Posted on 06/04/2015 3:27:37 PM PDT by blueunicorn6
22 Veterans kill themselves every day.
Why?
I've seen this figure in print several times.
These are people who were tough enough and strong enough and brave enough and dedicated enough and smart enough to make it through Basic Training, Specialty Skills Training (AIT) and the rigors of military duty.
Yet, they are killing themselves when they get back to the United States.
Why?
The claim is that something horrible happened to them in combat. They have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
OK. Let's for arguments sake accept that every Veteran that commits suicide was involved in one or several horrible incidents.
Why didn't they just kill themselves then, or close afterwards? They had easy access to weapons and ammunition. Why wait until they are back in The United States.
The argument is that time is the culprit. The incidents wear on the Veteran.
OK.
What about the WWII Veterans? Did the Soldiers who saw awful things on the battlefield at the start of the war then kill themselves four years later on a different battlefield?
I've seen no studies showing that.
PTSD is real and it is a problem.
But it's not the only problem.
22 Veterans are killing themselves each day. Their lives were so miserable that the only relief they could see was by killing themselves.
Why?
Time is a factor, but it's not the only factor.
There is more.
It is very convenient for our nation to slap a PTSD diagnosis on someone and give them a couple hundred bucks disability and then walk away.
OK.
But these aren't people who should be so discouraged that they take their own lives. They were tough, resourceful, dedicated, smart.
What happened when they got back home? What did they see and experience here that caused them to end their lives?
If 22 college professors were killing themselves every day, the country would start a war on suicide.
But, they're just Veterans.
could be for real ... and have you ever been ‘fooled’?
+1
I’d like to know how their suicide rate compared to the population as a whole.
So to you this is a numbers game???
If there is 1 death a day, to me, that is 1 too many...
Never thought of that. You may well be right, at least in part.
I suspect their spouses have filed for divorce, got restraining orders, have denied contact with their children, and not allowed them to have access to their belongings, vehicles etc...
Standard procedures in the divorce rape of men these days.
If the difference between veterans and non-veterans with the same profile is nonexistent or insignificant, then there’s no point in focusing prevention efforts on factors specific to veterans.
Please quantify comparative demographic categories between Veterans and non-Veterans???
I am curious to know what similarities there are between the two main categories???
Besides the usual gender, race, education sub-categories...
Are you implying the suicide rate for non-Veterans is greater or less than that of Veterans???
This article contains an interesting analysis of the “22 per day” figure:
If this contention is statistically sound, controlled for age and other factors, then particular targeting of prevention efforts toward veterans makes sense.
Between 2001 and 2009, there were 1650 deployed veterans and 7703 non-deployed veteran deaths. Of those, 351 were suicides among deployed veterans and 1517 were suicides among non-deployed veterans. That means over nine years, there was not quite one veteran suicide a day.
"Less than one" is a lot less than 22.
According to the study referenced in the linked Military Times article below civilian and military veteran suicide rates are about the same. Combat deployment does not appear to be a differentiating factor. The study found that the military group at highest risk for suicide are those who served in the military for less than a full enlistment.
I’m not implying anything. I’m asking a question which can only be answered by gathering and analyzing statistics.
For example, say (for the sake of the explanation) you have information on 100 white men, aged 60-70, who were divorced or widowed, who committed suicide. Were significantly more than half of those men veterans? Were significantly fewer veterans? Was it fairly close to equal?
The information in post 29 indicates that it’s likely more than half were veterans.
prayers is less than 22/day. Best guess if 22/day was accurate ... doubt Americans would hear of this truth or the guesses of ‘why’ because it’s never a key to learning about ‘love of nation’ in the media?
Who’s figures are these?
I was scared out of my socks in Vietnam, and saw some pretty horrible things in combat up to my ears, as did everyone I was with over there. But they didn’t show any signs of PTSD then, and I never did either, and have been just fine for 46 years now.
I found out a few years ago that one of my best friends in-country had scammed the system to get on 100% disability, but he’s a fake because he never went through anything that I didn’t go through. Knowing that can be done, I’m sure a lot of others have done it too, but that just means that they’re fakes as well and that the system can be too easily snaked out.
Physical disability is one thing, but even in such cases, lives can be recovered. An infantry medic and myself once worked on a guy who’d stepped on an AP mine and lost both legs, an arm and an eye. We thought at the time that he’d had it, but had come to learn several years after the war that he was married with a family and was raising horses out near Palmdale CA. That sounds pretty productive to me.
So I ask again where this figure comes from, and wonder if we’re being played in this thing by the likes of islamocommunist bastards like hussein and his ilk.
Granted, it seems to me the recruiting standards might have been lowered somewhat, as reflected by the likes of Bergdahl and that asshole that blew away Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield. How these characters ever even got into the service raises red flags for me. But even there, I’m still reluctant to accept that 22 guys a day just can’t take it and are offing themselves.
Something seems skewed in that to me.
I’m coming up on my 20 year retirement from the army. Spent several years deployed in combat zones. Flown over 150 hours of combat time as a UH-60 pilot.
I’m sick and tired of the constant mandatory suicide prevention briefings, resiliency training, sexual assault prevention, consideration of others training...it’s all bullshit.
Life is tough all over. Grab some sack and drive on. Very happy to be leaving this PC crap sandwich Army. 8 more months...
I agree. No matter what the specific numbers, it’s terribly sad that so many are killing themselves.
my appreciation for your truth ...
The current figures from the DAV {Disabled American Veterans Org.] is closer to 1 or more every hour now.
Did I say it’s a numbers game, ass-waggon? You don’t put words in my mouth. Got it?
You are on the right thought track...
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