, 2012. (Veterans Affairs)

After four years on active duty, Amy left the Army and moved back to her hometown.

However, she struggled to find her tribe. At work, she was told her handshake was a bit too firm and lectured about how her direct communication style made her coworkers uncomfortable. At her local VFW bar, the men stopped talking to stare at her, and her attempts to connect were met with awkward silences. A few other attempts to connect with the veteran communities she saw advertised at the VA and Facebook left her feeling similarly displaced.

“In both civilian settings and veteran settings, I was ‘weird,’” she recalls.

She explored some of the newer veteran service organizations (VSOs), but most failed to include child care or weren’t kid-friendly. Amy was a single parent, so she mentally crossed those options off her list too. She stayed lonely, and slowly sank into a deep depression.

The very word “veteran” calls to mind the image of a man — particularly a male combat veteran. However, there are more than 2 million women veterans in the United States today, and women veterans are the nation’s fastest-growing veteran population. Unfortunately, this unique population, many of whom have deployed during the past 18 years, rarely benefit from the traditional trappings of the hero returned home.

Kyleanne Hunter was a Cobra pilot and is a decorated combat veteran. I served as military police. We spent our 20s in the Corps, and it quickly became both our family and identity. We each deployed overseas and generally loved our time in service. However, transitioning to civilian life was another matter entirely. We were high performing, but — despite appearing “successful” and “normal” on the outside — we each felt a nagging sense of displacement and not belonging. read it here

corrected must have been a typo in the original report from  Military Times

First female combat veteran running for President reporting for duty...in National Guard

Gabbard takes presidential campaign break for Army National Guard training

By: The Associated Press
  August 13, 2019

Gabbard is the first female combat veteran to run for U.S. president. She was elected to Congress in 2012.

HONOLULU — Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii is taking two weeks off from her 2020 Democratic presidential campaign to participate in Army National Guard training.

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard speaks at the Presidential Gun Sense Forum, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, in Des Moines, Iowa. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)

Gabbard announced the two-week break in a statement Monday. She will return to the campaign trail on Aug. 25.

Gabbard is a major in the Army National Guard who has served in the military for more than 16 years and deployed to Iraq in 2004 and Kuwait in 2008.
read it here

Disabled veteran called Ghost Brothers for Michigan home

Haunted Michigan home investigated by the Ghost Brothers in Travel Channel debut

MLive
By Edward Pevos
August 13, 2019

VASSAR, MI - A Michigan disabled veteran and his family have been living in fear inside their own home. That's where the famous Ghost Brothers come in.

The paranormal investigators came to the haunted home in Vassar after the family's plea for help.

Photo courtesy of the Travel Channel via Brian Eley

You can see what happened in the debut of "Ghost Brothers: Haunted Houseguest" premiering on Friday, Aug. 16 on the Travel Channel.

Maybe you've seen this historic home built in 1879. It's known as the "Wedding Cake" house. Disabled Marine Corps veteran Conrad Dowe lives in the home with his wife and young son.

It's beautiful on the outside, but on the inside, that's a different story.

"On the inside, you're dealing with some heavy energy which may be demonic," said Ghost Brother Juwan Mass.

"The family is very sweet, but they were dealing with a spirit tormenting the wife and little boy. The husband felt helpless from being able to protect his own family. He fought for his country and he doesn't know how to fight the spirits attacking his family."
read it here

Six Philadelphia officers shot, another trapped with gunman

Suspect in custody after 6 officers hurt in hours-long Philadelphia standoff

All of the officers who were shot had been released from the hospital by late Wednesday night. The city’s mayor said that one of those officers, who is the father of two boys, suffered a graze wound to his head and could have been killed.
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Six Philadelphia officers shot in active standoff with gunman holed up in house

NBC News
By Doha Madani and Tom Winter
Aug. 14, 2019

At least six Philadelphia police officers were shot Wednesday afternoon in an active standoff with a gunman holed up in a North Philly house.

A large police presence responded to a shooting incident at about 4:30 p.m. local time in a residential area of the Nicetown section of the city. One male shooter was still inside a residence in what police described as an active situation.

A police spokesperson told NBC News that the incident began when an officer attempted to serve a warrant at the address.
read it here

Ear worm of "22 a day" needs cleansing

This story is BS!
While it is true that the number of veterans committing suicide is under reported, it is not true that it is "22 a day" along with a lot of other BS that has been spawned from veterans left to suffer and families left not knowing why it happened.

Veteran Suicide Higher than Reported – Help is Available
Communal News
Dana Matthews
August 12, 2019

Every day, 22 veterans take their own lives. That's a suicide every 65 minutes.

If a veteran intentionally crashes a car or dies of a drug overdose and leaves no note, that death may not be counted as suicide.

A survey by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America showed that 30% of service members have considered taking their own life.

The suicide rate among service members is an epidemic. Leon Panetta, the former Secretary of Defense agreed six years ago. Unfortunately, data regarding the veteran suicide rate is incomplete. For example, veterans who commit “suicide by cop” are not included in the tally. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has made an appeal for more uniform reporting of suicide data.
read it here

Just starting with the "22 a day" a few years behind the latest study by the VA made me feel like I was in the Twilight Zone. Apparently the "author" decided that the rest of the reasons the numbers are wrong do not matter...or did not bother to research enough to discover what was missed.

Then when you factor in that all the awareness being raised about a lie obscures the fact that none of it is giving veterans hope back...oh well, the list goes on and so do the body counts.

YEP BS post of the day!