Reporters repeat false DOD claims on military suicides

This is why they keep dying! This is why the DOD keeps getting away with pushing programs that do not work! Reporters don't know what is real and what is just a bunch of bullshit!

Joint Session of State Senate-Assembly Briefed on Military Suicides
On somber subject a brief gleam of hope, NJ is one of the best at identifying at-risk soldiers.
By NJ Spotlight
October 24, 2012

On Monday morning, a soldier apparently committed suicide in King of Prussia, PA; on Sunday, it was one in Illinois; on Saturday, one at Fort Knox, KY.

That stark information came from Brig. Gen Michael Cunniff, adjutant general of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

In July, there were 26 suspected suicides reported among active-duty Army personnel, and another dozen among reservists. He was speaking yesterday at a joint session of the state Senate and Assembly military and veteran affairs committees in Lawrenceville.

“That’s more than one a day,” Cunniff said. “If that doesn’t get your attention, I don’t know what will.”

Already in the first half of the year, the American military was on a pace of almost one suicide a day, usually a low-ranking, male soldier, according to the Associated Press. That rate jumped in July, prompting a series of “stand downs,” set aside throughout the services to address the issue.

At the joint session, held in the office of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Cunniff and other in-state brass assured legislators that they are responding well to such underlying problems as post-traumatic stress disorders, traumatic brain injuries, and depression among soldiers, reservists and veterans.

With training that now includes “resiliency,” stress management and recovery, New Jersey’s Army and Air National Guards does its best to prepare servicemen and women in advance, the officers said.
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In 2008 after hearing what this program was doing to the troops instead of for the troops, I came out against what used to be called "Battlemind" because it blamed the troops for getting PTSD. Telling them they could train their brains to be mentally tough ended up telling them "you're mentally weak and didn't train right."

Because reporters have failed to learn what is really going on, no one is being held accountable and the DOD gets to be able to push a boatload of claims they are doing something about it while more and more families have to go to a grave that didn't need to be filled!



IF IT WORKED, THE NUMBERS WOULD HAVE GONE DOWN AND NOT UP!

Tampa Marine meets baby daughter after 4th deployment

WATCH: Marine meets daughter for the first time during tearful homecoming at Tampa airport
Fernando Chuva, home from Afghanistan for two weeks, reunited with his wife Dana and held his 4-month-old daughter Sophia for the very first time.
BY RHEANA MURRAY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2012

Dana Chuva reunites with her husband as he meets his new daughter.

It was the first time he’d ever held his only daughter.

A U.S. Marine burst into tears when he met 4-month old Sophia, the baby girl his wife had while he was away in Afghanistan.

“No words to express it,” Fernando Chuva told WSTP from the Tampa International Airport.

“I’m just so happy. Oh, Jesus.”

Next to Chuva’s family was a sign that said, “I’ve waited my entire life to meet you.” Sophia wore a “Welcome home Daddy!” shirt and a camouflage ribbon in her headband. For Dana Chuva, Monday was the long-awaited homecoming from her husband’s fourth deployment.
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Marine Double Amputee told to stop using wheelchair as crutch!

This was over the Marine and his family going out to eat while wearing the wrong sports team jersey!

Marine amputee taunted at south Charlotte grill
by STEVE LYTTLE
Charlotte Observer
Posted on October 25, 2012

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The owner of a south Charlotte restaurant says he is “heartbroken” over an incident Sunday in which bantering between football fans got out of control, resulting in a U.S. Marine who lost both legs in Afghanistan being forced to leave the eatery with his wife, parents and friends.

Chris Neilsen, owner of the Moosehead Grill on Montford Drive, has been in contact with family members of Marine Garrett Carnes, of Mooresville, following the incident that Neilsen says “was awful.”

“I want to somehow make it right by them,” Neilsen says.

During a verbal altercation that some witnesses said almost came to blows, one patron told Carnes he was using his wheelchair “as an excuse.”
read more here

The Daily Show made it Veteran's Day

Last night The Daily Show was all about Veterans! Unemployed combat medics talking about how hard it is to find jobs. Jon Stewart had a mock interview with both of them as if he was hiring for School Nurse. He pointed out what they did in combat and what would be expected of them in that position. He did a wonderful job showing when it comes to veterans, what they do there is a lot harder than what they'd have to do here.

Then Stewart interviewed MOH Dakota Meyer!

October 24, 2012 Exclusive - Economic Reintegration for Veterans Two former Iraq War combat medics explain the difficulties of turning military experience into gainful civilian employment.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Wednesday October 24, 2012 Exclusive - Dakota Meyer Extended Interview Pt. 1 In this exclusive, unedited interview, Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer describes the battle of Ganjgal as the worst day imaginable, multiplied by a million.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Sergeant Robert Larson back home and safe

Missing soldier returns home safely
by Shyann Malone
Posted: 10.22.2012

St. Matthews, S.C.(WACH)--A missing Ft. Jackson soldier returns home safely after vanishing from his home more than a week ago.
Sergeant Robert Larson went missing from his home in St. Matthews Saturday October 20th.
His wife Pamela said that he was working on his Jeep and when she went to check on him he wasn't there.
After a week long search that extended into the Midwest Region Larson was found in the woods near his hometown in Minnesota.
The Larson family is glad to have Robert back but things are far from being back to normal.
read more here

85-year-old man struck, killed by vehicle at VA Hospital

85-year-old man struck, killed by vehicle at Dorn VA Hospital
by Drew Stewart
Posted: 10.23.2012

COLUMBIA (WACH / AP) - A man has died after being struck and killed by a truck outside the Dorn Veterans Administration Medical Center in Columbia.

Columbia police spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons says the Tuesday morning death appears to be an accident, but officials are still investigating.

Richland County Coroner Gary Watts says 85-year-old Duane Mack of Gilbert was leaving the VA hospital when he was run over around 10 a.m. Tuesday.
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Vet Walks On New Legs, With A Little Help From Mom

Vet Walks On New Legs, With A Little Help From Mom
by QUIL LAWRENCE
NPR

David Gilkey/NPR
Nick Staback, who lost both of his legs to a bomb in Afghanistan, talks with his mother, Maria Staback, in Scranton, Pa. Maria Staback took a leave of absence from her job to move in with her son while he was recuperating at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington, D.C.

October 24, 2012

On furlough from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center this summer, 21-year-old Nick Staback lounges on his parents' back porch in Scranton, Pa., taking potshots at sparrows with a replica sniper rifle. The long plastic gun fires pellets that mostly just scare the birds away.

It's been a tough year for Staback since his last foot patrol in Afghanistan.

"We [were] just channeling down a beaten trail, of course, you just don't know what's on it," he says. "We had the mine sweepers out front and everything like that."

The area was littered with homemade bombs and everyone knew it.

"I was kind of looking where I was going to step, make sure I was going to step in my buddy's footprint kind of thing," he says. "But I guess it was just the wrong time, the wrong place."

The bomb threw Staback high in the air; he landed on his back in a state of shock.
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Shot fired in hit-and-run outside Walter Reed Hospital

Shot fired in hit-and-run outside Walter Reed Hospital
CBS News
BETHESDA, MD.
A Virginia woman is in custody for an attempted hit-and-run outside the entrance of Walter Reed Hospital that led a Naval officer to fire a shot at her.

Police say an officer at the hospital shot at the woman's car after the crash Tuesday morning but did not strike her. The officer was injured, apparently when he used a baton to strike the woman's car.

CBS affiliate WUSA reports the woman first struck another vehicle while leaving the facility Tuesday morning, tried to run over an officer with her car, and then drove away after an officer fired his gun.
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Mikayla Bragg and 31 Soldiers "Fell Through the Cracks"

How Mikayla Bragg and 31 Soldiers "Fell Through the Cracks"
Huffington Post
Paul Rieckhoff
Founder, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
Posted: 10/24/2012

Alone in a guard tower 6,800 miles from her home in Longview, Wash., Specialist Mikayla Bragg took her own life last December. Bragg's commanding officers at Forward Operating Base Salerno, Afghanistan, had no idea that in the months prior to her deployment the 20-year-old Army specialist had multiple encounters with the military mental health system.

Had her mental health care history been shared by those treating her at Fort Knox, Bragg's COs in Afghanistan would have known that the young soldier had previously made an attempt on her life, that she had spend 45 days in an Army hospital for mental health treatment prior to deploying, and that six months before she committed suicide she had ceased using prescription anti-anxiety medication so that she could deploy.

In the 135-page report following the Army's investigation into Bragg's death, a behavioral health officer at FOB Salerno said that it was his/her opinion that Bragg "fell through the cracks" thanks to a lack of communication between officials at her duty station stateside and her commanding officers in Afghanistan. For Bragg's CO to be left in the dark about her mental health care needs is unconscionable; our leaders (and our systems) cannot allow our troops to fall through so-called cracks.

Last Friday, the Army released suicide numbers for the month of September. There were 31 potential suicides for the month: 15 among active-duty soldiers and 16 among the reserve and Guard components, bringing the total number of Army suicides so far in 2012 to 247. After just nine months of 2012, the number of suicides has almost surpassed the total number of suicides in 2011.
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Attempted suicide was not enough to keep her from being deployed?

Army suicides 15 and Citizen Soldiers 16 for September

NCIS respond to murder-suicide

Homicide-suicide under investigation
By TABITHA CLARK
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Published: Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Authorities are investigating what they say is a homicide-suicide discovered in the New River area of Jacksonville Tuesday afternoon.

Officers with the Jacksonville Police Department found two bodies in the home at 1405 Hargett St. after receiving a call at 12:36 p.m. Tuesday from a family member concerned about the welfare of a resident of the home, according to JPD. They received no response at the home and found the bodies upon entering.

Police have not indicated the respective causes of death nor when the deaths occurred. The names are being withheld pending notification of the family members, JPD stated in a press release.

Military affiliation, likewise, has not been confirmed. However, both vehicles at the residence bore red Camp Lejeune base decals, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is involved in the investigation. read more here