Fort Bliss had 3 deaths Easter weekend thought to be suicides

3 possible suicides at Fort Bliss last weekend
Army Times
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
April 24, 2014

According to Air Force figures, 55 airmen died by suicide last year, a rate of 14 per 100,000 personnel. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told a Senate panel in April that 32 airmen have died by suicide so far in 2014, a rate of more than 18 per 100,000 personnel.

Fort Bliss, Texas, is reeling from three deaths on Easter weekend that, while still under investigation, are thought to be suicides.

A source told Military Times that two enlisted soldiers and a captain have died by suicide since April 17, a blow to a post that has built a new center for mental health and suicide prevention and where President Obama in 2012 announced an executive order expanding military and veterans mental health services.

Exactly how many suicides the Army has had this year is unknown; the service, which once published the data monthly, stopped issuing them in December. The service also has not released its total figures for 2013, although preliminary figures given to Military Times in February showed 150 suicides among Army active-duty and activated Reserve or National Guard troops.
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National Guards and Reservist Suicides Increased

National Guards and Reservist suicides went up but that is not the headline the AP used. They used "Number of military suicides dropped last year" without mentioning that the numbers of active duty military folks also went down.

In the Army alone, they say that the numbers dropped from 185 in 2012 to 152 in 2013 but the Army had also released a report stating that 11,000 had been discharged in 2013 for bad conduct alone. This report did not count the number of soldiers cut to trim down the size of the Army. The Marines, Navy and Air Force also saw reduction in force size, but when they talk about the number of suicides going down, they seem to forget that simple fact.

The National Guards and Reservist numbers going up have been ignored as if they don't matter. The DOD is still trying to minimize the connection between deployment and suicides.

"According to the Army data, more than half of the reservists who committed suicide in 2012 and 2013 had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Officials, however, have not been able to establish a strong link between military service on the warfront and suicide."

They can't establish a strong link to much at all.

Number of military suicides dropped last year
Associated Press
By Lolita C. Baldor
Published: April 25, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) — Suicides across the military dropped by more than 15 percent last year, but new detailed data reveals an increase in the number of Army National Guard and Reserve soldiers who took their own lives.

The overall totals provided by the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps give some hope that prevention programs and increased efforts to identify troops at risk may be taking hold after several years of escalating suicides. But the increase among Army National Guard and Reserve members raises questions about whether those programs are getting to the citizen soldiers who may not have the same access to support networks and help that their active duty comrades receive.

Not only did the Army National Guard and Reserve suicides increase from 140 in 2012 to 152 last year, but the 2013 total exceeded the number of active duty soldiers who took their own lives, according to the Army. There were 151 active duty soldier suicides last year, compared with 185 in 2012, Army officials said.

The Pentagon plans to release a report Friday on military suicides. But those numbers differ a bit from the totals provided by the services because of complicated accounting changes in how the department counts suicides by reservists. Some of the Pentagon numbers were finalized a year ago, while the services have more recently updated totals that reflect the results of some death investigations.

According to the four military services, there were 289 suicides among active duty troops in 2013, down from 343 in 2012. The vast majority were in the Army, the nation's largest military service. The Navy saw a 25 percent decline, from 59 in 2012 to 44 in 2013. The Marines went from 48 to 45, while the Air Force went from 51 to 49.
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Ohio GOP Legislator Accused of Insulting Veterans In Hearing

Ohio GOP Legislator Accused of Insulting Veterans In Hearing
The Huffington Post
by Andrew Perez
Posted: 04/24/2014

A Republican lawmaker in Ohio insulted veterans in a hearing he led this month on renewable-energy standards, according to a veteran in attendance.

Iraq War veteran Dan Sawmiller, who is also the Sierra Club's senior campaign representative for Ohio and Kentucky, wrote a letter to the state Senate president on April 14 criticizing Sen. Bill Seitz (R), the Public Utilities Committee chairman, for calling the hearing a "Bataan Death March." From Sawmiller's letter:

On April 9, 2014, I testified as a representative of the Sierra Club in front of your Senate’s Public Utilities Committee, chaired by Senator Bill Seitz. Just before my testimony, the Senator referred to Ohio’s existing clean energy law as a “Bataan Death March.” In case you’re not familiar, the Bataan Death March consisted of 80,000 American and Filipino soldiers who were victims of a heinous war crime where captured troops were forced to march 80 miles through the jungle of the Philippines. They were starved, physically abused, tortured and brutally murdered. As many as 650 American soldiers were killed during the march alone. Those who made it through were tortured as prisoners of war and killed on Japan-bound ships. The selfless service of these veterans is something to be honored, not mocked.

Sawmiller also noted that Seitz opened a pack of cigarettes before leaving the room during one veteran's testimony.

"This behavior is completely devoid of any honor or respect, and is not becoming of the Ohio Senate or the State of Ohio," he added.
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Where is the safety net for Wounded Warriors?

Remote care for wounded warriors raises concern
Army Times
Joe Gould
Staff Reporter
Apr. 24, 2014

“Of 27,000, you’re going to manage at least 20,000 in a remote manner, so how can we be assured you won’t have the same problem other services have had, or return to 10 years ago,” Stone said. “What’s the safety net?”

The potential for thousands of wounded soldiers to have to rely on remote medical care has some Defense Department healthcare officials challenging Army logic.

Members of the Recovering Warrior Task Force, an organization which oversees the services’ wounded warrior programs, at a recent business meeting in Arlington, Va., questioned the wisdom of providing remote care to soldiers with complicated healthcare needs.

“When I take your website and your [presentation], how do we not assume that your intent is to indirectly manage this very complex population?” Dr. Richard Stone, a member of the task force, asked Tom Webb, deputy to the commander of Army Warrior Transition Command, on April 16.

Driven by a shrinking wounded warrior population, the Army announced in January it would restructure community-based care for wounded warriors. It will launch 13 new Community Care Units across 11 installations by Sept. 30, and mothball its nine Community-Based Warrior Transition Units, which primarily provide care for Reserve and National Guard troops. These units support more than 1,300 soldiers.

Community-Based Warrior Transition Units provide remote management to soldiers whose medical needs were not deemed complex and are able to live with their families. These units are to be replaced by Community Care Units nested within Warrior Transition Battalions on active-duty Army installations, cutting administrative overhead.
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Discharged Marine Crucified Himself on Easter

Discharged Marine regrets crucifying himself in public
Marine Corps Times
By Hope Hodge Seck
Staff Writer
Apr. 23, 2014

Joshua Klohr felt that no one was paying attention to his claims of injustice.

So, the former Marine sergeant donned his old dress blues Sunday and hung himself on a ten-foot cross across from the state capitol in Denver, Colo., where 60,000 Coloradoans were celebrating 4/20, the unofficial holiday of marijuana users.

While serving as a Marine recruiter in Boulder, Colo., Klohr said he struggled to make recruiting goals, despite working 14-16 hours a day. He refused to “fraud” enlistees into the Corps by ignoring factors that would disqualify them from service, he said, and ultimately said he could not do what was required of him in the region, which his superiors interpreted as quitting. When he went to trial, he said, he was not allowed to testify in his own defense, and was quickly found guilty and harshly punished.

Klohr admits that he hid information about himself in order to join the Marine Corps. He enlisted despite having been expelled from school, having physical problems — including asthma — and a criminal record. According to reports from the time, Klohr was charged by Denver police in 2005 with setting a cat on fire and throwing it off a roof. He was 18 at the time.
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