Soldier sent back to duty three days after suicide attempt

Rising suicide rate among U.S. soldiers hitting close to home
Watch Video
Updated: Aug 22, 2007 6:38pm
The stress of combat is taking its toll on many soldiers.
In fact, according to the U.S. Army, last year there were 99 suicides; 30 of those happened in war zones.
It’s not a new trend, the same happened during wars like Vietnam.

According to the U.S. Army in 2005 there were 12.8 suicides per 100,000 soldiers.

That number increased last year with the army recording 17.3 suicides per 100,000 soldiers.

Staff Sgt. Derrick Degrate said he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress disorder after seeing too much in war.

"[I saw] people getting shot up, people getting blown up," Degrate said.

It took its toll, and while on a tour in Iraq he admits he tried to take his own life.

"So, I attempted suicide and, you know, and I was admitted to the hospital," Degrate added.

He said he was hospitalized for three days and then sent back to duty.

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Civilian clergy get war trauma lesson

Civilian clergy get war trauma lesson
Training focuses on helping troops with combat stress when they return home.
BY STEPHANIE HEINATZ | 247-7821
August 22, 2007

NEWPORT NEWS - Military chaplains are often revered by troops on the front lines. They provide a place where they can go to cry, to vent, to talk about the trauma war has exposed them to - and not feel like they're being judged.

Back home, those troops are likely to reach out to their civilian pastors, Susan Cross, a chaplain with the Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center told roughly 75 clergy members gathered Tuesday at a daylong course on dealing with combat stress.

Some servicemen and servicewomen still fear seeking professional mental health care from the military or the VA.

Real way to support our troops

This editorial is from the Cincinnati Enquirer

Real way to support our troops

In the midst of troops fighting to stay alive in Iraq, it is painful news that 27 American soldiers took their own lives last year in the midst of warfare there. Another three killed themselves while deployed in Afghanistan.

All told, 99 active-duty soldiers committed suicide last year, the highest rate in 26 years of Army record keeping, according to an Army report released Thursday. While mental experts fear rising rates among Iraq veterans, no one can say for sure because the military has no method for tracking such numbers.

The new report dramatizes the need for stepping up mental health services for military members and their families. A Defense Department task force earlier this year issued a strongly worded report admitting military health services were inadequate and poorly positioned, still not geared up for wartime needs.

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I'm glad people are talking about and reporting on PTSD, especially the suicides linked to it. I just find it really ironic they couldn't pay attention before this. Nothing that has been reported in the this recent series discussing the suicides last year is new. It is not a shocking revaluation to anyone living with this, regarding it with all seriousness.
But where were they all before this?

Jeffrey F. Braun, 19, Stafford Springs CT Pfc. Jeffrey F. Braun 19 Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division Stafford, Connecticut "Died of a non-hostile gunshot wound in Baghdad, Iraq, on December 12, 2003The only confirmed Connecticut suicide is that of Army Pfc. Jeffrey Braun, 19, of Stafford, who died in December 2003. His father, William Braun, told The Courant he still did not have a full explanation of what happened to Jeffrey, but said, ""I've chosen not to pursue it or question it. It's over and done with.""http://www.coalitionmemorial.org/pdf/abraun.pdf
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/7/4000


Jason Cooper - Iraq War Heroes, Fallen Heroes Memorial
One of its victims, she said, was her son, Jason Cooper, 23, who took off his dog tags, fastened a noose, and stepped off a chair. ...July 14, 2005

1st Lt. Debra A. Banaszak 35 1035th Maintenance Company, Missouri Army National Guard Bloomington, Illinois "Died from non-combat related injuries at Camp Victory, Kuwait, on October 28, 2005Barbara Butler, mother of Army National Guard 1st Lt. Debra A. Banaszak, 35, of Bloomington, Ill., said she has trouble understanding why her daughter would have taken her own life in Kuwait last October, as the military has determined. She said that while Banaszak, the single mother of a teenage son, was proud to serve her country and had not complained, the stresses of the deployment may have exacerbated her depression.

Joshua Omvig - Iraq War Heroes, Fallen Heroes Memorial
Joshua Lee Omvig. Gillette, Wyoming. committed suicide at the age of 22. December 22, 2005


"All is not okay or right for those of us who return home alive and supposedly well. What looks like normalcy and readjustment is only an illusion to be revealed by time and torment. Some soldiers come home missing limbs and other parts of their bodies. Still others will live with permanent scars from horrific events that no one other than those who served will ever understand." - Douglas Barber , 2005
On January 16th, (2006)after having talked quite normally on the phone with at least two other people that same day, Douglas Barber, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) living in Lee County, Alabama, changed the answer-message on his telephone.
"If you're looking for Doug," it said in his Alabama drawl, "I'm checking out of this world. I'll see you on the other side."
He then called the police, collected his shotgun, and went out onto his porch to meet them. From the sketchy reports we have now, it seems the police wouldn't oblige him with a "suicide by cop" and tried to talk him down. When it became apparent he wasn't able to commit cop-suicide, 27-year-old Douglas Barber did an about face, rotated the shotgun and killed himself.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/21/6619/03308

Private Gary Boswell, 20, from Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, was found hanging in a playground in July. John and Sarah Boswell said army personnel should be offered counseling when they return from active service.
http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/armed_force/us_soldiers_committing_suicide_vietnam_iraq.html

There were a lot more and even more we still don't know about because they are still listed as "under investigation" by the military. Even they don't know how many committed suicide once they were home. There are too many no one is keeping track of. So where was all this concern back then when all of this started? I'm not talking about 2003 when Iraq was invaded. I'm not talking about 2001 when we invaded Afghanistan. I'm not even talking about the Gulf War but I am talking about Vietnam. Where was all this concern back then when we began to lose more after they came home than we lost in Vietnam?
Naturally I am grateful every time I read a reporter taking the time to bring this all out into the open, but I've seen this "interest" before and they drop it before even attempting to put a human face on the numbers they provide. As it is, the numbers they provide are wrong and far too low against reality. These are men and women we are talking about. They have lives, dreams, families and friends. They mattered to others and they should have their stories told. Until we stop just putting them into containers of expedience we will never end the stigma keeping them from healing and the help they need.

Where is the attention to the 1,000 the VA has committing suicide every year or the other 5,000 committing suicide outside of the VA?

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
"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 veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Iraq war takes unique toll on National Guard

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS RATES

Pre-deployment
• Regular Army: 3.8%
• National Guard: 5.5%

Post-deployment (3 months after leaving Iraq)
• Regular Army: 18.2%
• National Guard: 12.1%

Combat experiences

Being attacked or ambushed
• Regular Army: 83%
• National Guard: 96%

Receiving small-arms fire
• Regular Army: 79%
• National Guard: 96%

In threatening situations, unable to respond
• Regular Army: 51%
• National Guard: 78%

Source: Lyndon Riviere

Iraq war takes unique toll on National Guard
By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — Despite signs that the war in Iraq is taking a toll on National Guard troops' mental health, members are no more likely than active-duty soldiers to develop post-traumatic stress, psychologists reported over the weekend.
But financial problems are creating emotional pain. Deployment-linked money trouble raises the odds sixfold that a National Guard soldier will have mental-health problems after leaving Iraq, studies from a team at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research suggest. The researchers spoke at the American Psychological Association conference here.

More than 400,000 National Guard troops have served in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a congressional report.

Help scarce for mental scars of war

Rebecca Walsh: Help scarce for mental scars of war
By Rebecca Walsh
Tribune Columnist
Article Last Updated: 08/21/2007 02:45:12 AM MDT

Veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom make easy icons for the culture wars. They're either sad victims or heroes of the never-ending "War on Terror."
But the ones who bring the war back home - the vets emotionally scarred by a tour of duty in the Middle East - are more ambiguous.
Walter Smith is one of those.
Last week, the 26-year-old former Marine admitted he drowned Nicole Speirs, his girlfriend and mother of his infant twins, in the bathtub of their Tooele home in March 2006.
Members of Smith's unit didn't want to believe it. But they could understand how it happened.
As a young man, Smith was thrown into the chaos of invasion as a member of Fox Company, a Marine Reserve unit from Utah and Nevada. He felt responsible for women and children caught in the crossfire. He was haunted by memories of opening fire on a car approaching a checkpoint in Iraq, killing the man inside, a noncombatant.
Smith was discharged "for medical issues" and started counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In 2004, Pleasant Grove police found him loading a shotgun, intent on killing himself. He spent two days in a mental health facility before he was released and told "to find counseling." He did. It didn't help.

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Ignoring increased risk of PTSD in redeployed at our peril

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........

Searching for quotes for a new video, I kept finding the report of the increased risk associated with redeployments missing in action. Why? How could a report like this drop off the reports on PTSD when so many of them are coming out? Is this no longer important to the media considering some are on their fifth tour right now? How could they just drop this from their attention?

Easy. It does not fit in with the illusion of the "all volunteer" Army, the Marines, the Air Force or the National Guard. Think about it. Bush keeps saying "well their all volunteers" and this paints a picture in our minds that these men and women have no issues about going back over and over again. It paints a picture of everyone happily carrying out his orders.

We are sending back seriously wounded people. We need to remember they are people. Humans not machines of war. What do you see when you look into their eyes? If they have PTSD, you see a person haunted. It is deeper than being tired. Deeper than being homesick. Deeper than personal issues back home. All of these things are insignificant to what is behind those eyes. It is not something to mess around with. It is not something to ignore any more than it is something to treat with some pills, pat them on the head and send them back to be traumatized all over again.

They may have walked away from the first deployment without PTSD. They may have walked away from the second. Perhaps even the third but the odds are a lot greater they brought the combat back home with them as surely as they did their duffel bag. They are being forced to play a game of Russian roulette with their minds and their lives. Every time they go back, the risk of PTSD is 50% greater to them. Yet as the media have been reluctant to report on this crisis, the report drops off to the distant memories of the people getting the air time on cable news. You certainly won't hear any of the people supporting Bush's delusion discussing it.

The next time you hear any more figures, usually low balled, remember why the numbers are going up and then keep in mind, sometimes they won't show signs of PTSD until years later. Where will the reporters be then? Remember when they came home from Vietnam and the media ignored their problems. Less than ten years later, local newspapers were reporting on them in the obituary pages and the crime logs. Twenty years later they were reporting still in these sections but then occasionally finding the compassion to report on the homelessness of Vietnam Veterans. If we do nothing right now, if we do not keep the attention of the media right where it needs to be so that they are taken care of, how many of them will they be reporting on in the obituary pages and the crime logs ten years from now? Five years from now? Later on this year? How many families will pay the price as they watch someone they love helplessly fall apart and die a slow death? How many of them will come home one day and find they were actually a fatality of combat long after they stopped wearing their uniform?



Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
"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 veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington


***I'm posting this on both blogs since the media stopped reporting on this someone has to.***

Department of Defense to Armed Forces:It's your fault

Treating the trauma of war – fairly
In relabeling cases of PTSD as 'personality disorder,' the US military avoids paying for treatment.
By Judith Schwartz
from the August 20, 2007 edition

Bennington, Vt. - The high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among soldiers returning from Iraq is one of the many "inconvenient truths" of this war. Inconvenient largely because it is costly: The most effective and humane means of treating PTSD are time-intensive and long-term.

The military, however, has changed the terms and given many thousands of enlisted men and women a new diagnosis: "personality disorder." While the government would be obliged to care for veterans suffering from combat-related trauma, a personality disorder – defined as an ingrained, maladaptive way of orienting oneself to the world – predates a soldier's tour of duty (read: preexisting condition). This absolves Uncle Sam of any responsibility for the person's mental suffering.

The new diagnostic label sends the message: This suffering is your fault, not a result of the war. On one level, it's hard not to see this as another example of the government falling short on its care for Iraq war veterans. Yet there's another, more insidious, bit of sophistry at work. The implication is that a healthy person would be resistant to the psychological pressures of war. Someone who succumbs to the flashbacks, panic, and anger that haunt many former soldiers must have something inherently wrong with him. It's the psychological side of warrior macho: If you're tough, you can take it. Of course, we know this is not true. Wars forever change the lives of those who fight them and can leave deep scars.

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Kansas National Guard gets help to heal

Counseling center helps military veterans deal with depression, suicidal thoughts
By Mike Belt

August 17, 2007
A Lawrence counseling center is working with the Kansas National Guard to prevent suicides among military veterans.

Headquarters Counseling Center, 211 E. Eighth St., has information about resources available that are specific to veterans and their families when they call for help, director Marcia Epstein said. That information was developed in cooperation with the Guard.

“We definitely have had calls from people who are in the military with concerns about depression and suicide,” Epstein said.

A new Pentagon study found there were 99 Army suicides last year — nearly half of them soldiers who hadn’t reached their 25th birthdays, about a third of them serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

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Upset about the 99 military suicides last year? What about the other 6,000?

How many times does it take for some in the media to actually report on what the VA said in their testimonies before they connect the dots? The VA stated over and over again they have 1,000 in their system alone committing suicide every year. They also said there are another 5,000 veterans outside of their system committing suicide every year and those are just the ones they are aware of.


Should we be upset about the 99 the DOD admitted to? Absolutely. As "reporters" all over the country manage to copy and paste this report, they have failed to pay attention to it while they use these suicides to fill the gap of "if it bleeds, it leads" mob mentality. This report from AP has hit every blogger from here to Timbuktu and I have to wonder why. Why would they jump all over this when they are avoiding the 6,000 others who committed suicide last year because of the military, because of war and combat and because we sent them? They also avoid the simple fact the DOD only admits to what they have to admit to. The 99 are only part of the story. They hide the rest in categories like, "under investigation" and if that isn't bad enough, they are now not releasing the names of those killed when they report on the non-combat death.

How many were on my post Non-combat deaths that have not been added to the death count? Too many. Granted the majority of those who did in fact die while deployed were there, it took a lot of work to find those who committed suicide back home and deployed in different nations. As it is, I only managed to find about 150 known to be suicides. At least a quarter of the posted deaths were last reported under investigation.

The media thinks 99 is a big story, but I happen to think all of them are a big story and they have been ignored for far too long.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/


This is what I mean. These are just from one alert


Counseling center helps military veterans deal with depression ...Lawrence Journal World - Lawrence,KS,USA"We definitely have had calls from people who are in the military with concerns about depression and suicide," Epstein said. A new Pentagon study found ...See all stories on this topic

Soldier Suicide Rate GrowingWLNS - Lansing,MI,USAA new military report says suicide rates for US military personnel are the highest in 26 years, with at least 99 confirmed last year. ...See all stories on this topic

Suicide attacks, mosque operation linked, Senate toldDaily Times - Lahore,PakistanKhan said all constitutional and legal norms were met before launching the military operation. However, he made it clear that President Musharraf or the US ...See all stories on this topic

Military Suicide Rate Reaches 26-year HighMorons.org - USAThe Defense Manpower Data Center has produced a report showing the military's suicide rate has shot up to 17.3 deaths per 100000 personnel, ...See all stories on this topic

When murder is just plain murderEconomist - UKOn August 14th suicide-bombers detonated at least four large car and lorry bombs in the villages of Qataniya and Adnaniya, near the city of Mosul in ...See all stories on this topic

MFSO Responds To Army's Report on SuicideCommon Dreams (press release) - Portland,ME,USABOSTON - AUGUST 16 - Today Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) responded to a US Army report revealing that troops committed suicide last year at the highest ...See all stories on this topic


Army Suicide Problem Nothing NewBy Wisco(Wisco) In December of 2003, the Baltimore Sun ran a headline -- "Army's Suicide Rate has Outside Experts Alarmed." In that article, we were told, "A report by a 12-member team of military and civilian mental health professionals dispatched to ...Griper Blade - http://griperblade.blogspot.com/

Military Suicide Rate Highest in 26 yearsThe military establishment revealed that the rate of suicide among its members is the highest it's been in years, in part due to the increased number of months services members are deployed in war zones: (Washington Post) ...TheDemoMemo - http://thedemomemo.com/

Army's Suicide Rate At 26-Year HighBy forums@www.military-quotes.com (Team Infidel) ... By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Army soldiers committed suicide last year at the highest rate in 26 years, and more than a quarter did so while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a military report. ...International Military Forums - http://www.military-quotes.com/

ARMY SUICIDE RATES AT ALL-TIME HIGH.By Kay Steiger(Kay Steiger) This is true, but relationship stress I'm sure isn't the only cause of suicide. I think soldiers being in a place where they could be blown up at any given moment by a car bomb (known in military language as an IED) has something to do ...Kay Steiger - http://kaysteiger.blogspot.com/

Army Suicide Rate and Random VariationBy James Joyner Marc Danziger, whose son has recently enlisted in the military, has done some calculations and found that the Army suicide rate, even at this peak, is actually lower than for their civilian cohorts. That's interesting indeed and speaks ...Outside The Beltway OTB - http://www.outsidethebeltway.com

Army Suicide Rates at 26-Year HighBut many of the suicides came from soldiers who were not deployed, and as CNN notes, the suicide rate in the Army (17.3 per 100000) is still lower than that among US men aged 17 to 45 in the general population (21.1 per 100000). ...TIME: The Ag - http://time-blog.com/theag/

Army Suicide Rate Peaks Amid Deployment StrainThat's the highest total since 1991, when 102 soldiers committed suicide during the height of the Gulf War. Several trends suggest the strain the Iraq war is putting on the US military is trickling down to the individual soldier, ...The Gate - http://nationaljournal.com/thegate/

Army Suicide Rate at Quarter-Century HighBy editor@truthdig.com(editor@truthdig.com) According to the US military, 99 active-duty soldiers committed suicide in 2006, a number that may rise after ongoing investigations into other cases conclude, making last year's suicide rate the highest in 26 years. ...Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines - http://www.truthdig.com/
Google Web Alert for: military suicide

Army Suicides Highest in 26 Years - washingtonpost.comWASHINGTON -- Army soldiers committed suicide last year at the highest rate in 26 ... while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new military report.

Think Progress >> Army suicide rate highest in 26 years.This suicide rate IS directly proportional the the disgusting abuse coming from the decider. The WH could give a sh!t about the military...just so they can ...

Depression linked to events and genetic causes

Genes and life events predict depression (August 6, 2007) --
GRANADA, Spain, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- A group of Spanish scientists has identified a specific combination of genetic and environmental factors that lead to the onset of depression.

A single variation in a gene controlling the transport of the neurotransmitter serotonin, combined with exposure to threatening life events, led to clinical depression in their patient sample.
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Brain blood flow helps treat depression (August 13, 2007) -- Israeli scientists have confirmed the usefulness of established molecular imaging approaches in the treatment of depression. Individuals in a ... > full story
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Depression may be over diagnosed, say some (August 17, 2007) -- Two Australian psychiatrists disagree on whether too many people are being diagnosed with depression. Gordon Parker, of the University of New South ... > full story
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In all three of these, the events cause depression as well as genetics. There is a huge difference between feeling depressed and having clinical depression. There is also a difference between having PTSD and having a genetic mental illness. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is after trauma and that is where the term came from. It is after trauma.
Kathie Costos