Orem veteran promises that Vietnam vets 'will not be forgotten'
Herald Extra
Cathy Allred Daily Herald
September 27, 2015
Gunnery Sgt. Gary Campbell doesn't hesitate to talk about the Vietnam War, because of a promise he made to the dead and dying in the 1960s – they will not be forgotten.
Gary Campbell a Vietnam Veteran who served in the Marines, photographed in Orem on Thursday, September 3, 2015. India Company, the 180-man unit that Campbell was in, sustained 34 dead and 80 wounded when they were ambushed by the enemy during Operation Hastings in 1966. Campbell and many others in his company received the Purple Heart and numerous other awards of valor. JIM MCAULEY, Special to the Daily Herald
His words paint a vivid and stark story against the background of the politics at the time and the humid hot jungles of the country.
“The four stories I tell are the ones that are the most important to me, because they are about my buddies, my men that didn’t come home,” Campbell said.
His voice trembled as he showed an old photo of India Company. The soldiers in the photo are standing on bleachers to get every uniformed Marine in the frame.
“This is my company,” he said. “This picture was taken on Okinawa before we went to Vietnam. Of these people, and there are 180 of them here, troops, Marines; 34 died while I was in Vietnam and over 80 of us was wounded.”
By the time he was 23, the North Vietnamese Army, B Division, was sent to infiltrate the south. Campbell’s battalion was ordered to stop the action. The campaign was called Operation Hastings.
Called India Company, his Marines were sent to take a “rockpile” named Hill 362. The Marines won the battle for Hill 362 on July 24, 1966, but at a price. read more here
As you'll read in this report going back to 2008, he hasn't forgotten them.
Vietnam veterans traveling back to battlefield to honor comrades
KSL News
Jed Boal reporting
Posted Apr 23rd, 2008
In a few days, a Vietnam War veteran from Utah will head off on a mission of honor four decades delayed. Gary Campbell and nine fellow Marines will travel back to the battlefield where they lost nearly three dozen comrades.
July 24, 1966 was a holiday at home in Utah, but a terrifying battle for Gary Campbell and his fellow Marines on Hill 362 in Vietnam. India Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines was on an extended search-and-destroy mission.
The Marines planned to take control of Hill 362 for a radio relay tower, but it turned into a fierce fight with the North Vietnamese. "Absolutely a defining point in your life. For the last 40 years I think about it. It's always there," Campbell said.
Campbell says, "You go through something like this with people, I was with them less than a year, but they're like my brothers."
Department of Veterans Affairs Fast Facts
CNN Library
September 25, 2015
is floating all over the net today. The trouble is, while it is good it isn't good enough to give folks an idea how long all of this has been going on.
They kind-of-sort-of skipped over some of the most important years of all.
More Than 260,000 Can't Get VA Health Care
Associated Press | January 25, 2006
WASHINGTON - More than a quarter-million veterans considered to have higher incomes could not sign up for health care with the Veterans Affairs Department during the last fiscal year because of a cost-cutting move.
Those locked out - totaling 263,257 in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 - have no illnesses or injuries attributable to their service in the military and earn more than the average wage in their community.
The VA suspended enrollment of such veterans beginning in January 2003 after then-VA Secretary Anthony Principi said the agency was struggling to provide adequate health care to the rapidly rising number of veterans seeking it.
That year the VA population was about 6.8 million. About 7.5 million are enrolled today, with more than 5 million treated.
"There is no reason for the VA to give the cold shoulder to veterans who have served our country honorably," said Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois, ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
VA spokesman Matt Burns said VA provides world-class health care to veterans, "particularly our newly returning veterans, those with low incomes and those who have sustained service-related injuries or illnesses."
Iraq veterans are guaranteed health care if they enroll within two years of leaving the military.
Peake wants to reduce wait times from roughly 180 days to 145 days by the start of next year. He cited aggressive efforts to hire staff, noting the VA will have 3,100 new staff by 2009. VA also is working to get greater online access to Pentagon medical information that he said will allow staff to process claims faster and move toward a system of electronic filing of claims.
Peake promised to “virtually eliminate” the current list of 69,000 veterans who have waited more than 30 days for an appointment to get VA medical care. Such long waits runs counter to department policy, and a group of Iraq war veterans have filed a lawsuit alleging undue delays. He said VA plans to open 64 new community-based outpatient clinics this year and 51 next year to improve access to health care in rural areas.
“We will take all measures necessary to provide them with timely benefits and services, to give them complete information about the benefits they have earned through their courageous service, and to implement streamlined processes free of bureaucratic red tape,” Peake said in testimony prepared for a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Thursday.
He also promised to provide “compassionate care” for veterans suffering from mental health issues such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He said that VA expects to treat about 5,771,000 patients in 2009. Kussman also said that in April 2006, over 250,000 “unique” patients were waiting more than 30 days to receive their treatment but that as of January 2001, that figure has been reduced to just over 69,000.
VA to call Iraq, Afghanistan veterans reported by Associated Press April 24, 2008
The Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that on May 1 it will start calling 570,000 recent combat veterans to make sure they know what services are available to them.
The first calls will go to about 17,000 veterans who were sick or injured while serving in the wars. If they don’t have a care manager, the VA says they will be given one.
The next round of calls will target 555,000 veterans from the wars who have been discharged from active duty, but have not reached out to the VA for services. For five years after their discharge from the military, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have access to health care at the VA.
The effort will cost about $2.7 million and will be handled by a government contractor.
Expenditures hit $82 billion in 2007 because of the rising cost of health care, the expense of caring for an aging population of mostly Vietnam veterans and a new crop of severely wounded troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That exceeds the $80 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars spent in 1947 after most of the 16.1 million Americans serving in World War II left the service, according to a Congressional Research Service report submitted to Congress last month.
An 11 percent hike in spending is slated for this fiscal year to $91 billion and the Veterans Affairs Department has proposed $94 billion for 2009. And still more is needed, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who is seeking another $3.3 billion for the 2009 budget proposal.
“While we are spending more than in previous years, we are still not meeting many of the health care and benefits needs of our veterans,” Murray said.
Last month’s passage of a new GI Bill will add $100 billion in education benefits for veterans over the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office said.
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and his Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama clashed over the bill last month.
McCain opposed it, saying its increased education benefits might encourage troops to leave the military.
It’s estimated there are 600,000 to 800,000 unresolved claims and appeals with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, according to veterans’ advocates.
“We have claims that have been pending for a decade, two decades and some that date back more than 50 years. We have appeals from World War II,” said David E. Autry, a spokesman for the Disabled American Veterans in Washington D.C., which represents veterans and advocates and helps them obtain their benefits.
Would have been more helpful to actually do basic research on what has been really behind all this pain and suffering for all these decades. CONGRESS!!!!!!!
If you have some time there are over 25,000 more reports just like those right here on Wounded Times.
If you hate it when I rant then you'll really hate this one. All the talk about raising awareness raises my blood pressure because for all the talk, there is far too little mentioned about how long ago all of this started. Really infuriating when I was part of the beginning of it.
'Out of the Darkness' walkers raise awareness for suicide prevention
Herald Mail Media
CJ Lovelace
September 26, 2015
"Through its growth, we've been able to spread awareness," she said. "We've been able to help the grieving and their process of grieving. We've been able to help our community."
A parade of walkers 800 strong made its way through Hagerstown on Saturday morning, spreading a message of support and awareness for suicide prevention.
Organizers of Hagerstown's Out of the Darkness Walk, now in its third year, said they hoped to raise $80,000 through this year's event.
By Saturday, more than $50,000 had been donated to the cause, helping to fund educational opportunities for the community, research, and assist those in need of mental-health or substance-abuse-related services.
"It's a walk for mental health and suicide awareness, … to break the stigma for mental illness, just bring the recognition to the cause in our community," said Julie Matheny, co-chairwoman of the walk and chairwoman of Maryland's branch of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Led by a police escort in several sections of the city, walkers marched out of City Park about 10 a.m. and went south along Virginia Avenue, before cutting across Howard Street and onto Summit Avenue heading north.
read more here
Why not use coming out of the dark since it is what worked back in 2006 when I created this video? "Coming Out of the Dark." It went up on YouTube when they were not blocking music. The counts were well over thousands back then because no one else was doing them. This year I started to put them back up on YouTube.
Coming Out of The Dark of PTSD
4 min - Aug 31, 2006
of PTSD...PTSD is caused by an outside force. You did not cause it but only you can heal it. You did not fight alone then
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7061437177250215004
Wounded Minds PTSD and Veterans
27 min - Mar 14, 2006
and Veterans...Veterans and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The effects on veterans as well as their families. From Vietnam, to the Gulf War, to
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3279156366519397686
Hero After War Combat Vets and PTSD
8 min - Nov 27, 2006
and PTSD...PTSD is coming out in Vietnam veterans although they thought they recovered. The events in the two occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have brought old
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2199741453313873966
Death Because They Served PTSD Suicides
21 min - Apr 25, 2007
. Here are over one hundred of them. How many more will it take before we take care of the troops we sent into combat?...Kathie
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4064359324485965426
When War Comes Home PTSD
5 min - Sep 5, 2006
Did they? Their battle may be over but your's has begun. Learn the signs of PTSD and know when you need to help them....Kathie
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6897079942240223839
PTSD After Trauma
5 min - Sep 1, 2006
After Trauma...PTSD is caused by trauma. From war, acts of nature or acts of man. It is time to end the silence.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-85078005610207216
PTSD Soldiers Wounded And Waiting
12 min - Aug 24, 2007
And Waiting...The men and women we send into combat are wounded and waiting. Why? Why do they have to wait to have their wounds treated
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6001704134622986751
When War Comes Home Part Two
7 min - Nov 21, 2007
Part Two...Afghanistan and Iraq produce more wounded and more with PTSD from the USA and all Coalition forces. No nation is taking care of any of
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7329173913049044718
Nam Nights Of PTSD Still
9 min - Nov 17, 2007
PTSD Still...Vietnam Vets are being pushed to the back of the line with the new veterans needing so much help. We need to help all of
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3981582536481542706
Homeless_Veterans_Day.wmv
4 min - Oct 10, 2007
.wmv...We give veterans one day a year of "honor" but they are veterans everyday of the year. We forget that for too many
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6584586264840240021
The old links won't work but you can find most of them from my YouTube Channel. There are more but you get the idea. All this has been going on for far too long to end up leaving more committing suicide instead of actually coming out of the dark of PTSD.
A year after the video came out, it was used in an article from the Virginia Pilot.
They're young - an average of just 19 - and far from home. They train for a deadly task in a gut-it-out culture. And then, they go to war.
No wonder suicide has long plagued the military.
From 2001 to 2006, according to the Department of Defense, 1,110 active duty and reserve servicemen and women took their own lives. The largest number were Army (454), followed by Air Force (249), Navy (244) and Marines (163). One hundred and twenty have committed suicide while serving in the Iraq war.
As bad as that sounds, it 's a lot better than it used to be. A decade ago, the military wide rate hovered around 17.3 per 100,000 people. Today, it's down to 11.2 - not much higher than the civilian rate of 10.9.
The turning point came in 1996 when Adm. Jeremy Boorda, the nation's top Navy officer, shot himself after questions arose over one of his Vietnam combat medals.
"That really got everyone's attention," said Cmdr. Anthony Doran, who heads the Navy's effort to curb suicide.
The thing is, for all this awareness raising and all these news reports, and all these groups taking walks to raise awareness,,,,,,too much has not been learned in the process and it has all gotten worse!
July 7, 2010
Twilight of Glory
The things I’ve seen and done would boggle your mind.
I’ve seen the death and destruction created by mankind
in the living hell that I walked away from but could not leave behind.
It all comes back to haunt me now and makes peace impossible to find.
The ghosts of the past that find me in the night
make me wonder if my life will ever be right.
I have tried to forget what I have done,
and now there is no place left to run.
All this in the name of glory!
There is no end to this horror story.
It still does not make sense even now that I am older,
why, when I was so young they made me a soldier
and why I had to be a part of that war
when I didn’t even know what we were there for.
At eighteen I should have been with my friends having fun
not patrolling through a jungle with a machine gun.
I did my part just the same, just for my country
and stood helplessly watching my friends die all around me.
I felt a surge of hate engulf my soul for people that I did not know
and saw children lose their chance to grow.
All this in the name of glory!
There is still no end to this horror story.
There was no glory for guys like me
only bitter memories that will not set me free.
I can never forget the ones who never made it home
some of them dead and others whose fate is still unknown
and the stigma that we lost what was not meant to win
most of us carry that extra burden buried deep within.
All this in the name of glory!
Will there ever be an end to this horror story?
In the twilight of glory
there is an unwritten story
each warrior keeps within.
Going back from the wars we are sent to fight
like going from sunshine to the darkness of night
we fade away from the public's mind
and wonder when glory was left behind
as we struggle to find reason to go on
back in a world where we no longer belong.
revised from IN THE NAME OF GLORY
@1984 Kathie Costos
I signed the poem W.T. Manteiv for We Trusted and Vietnam backwards.
It has always been their words reflecting the pain they carry inside of them. All I do is arrange the words to give that pain a voice and then help them connect what is already inside of them so they can heal. Now maybe you know why I get so upset when I read how it is almost as if no one had done anything before new folks decided to do "something" along with getting donations. I haven't had a single donation in over a year but that hasn't stopped me from doing the work.
Yesterday I was talking to a good friend and I told him this may be the last year for Wounded Times since I just can't compete with all the new groups popping up all over the place and not doing much at all. He reminded me, as usual, why I do what I do. It is for them and for families just like mine. I've been doing this for over 30 years, so I've seen what is possible but have also seen what is probable if we keep going in the direction we've been in for the last decade. It is not a happy ending.
That was reported by the LA Times April 1, 2015. With that number fresh in your mind, this needs to be added to that fact,
"Many vets with 'bad' discharges are cast off to local mental health services, charities despite suicide risk
Of those suicides, 403 were among ex-service members whose discharges were "not honorable" — for a wide range of misconduct, from repeatedly disrespecting officers to felony convictions. An additional 380 occurred among veterans with "uncharacterized" discharges, the designation used for troops who leave in fewer than 180 days for a variety of nondisciplinary reasons."
That is why this story should matter to every veteran around the country. We know there were 200,000 Vietnam veterans discharged instead of being diagnosed and treated for what war did to them. We know what happened even before they were sent. The question is, "How long will this go on before these veterans get justice?"
They have been shoved out then abandoned but this story will show you how far a human act of kindness can go.
Two deputies change veteran's life after 911 call
KUSA NBC 9 News Colorado
Anastasiya Bolton
September 25, 2015
"I saw someone real," Barnett said. "He was trying to connect with me on just a human level. Nobody's ever tried to do that with me before."
A veteran with PTSD says two deputies helped change his life
(Photo: KUSA)
ARAPAHOE COUNTY – Larry Barnett's girlfriend had to call 911 last week because Barnett, an Iraq vet, had a PTSD episode and she was afraid for his well-being.
"I was done. I was at the point where do or die," Barnett said.
Barnett reached out to 9NEWS to share his story and said he was in a better place to talk. He was adamant about talking because he wanted to share what the deputies who responded to his call did for him.
"In my head I didn't feel like I could live anymore," Barnett said about Wednesday September 16.
Two tours in Iraq in 2003 and 2005 still haunt the Army vet.
He received an other than honorable discharge in 2006, has been suffering from PTSD and fighting with the VA to get an upgrade and then be eligible for services.
September 16, Barnett said he lost it, again. read more here
The Gazette out of Colorado reported that Congress was going to do something about all of this back in 2013 when Iraq veteran, Representative Mike Coffman on the House Armed Services Committee read about what was going on with these discharges.
Rep. Mike Coffman, a Denver-area Republican who is on the House Armed Services Committee, introduced an amendment to the 2014 Defense Authorization Act that would create a 10-member Commission on Military Behavioral Health and Disciplinary Issues.
The commission would study whether the military discipline system needs to change in light of emerging research on the connection between PTSD and TBI and behavioral problems that can get troops in trouble.
Soldiers who have been discharged include wounded combat veterans who are denied medical care and other benefits because of the character of their discharge.
Thousands of U.S. soldiers in Iraq - as many as 10 a day - are being discharged by the military for mental health reasons. But the Pentagon isn't blaming the war. It says the soldiers had "pre-existing" conditions that disqualify them for treatment by the government.
Driver hits disabled veteran and dog, dog pulls owner off street
KRQE News
By Emily Younger
Published: September 25, 2015
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – A disabled veteran said he owes his life to his pet dog.
“One of the ladies that called paramedics and police said that Maverick stood guard over me while I was on the street,” said Russell.
Russell said neighbors also told him Maverick pulled him from the street and continued to stand over his owner until help arrived.
The two were crossing the street near their southeast Albuquerque home when a driver crashed into them and took off.
“Yeah, he saved my life without a doubt,” said Vietnam Veteran Michael Russell.
It’s a story of a hero protecting another hero.
“I came from a family of veterans and it was not a question whether I was going to volunteer. It was a question of which branch of the service I was going to go in,” said Russell.
Russell is a Marine. He served in Vietnam. read more here
Shocking video shows NY man throwing food on homeless vet
Published time: 25 Sep, 2015
A homeless veteran begs for change on a New York street. Passers-by ignore him, giving their money to a teen begging nearby. One man dumps his takeout on the unfortunate veteran, showing what he thinks of his service. You won’t believe what happened next…
The veteran asks the teen to “watch his stuff” as he cleans up at a nearby shop. A few minutes later he returns, bringing a slice of pizza for the boy. Little did he know that the “homeless teen” was actually part of a social experiment, set up by two brothers from Brooklyn.
Mohammed “Moe” and Etayyim “ET” Etayyim became YouTube celebrities for filming a series of prank videos starting in early 2014. They have also made seven “social experiment” videos highlighting child abuse, bigotry and the treatment of the homeless.
read more here
Get a job? That is what an officer said to a homeless veteran. He apologized. The truth is, he had a job and risked his life to save others. Then another idiot dumps his food on the veteran while giving him a lecture. Think about that now that you know what this homeless veteran ended up doing for the teenager he thought was homeless too.
Member of Marines dies after gunfire on Drummond Island
Associated Press
September 25, 2015
DRUMMOND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — State police say two federal agents were helping search for a missing member of the U.S. Marines when they exchanged gunfire with him on northern Michigan’s Drummond Island.
Hours later Thursday, state police found 38-year-old Aaron Andrew Furness of Woodbridge, Virginia, dead inside a remote cabin. Police say Friday the cause is under investigation. read more here
UPDATE
Marine died of self-inflicted wound after firing at agents on Michigan island
MLIVE,com
By John Tunison
September 29, 2015
MICHIGAN -- A 38-year-old U.S. Marine died of a self-inflicted injury after firing upon federal agents who were looking for him last week on Drummond Island
State police on Tuesday, Sept. 29 said an autopsy confirmed the cause of death for Aaron Andrew Furness, 38, of West Bloomfield.
Furness was a U.S. Marine gunnery sergeant based at Quantico, Va.
His obituary indicates he served 19 years in the Marines and was deployed for several months in 2007 and 2008 in Iraq. read more here
Son of US Army Doctor Gets 10 Years on Terrorism Charge
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By PAUL J. WEBER
AUSTIN, Texas
Sep 25, 2015
A former top University of Texas student who pleaded guilty to charges of recruiting terrorists said Friday he was not anti-American and expressed remorse before a federal judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
Rahatul Ashikim Khan, a Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen and the son of a U.S. Army psychiatrist, is among what federal officials call a growing number of so-called homegrown terrorists who are trying to join or help Islamic insurgents fighting in Syria.
FBI spokeswoman Michelle Lee said the bureau has identified roughly 200 people in the U.S. over the past couple years who have planned or traveled overseas to help insurgents.
read more here
Former staff sergeant receives Soldier’s Medal
Fort Carson Mountanieer
By Staff Sgt. Diandra J. Harrell
4th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office
DENVER — Family, friends, police officers and Service members gathered Sept. 22, 2015, in the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1 to watch former Staff Sgt. Joseph Gilmore Jr. formally receive the Soldier’s Medal, the highest honor a Soldier can receive for an act of valor in a noncombat event.
Congresswoman Diana DeGette, 1st Congressional District of Colorado, presents former Staff Sgt. Joseph Gilmore Jr. the Soldier’s Medal at the Denver Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1 Sept. 22, 2015.
(Photo by Staff Sgt. Diandra J. Harrell)
Congresswoman Diana DeGette, 1st Congressional District of Colorado, and Retired Col. Aaron Tucker presented the former 4th Infantry Division military policeman with the medal for his actions during a fire on Fort Carson 42 years ago.
Gilmore, an Aurora native, now retired attorney, repeatedly entered a burning building Feb. 20, 1973, to save its contents.
“I knew what was in the building, which were artillery weapons,” Gilmore explained. “I did not know if they were loaded with ammunition, but I did know that they were loaded with fuel. If that fire would have torched off one of those weapons systems, it would have been catastrophic.” read more here
If everyone is doing something and nothing changes, that something isn't better than nothing. So when do we actually wake up and change the conversation from how many are failed to how to save them?
I get links in my email all the time and frankly, most of them cause me to just move on. They are really that lousy and have little to do with changing anything for the better. Instead of posting the thoughts they leave me with, I just ignore them. In this case, I struggled to just leave it because things like this have too many connections to what is wrong than what is right.
What is wrong is the military has been off the hook for training them in prevention that has not decreased suicides but allowed the stigma to live on with bombastic, simplistic statements like this in Army Deploys Prevention Programs to Combat Soldier Suicides.
“Obviously, suicide is a very complex phenomenon with a lot going on,” said Army Col. Elspeth C. Ritchie, director of the Army Surgeon General’s office for behavioral health. “The main motive for suicide is related to breakup of relationships, usually with a partner.”
If that was the real basis for suicides within the military then why spend so much time on training them at all?
May 29, 2008 – The Army is deploying a multitude of prevention programs as part of efforts to stop soldiers from taking their own lives, senior Army officials said here today.
The Army should train its soldiers how to cope with psychological challenges as well as physical ones, Army Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, assistant surgeon general for force protection, told reporters during a Pentagon roundtable.
For example, the Battlemind training program prepares soldiers for a combat environment, Cornum said, adding that troops who’ve taken Battlemind training report fewer psychological health problems.
Last year, the Army initiated a chain-teaching program to educate all soldiers and leaders about symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and mild brain injury, Cornum said. More than 900,000 soldiers were trained since July, she noted.
When do we get accountability for all these years of leaving service members left without what they need to heal? When do they have to explain to families all this training was continued as more and more committed suicide? When do they have have to account for the fact that with billions spent on this "prevention" they couldn't even reduce the number of non-deployed from committing suicide. How did they expect it to work on those sent on multiple deployments?
The Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), already struggling to meet an increasing demand from troops and veterans for mental health services, are watching the suicide rates, and the growing number of those considered "at risk" of suicide, with apprehension.
"It really is extremely concerning," said Caitlin Thompson, a VA psychologist and clinical care coordinator at the national crisis line for the military and veterans.
The warning signs of an approaching wave of suicides are unmistakable.
The news article on K2 radio out of Wyoming problem started with the title itself. "Monster: A Veteran Confronts Suicide"
By Tom Morton September 25, 2015. That headline sent a chill up my spine.
It starts with a real number of veteran suicides are double the civilian population rate. That is the what folks need to focus on especially when they have been unchanged over a decade since the reports first started to come out in 2007 when CBS News reported "Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans"
CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information.
And what it revealed was stunning.
In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That's 120 each and every week, in just one year.
And the article went on with this
It found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 than non-vets. (Veterans committed suicide at the rate of between 18.7 to 20.8 per 100,000, compared to other Americans, who did so at the rate of 8.9 per 100,000.)
One age group stood out. Veterans aged 20 through 24, those who have served during the war on terror. They had the highest suicide rate among all veterans, estimated between two and four times higher than civilians the same age. (The suicide rate for non-veterans is 8.3 per 100,000, while the rate for veterans was found to be between 22.9 and 31.9 per 100,000.)
The other thing we should have answers for is why are there so many doing the same exact thing and expecting a different outcome for all the money they raise?
“22Kill.”
“Suicide. It’s always in the backs of peoples minds,” Keith Smith said.
“Nobody really wants to deal with it straight on because it’s kind of a touchy subject, said Smith, who served two deployments with the Wyoming Army National Guard in Iraq.
The “22″ in the 22Kill organization’s name refers to the number of veterans who kill themselves each day. One active service member commits suicide daily, Smith said.
“You’re looking at 8,000 (suicides) or better by the end of the year.”
If you quote "22 a day" but leave out the disclaimer from the Department of Veterans Affairs study released in 2012 that is was based on limited information, then how do you hope to change anything?
Why leave out the largest group of veterans committing suicide?
Clearly that shows if they continue to repeat what has already failed, the numbers we should see coming are, frankly, terrifying.
Keith Smith said raising awareness is "so that people know what the issue is" but that is actually already known in the Veteran Community. He also said that "suicide is a selfish thing" but that isn't true either.
Wyoming Suicide Awareness - Keith Smith Gives Insight Into #22Kill
Seeing a veteran talking about his service and the seriousness of suicide could have been really powerful had they taken the project seriously. The veteran is chomping on gum appearing to be bored. The interviewer is asking questions that are close to impossible to hear.
MOH Dakota Myer wasn't being "selfish" when he tried to end his own life after "Believing he had become a burden to his family, Dakota turned to the bottle. One night driving home he stopped his truck and pulled out a gun" but as you heard in this interview, the "selfish act" attitude is a huge part of the problem.
Meyer, the 296th Marine to earn the medal, by all accounts deserved his nomination. At least seven witnesses attested to him performing heroic deeds “in the face of almost certain death.”
Braving withering fire, he repeatedly returned to the ambush site with Army Capt. William Swenson and others to retrieve Afghan casualties and the dead Americans. He suffered a shrapnel wound in one arm and was sent home after the battle with combat-related stress. Meyer’s commander, Lt. Col. Kevin Williams, commended him for acts of “conspicuous gallantry at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.”
MOH hangs around their necks for saving lives but those actions did not end with combat. They decided to keep fighting to save even more lives by publicly speaking out on PTSD.
Sergeant Carter as well as Swenson have “publicly talked about the demons they brought home, and no one is questioning their valor,” Mr. Carter adds. “You can clearly struggle and be tough at the same time, which is a very important message for knocking down stigmas.”
For his part, Sergeant Carter has continued to speak out about the toll combat takes on the lives of soldiers long after they return home from war.
“Know that a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress is one of the most passionate, dedicated men or women you’ll ever meet,” he said. “Know that they are not damaged. They are simply burdened with living what others did not.”
The current talk is that the VA is the enemy, but that isn't true either. The problems within the VA have been going on for decades but Congress has had jurisdiction over the VA, no matter which party is in control, for decades. They keep complaining while veterans wait for the best care they had been promised.
For female veterans using the VA, that number held relatively steady over the 11 years included in the data, averaging 10.3.
The figure for women who didn’t seek VA help started out at 29.9 in 2000 and climbed steadily, reaching 43.6 in 2010.
For male VA users, it fell from 37.3 to 29.1.
In contrast, it rose from 27.5 to 38.3 for male nonusers.
Is it perfect? No. It isn't new either. Nothing is perfect but until we get out heads out of behind, we'll never change what is coming. If we don't change the conversation away from what is wrong, no one will be raising awareness about what is working.
What works is simply reminding them
YOU SERVED TO SAVE, SURVIVE TO SERVE OTHERS because you can help them heal to live to fight against the last battle of war.
