Posted on 05/28/2009 8:10:22 AM PDT by xzins
FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky -- At Fort Campbell, an installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee line, at least 11 Soldiers have committed suicide this year - the most at any Army base. Commanders have set aside routine duties for three days to find and help Soldiers at risk of killing themselves as they struggle with the stress of war.
From January to March, the base averaged one suicide per week, Brig. Gen. Stephen Townsend said Wednesday,....
"But last week we had two. Two in a week," Townsend said. "This is not a place where Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne Division want to be. "We don't want to lead the Army in this statistic." ...
Frequent deployments by the division since 2001 have contributed to the stress Soldiers feel at Fort Campbell, said Col. Ken Brown, the head of chaplains for the base.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
Ft Campbell has the 101st Airborne(Air Assault) Division, the 160th Spec Ops Aviation Regiment, and the 5th Special Forces Group.
I’d be interested in the number of those suicides correlated to relationships falling apart in the high optempo environment. Despite that, why would it affect Ft Campbell more than any other highly deployed installation?
Bush’s fault. Uh, wait...
Our enemy is killing themselves too, as a weapon.
good question.
Could be the local battalion commanders are having the troops constantly in the field when they are home.
We had one at Campbell who had us in Campbell’s back 40 6 months out of the year whether we needed it or not.
Thanks for the info. My son arrived there on Monday. He’s being assigned to the 3rd Brigade with Airborne. We have talked a lot this week. He said he is still “in processing” and they’ve gone through a lot of briefings on suicides.
On one hand I’m worried, but on the other, he’s the type of kid who goes above and beyond to help others so I think he’ll be a good friend to someone and especially someone in desperate need of friendship.
I once heard a saying “Mother’s go where angels fear to tread”.... I think that saying would apply very well to our soldiers too.
good luck to him...he’s going to be a Rakkasan?
When the country you have repeatedly risked your life to defend, becomes one that could elect an Obama and all that entails — can be a VERY significant demoralizing issue.
Seeing that black racist Communist, incompetent bullshit artist and terrorist sympathizer - together with his “fellow travelers”, thugs, racists and anti-constitutionalists in power - would cause ANY warrior to fall into deep depression..
This depression would be amplified - if the warrior has lost the closest friends a human can form - ones they have faced death with.
The loss in defense of the nabobs, assholes and corrupt sonsuvbitches in office now as a result of a dumbed down and treacherous American electorate - would be horribly compounded and seen as unacceptable.
Maybe these young warriors are depressed just watching the USA going down the tubes and noone is fighting the commies that are responsible.
this is the 2nd (at least) ‘insanity’ post from a military.com article. more to follow
Without knowing which units the suicide victims come from it’s a little difficult to know for sure. One clue is that Ft. Campbell is home to the 5th Special Forces Group (Green Berets). They are oriented toward Southwest Asia & the Middle East. The 5th SFG deployment schedule must be insane because their linguistic skills (among others) are in so much demand.
Other Special Forces Groups can & do help, but if they haven’t studied the culture & language of the area they can’t be as effective.
Just throwing that out there for others to comment.
The Left has pulled the rug out from under our soldiers feet. There is great sacrifice for a soldier to serve in a war and when your President is running around appologizing to everyone for the war, that has got to be a real mental mess for a soldier! Why would you fight, sacrifice, kill for a war your country’s leader says was wrong! Also the radicals going after Bush for war crimes...that really has to make a soldier feel wobbly inside.
They thought they were fighting to protect the country from terrorism. Now Obama says terrorism is not a problem and was never a problem and liberals say their leaders committed war crimes in the effort to defeat the enemy.
Yes, he is. We’re so proud of him.
This was totally predicable when the military started pushing more of it’s men into psychiatric hands via the delayed stress scam. More drugs = more suicides. Always.
Perhaps it is as simple as the rapid speed a soldier can be in a combat zone one day, and home the next.
Rapid transition is a good idea. So is psycho-drug treatment.
The question for me, though, is: “Why Ft Campbell, but not Ft Bragg?” They’re similar in lots of ways.
The public schools teach the students to be victims rather than teaching them personal strength. They teach men to be women and women to be men. Nature doesn't work that way.
I believe suicide among the youth today could easily be traced to government indoctrination. Strength has become a weakness and weakness has become strength.
These kids grow up to be weakened adults. I think the military is kinder then it's ever been because of political correctness, but these poor people were unable to deal with real world challenges. There wasn't a teacher around to coddle them.
“When the country you have repeatedly risked your life to defend, becomes one that could elect an Obama and all that entails — can be a VERY significant demoralizing issue.”
I am afraid you’re right on the button. These brave men and women have been told that they are “War criminals by proxy” from 2003 on. How can any of them feel like their new Commander-in-chief supports them? Who could blame those who feel remorse, guilt, hopelessness? They are heroes who fight a righteous battle. They deserve better.
Comparing the two units may provide an answer.
We used to worry about “copy cat” tendencies. Perhaps the best way to handle suicides is by a clampdown on that information.
Overly demonstrating compassion for the life story of the deceased suicide might feed into a copycat syndrome.
The entire psychological autopsy procedure of the military when a suicide takes place feeds into the over demonstration of sympathy.
Even this standdown feeds into it.
I’m not trying to be insensitive, but if one were to treat one military unit suicide by saying,
“I’d really like to kick the SOB’s a$$ for leaving us shorthanded in the XYZ platoon.”
and treat another military unit suicide by saying, “Isn’t it awful how sad the life of Sgt X was.”
would we see a difference in future suicide rate?
The military teaches them pride. The American people honor them. There's something out there that has eaten away at their souls, and I believed they carried it to the military with them.
The left feeds off negative vibes. The more negative the world becomes, the stronger they get. The more souls they can destroy, the happier they are.
These poor people had "indoctrinated" problems before they got there. The youth of today seems to think death is better than life. Political Correctness denies a persons innermost desire for freedom. No man wants his body, thoughts, and beliefs controlled. It creates anger. Anger creates violence. Violence creates war - physically, mentally, and spiritually.
This is very sad, my prayers for our military that they may have the strength they need to deal with their challenges.
I have noticed a product of our liberal schools- they are passing on the liberal trait of not being able to look at the big picture- or look down the road to see that things can get better, things can be dealt with and overcome in trying times. I see some of this in my own children- even though I drill it into their heads to see the whole picture when things are tough, and to do what they can to change their situation- look forward, plan foreward, work hard to overcome their problems. I see so many young people that only see what is in front of them and cannot imagine or plan for solutions to their problems and possible better times ahead. They have been taught to live for now, not long term planning- no patience, must have it all now attitude.
Suicide is a serious issue and in some cases a result of mental issues, but many times I think it is hopelessness of a situation that the person cannot see their way out of. Life is a series of tough challenges- I was taught to meet those challenges head on, tough my way through them and keep moving forward to better times. I was raised by adults that went through the depression and WWII, they did not teach me that life would be easy- quite the opposite. I try to do my best to preach that to all young people I am around- but it is so hard for them, it is like it is a new concept.
These are tough times for our military, many are 18-20 year olds that are dealing with many adult issues at once that they are not prepared for- relationships, financial- major life issues and at the same time they have made a committment to the military in a time of war- one more major adult issue. Many feel overwhelmed by life. I know some young soldiers- many of their stories are the same- they made a major commitment to the military and then get married too soon, which brings more issues for them to deal with while they are still in the process of growing up. It is hard, but I think it is even harder than in the past because parents and schools have not expected too much of them, and taught them that their problems will be solved by others. The Army does try to help the soldiers and their families- but it is hard to overcome the way they have been raised and educated.
and treat another military unit suicide by saying, “Isn’t it awful how sad the life of Sgt X was.”
would we see a difference in future suicide rate?
Never reinforce an undesirable behavior. Even negative attention is better then no attention at all. Both reinforce the behavior.
Evil remains invisible until until it's given a name. Once it's given a name, it has a face.
“Despite that, why would it affect Ft Campbell more than any other highly deployed installation?”
Leadership or lack there of.
Leadership definitely comes to mind.
military.com = Gannett = USAToday
My former First Sergeant is now a CSM at one of the units at Bragg, and he has always gone out of his way to take care of his troops.
“yeah, I’m here at Campbell. I’m not buying the ‘101st has deployed so much’ line. 40% were done by soldiers who have not deployed or a family member of a soldier who’s not been deployed.”
I read an article on army.mil/news where 35% of the suicides Army wide was by someone who was never deployed.
I tend to agree with your view that the soldier’s background plays a major role in his/her success in accommodating life’s challenges.
I am familiar with Ft Bliss, and the suicides (and threats of suicide)there are mostly those that have not deployed and family members as you said is the case at Ft. Campbell. At Bliss it is often soldiers still living in barracks and the last few have been still in training not deployment time yet. A couple of attempts or threats have been soldiers with deployment orders, but few are those that have already deployed.
Thank You for your service!!
I agree wholeheartedly you have isolated 'the cause'. I also believe firmly that 'acting out' is a modern day thing...(you and I were raised on 'sticks and stones...etc'). a la 'road rage', BDS, Columbine, etc. Whether that then is Ritilin induced, or other-caused is the question. The Ft. Campbell concentration is 'interestin' and perhaps significant or not (ie, is there a concentration of muslims at Campbell, for instance). KY certainly couldn't be a 'liberal stronghold'....but bottom line, you nailed it!
Does that mean there is a large Mosque on base???
A Truism of the highest order! great point
How many Imams report to the good chaplain....just a thought, have they all been properly vetted!
Bragg = Fayetteville = 1st sitting of the signers of the Declaration of Independence = Unbelievably Patriotic support of the US military!
What are your thoughts on a stand down in this situation? My gut tells me that folks suffering from depression are better off keeping busy than “standing down”.
I believe men in general are likely more depressed now that the presidency and senate are led by men who loathe manly men and the house is led by a feminist harpy.
It's the same reason many single women are ecstatic: they have a femininist-loving community organizer in power who shares their feelings of antipathy toward men and manly pursuits in general.
Morale in the military is entering a period of steep decline.
Congratulations on your infantryman going to the 101st!
My son was a Screaming Eagle too (in the unit that nailed Saddam’s sons)and is confused about this new statistic. From a closer look- several of these suicides haven’t even been deployed in combat yet- so it doesn’t appear to be based on numerous deployments.
Thanks to you, your son and your family, you are in the prayers of more than you’ll ever know...
SE (Screaming Eagle) Mom
While I agree wholeheartedly with your ‘analysis’, your conclusion ‘steep decline’ ain’t necessarily so! In fact, as long as our military knows it has the full faith and support of a large majority of the country (including a huge Democrat contingent), it will more likely mean growth not decline. (See history) The failings of Democrat policies usually mean more ‘battles’ to warm the hearts of soldiers than fewer ‘battles’. just sayin’
At the installation where I serve, the leadership from top down is engaging the issue. The 3-star garrison commander here is open and upfront about his problems with PTSD. It seems to be working. We've seen 2 suicides all year, in an installation with 60k soldiers.
Not very many — they’re a low-density faith group
I’d say on the order of half of ALL problems I ever encountered as a chaplain were alcohol related. And that includes suicidal behavior (ideation, gesture, attempt, completion).
But, that doesn’t explain why Campbell and not Bragg or not Riley or not Hood, etc. Deployment doesn’t answer it, because they’ve all deployed.
If alcohol’s more an issue in one than the other, then that’s definitely a leadership issue.
One of my major missions the last 6 years of my military career was suicide innoculation briefings. I sympathize with anyone having to listen to them once or twice a year, every year.
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