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Military Suicides 'Out of Control'
The Northwest Florida Daily News Herald ^ | Monday, November 19, 2012 | Randal Yakey

Posted on 11/20/2012 8:34:10 AM PST by kristinn

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To: kristinn
According to a Veterans Affairs report this spring, a veteran commits suicide every 80 minutes.

In the aftermath of WWI, they were dropping at the rate of two per day. The numbers have only climbed since then.

21 posted on 11/20/2012 8:55:31 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts ('Need' now means wanting someone else's money. 'Greed' means wanting to keep your own...)
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To: Psalm 144

Quite up to date.


22 posted on 11/20/2012 8:56:36 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: kristinn
Just for context. For active duty soldiers.


23 posted on 11/20/2012 8:57:49 AM PST by Theoria (Romney is a Pyrrhic victory.)
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To: ottbmare

just make sure he doens;t get raped, rapes jumped up to 19,000 last year and that was just the reported ones.

How many are not reported?

My oldest wants marine recon or navy seal, and I;ve told him there is no way in hell he will join whilst these PC policies are in place and obama is President especially after Libya and how oabma dealt with that


24 posted on 11/20/2012 8:57:49 AM PST by manc (Marriage =1 man + 1 woman,when they say marriage equality then they should support polygamy)
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To: chrisser

“I’m not sure the rest of us are qualified to speculate since we can’t know what it’s like to have been in combat.”

I know it is very individual and can get odd. As a young man my father saw action in WWII. His unit ultimately suffered a 90% attrition rate in Europe. As a mature man he volunteered for Vietnam. When he returned stateside he had a lot of nightmares - of WWII. I always found that sad and chilling.


25 posted on 11/20/2012 8:57:58 AM PST by Psalm 144 (For Chicken Little the sky is always falling.)
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To: MestaMachine

I was never in combat, but I was active duty 85-89 and we went to the Persian Gulf... and they do indeed give a lot of shots to service members. Also as a reservist from 93-01... shots and more shots. I don’t get shots anymore, not even flu shots. I figure I’m souped up for life with all the shots I got.


26 posted on 11/20/2012 8:59:20 AM PST by A_perfect_lady
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To: Joe 6-pack

Great point, Joe. All three of my uncles are regular church goers and speak openly of their commitment to Christ. My uncle Tom credits religion with getting him out of Nam alive.

My buddy Alan, on the other hand, was a twice-a-year Catholic and even mentioned that they weren’t allowed to have prayers in his platoon due to military regs. I found that disturbing.


27 posted on 11/20/2012 9:00:59 AM PST by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: tired&retired

Obama’s fault.


28 posted on 11/20/2012 9:01:07 AM PST by Salamander (If animals could speak, mankind would weep. Anthony Douglas Williams)
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To: MestaMachine

I’m getting more and more convinced that they are trying to demoralize the military. From ROEs, cutting back healthcare, multiple deployments, no support back home, on and on.

I watched Dr. Zhivago last night with our oldest. They Bolshi’s used the military who was bruised and broken from WW2 to rise up....and they did. Look at what they did to them in Vietnam and hoped for the same result by parading ‘anti-US soldiers’ in front of the media.


29 posted on 11/20/2012 9:01:57 AM PST by RushIsMyTeddyBear (Great vid by ShorelineMike! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOZjJk6nbD4&feature=plcp)
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To: Angry_White_Man_Syndrome

Part of that loneliness and lack of folks you can relate to could come from these guys not joining vet organizations like VFW and AL for whatever reason. I never understood why they didn’t. I had my application in after I got back from Afghanistan.


30 posted on 11/20/2012 9:04:14 AM PST by chargers fan
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To: libertarian27

They do this even when these guys are on the battlefield...and they give them uppers to keep them alert and on edge.
I have been fighting this fight for a long time. NO ONE LISTENS.


31 posted on 11/20/2012 9:04:41 AM PST by MestaMachine (TREASON!!!!)
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To: tired&retired

exactly

people are saying this is because of war, no it is not.

Vets come back to a place which says thank you and then the the vee is on their own.
They can;t get jobs, the VA is a waste, they don;t have the pals around them

PC is killing the military and last year the homosexuals, cross dressers can serve openly, .
Since that came into affect the rapes on men jumped like it never has.
19,000 sexual assaults on men in one year, just one year, when was that year.?
Last year, the year after homosexuals and cross dressers can serve openly.

Then look around at some who now join, they;re a waste of time, whilst we have good men joining we also get for every good person joining we get a PC idiot or someone looking for their free school, loans paid off, VA etc.

We want to get rid of suicides ot make it go down then stop the PC nonsense, stop letting poeple join who will never handle the military and are more suited to picking tulips in the flower garden.


32 posted on 11/20/2012 9:04:41 AM PST by manc (Marriage =1 man + 1 woman,when they say marriage equality then they should support polygamy)
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To: kristinn

They need God, not pills.


33 posted on 11/20/2012 9:05:27 AM PST by donna (Pray for revival.)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts; kristinn

kristinn:
According to a Veterans Affairs report this spring, a veteran commits suicide every 80 minutes.

Bloody Sam Roberts:
In the aftermath of WWI, they were dropping at the rate of two per day. The numbers have only climbed since then.

************************

That comparison is even more extreme when one considers the incredible numeric difference in the two wars. So many more WWII veterans compared to the Sand Wars.


34 posted on 11/20/2012 9:06:04 AM PST by Psalm 144 (For Chicken Little the sky is always falling.)
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To: yldstrk

Agree He was a casualty of his own mind.


35 posted on 11/20/2012 9:06:34 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: rarestia
One of my uncles was a Ranger. he landed ahead of everybody everywhere ~ but not at Normandy. He missed that because he had been shot at the Rapido River ~ but he survived.

I remember sitting around with him, my father, their other brother, a couple of cousins, and another young man from the neighborhood ~ we were having a beer ~ which at my age they shouldn't have been feeding me, but their talk was of my wounded Ranger uncle's shoulder.

They were passing me around from shoulder to shoulder, except my Ranger uncle ~ his wounds weren't quite healed ~ then my mother and grandmother stopped into the kitchen to see what I was doing.

That event and their faces and conversations are etched in stone in my mind. Forever young and strong and free. All of them had served in the war ~ no complaints ~ but yet my uncle's wounds were always of concern to my father and their friends ~ they never quite healed, and he really wasn't the same young fellow who'd gone off to be a soldier and answered that key question ~ "Would you prefer to mix cocktails at a party or go hunting"?

36 posted on 11/20/2012 9:07:08 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: SkyDancer
I wonder what the rate was for Vietnam, Korea and WWII vets.

That is an excellent question. Also, it would be nice to compare the rates of similar allies, Canada, England, Australia.

I think the suicide rate is directly related to the "deployment tempo". The Army troops are here for a year or 2 and then gone on another one year tour.

One way to test my theory is to compare rates for Air Force and Marines. I believe the Air Force has the shortest average deployment time of about a quarter year. The Marines then follow with an average of about half a year. The Army still insists on their one year deployment.

Check to see if there is a statistically significant difference in suicide rates due to deployment while controlling for other common factors.

My sense is that the nation has burned it's military candle on both ends since bosnia followed by the campaigns in iraq/afghan and then the extended decade+ of nation building in both those nations.

The troops are burned out AND they've seen and experienced stuff normal to war.

37 posted on 11/20/2012 9:07:33 AM PST by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! True supporters of our troops pray for their victory!)
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To: chrisser

Stop repeat deployments ,for one thing.

Even some NG units are seeing 2 and 3 tours in a row.


38 posted on 11/20/2012 9:07:47 AM PST by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
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To: manc

At least during WWII, everyone served in some capacity, odds are if you were over 18, you were fighting somewhere, and of course even on the home front, everyone got involved as well. The country was united.

Every war ever since, has been a case of only a few actually fighting, and back home, it was far from united, as we saw with Vietnam. People back home didn’t relate to the soldiers that were returning, some even despised them, calling them “baby killers.” And of course the saying during the Iraq was “While the military went to war, America went to the mall.”


39 posted on 11/20/2012 9:09:17 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: Psalm 144

kristinn:
According to a Veterans Affairs report this spring, a veteran commits suicide every 80 minutes.

__________________________

This is all vets not just recent vets.


40 posted on 11/20/2012 9:09:32 AM PST by Chickensoup (Leftist Totalitarian Fascism coming to a country like yours.)
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