Who Will Speak For Them Now?

The numbers speak for those who cannot speak for themselves anymore.

AFGHANISTAN 

FATALITIES

2010 499

2011 418

2012 310

2013 127

2014 55

2015 22

2016 14

2017 15

2018 1

IRAQ 

FATALITIES

2010 60

2011 54

2012 1

2014 3

2015 6

2016 17

2017 17

2010 Military Suicides

The AFMES indicates that 295 Service Members died by suicide in 2010 

(Air Force = 59, Army = 160, Marine Corps = 37, Navy = 39).

2011 Military Suicides

The AFMES indicates that 301 Service Members died by suicide in 2011 (Air Force = 50, Army = 167, Marine Corps = 32, Navy = 52). This number includes deaths strongly suspected to be suicides that are pending final determination. DoDSER Points of Contact (POCs) submitted reports for 100% of AFMES confirmed 2011 suicides (Air Force = 46, Army = 159, Marine Corps = 31, Navy = 51) as of the data extraction date (26 April 2012). 

A total of 915 Service Members attempted suicide in 2011 (Air Force = 241, Army = 432, Marine Corps = 156, Navy = 86). 

DoDSERs were submitted for 935 suicide attempts (Air Force = 251, Army = 440, Marine Corps = 157, Navy = 87). Of the 915 Service Members who attempted suicide, 896 had one attempt, 18 had two attempts, and 1 had three attempts.

2012 Military Suicides

According to AFMES data as of 31 March 2013, there were 319 suicides among Active component Service members and 203 among Reserve component Services members (Reserve [n = 73]; National Guard [n = 130]. The suicide rate (per 100,000 Service members) for the Active component was 22.7 and for the Reserve component was 24.2 (Reserve – 19.3, National Guard – 28.1). Per policy, the DoDSER system collected data on suicides for all Service members in an Active status at the time of death, including Service members in the Reserve components (i.e., active or activated 2 Reserve/National Guard). The distribution of suicide DoDSERs across the four included Services was as follows: Air Force – 57 (17.9%), Army – 155 (48.7%), Marine Corps – 47 (14.8%), and Navy – 59 (18.6%). 

A total of 841 Service members had one or more attempted suicides reported in DoDSER for CY 2012. Below we provide summary statistics on several variables for all DoD suicide and suicide attempt DoDSERs.

2013 Military Suicides

Number of confirmed and pending suicides for CY 2013, as of June 30, 2014 Active 259  Reserve 220

 

DoDSERs across the four included Services was as follows: Air Force-43 (17.6%), Army-115 (46.9%), Marine Corps-45 (18.4%), and Navy-42 (17.1%). These counts included reports for both confirmed suicides and probable suicides pending a final determination. 

A total of 1,034 SMs had one or more attempted suicides reported in the DoDSER for CY 2013

2014 Military Suicides

Active Component Air Force 60 Army 122  Marine Corps 34  Navy 53  Reserve Component All Reserve 80  All National Guard 89 

A total of 1,126 suicide attempts were reported from the four Services. 

The last quarterly report from the DOD has the charts. Go here to read more of the report, but pretty much this sums it all up.

And for all the suicides, plus attempted suicides, none of the "awareness raisers" ever bother to mention any of this. 

After all, why should they? No one holds them accountable for using a number without reading the reports anyway.

So who will speak for them now? Will you ask reporters to find the facts? Will you ask members of Congress to actually investigate any of this? Will you confront the "awareness raisers" about what they are doing besides just talking about a number?

Will you speak for those we already lost, before more are lost for our silence?

Female Firefighter, Mentor, Died on Christmas

Dedicated Lacey firefighter, dead at 40, was passionate role model for girls
Seattle Times
By Paige Cornwell
Seattle Times staff reporter
January 1, 2018

Crystal Murphy, a Lacey firefighter who mentored hundreds of girls interested in the fire service, died on Christmas Day. She was 40.

Crystal Murphy, who made her mark as an advocate for diversity in the fire service, died at 40 on Christmas Day. (Courtesy of Camp Blaze)

Lacey Fire District 3, where Murphy was a firefighter and EMT for nine years, announced her death earlier this week. Her cause of death was not released.

“She was a very, very dedicated public servant and a role model for firefighters, particularly women, in the fire service everywhere,” Lacey Fire Chief Steve Brook said Friday.

Murphy was known for her work as an advocate for diversifying the fire service. Nationally, about 4 percent of firefighters are women, according to the National Fire Protection Agency. Murphy wanted to change that.

“Young girls aren’t taught that they can do a lot of things we do in the fire service,” said Kris Larson, a Los Angeles Fire Department battalion chief. “We wanted to show them that being a firefighter, which isn’t necessarily seen as a woman’s job, is an important passion.”
read more here

Community pulls together to send off TLC

A Gorge ‘Holiday for Heroes’
Dalles Chronicle
RaeLynn Ricarte
December 28, 2017

Dan Brophy, a Marine veteran and chaplain for Point Man, said the statement made by Miguel (last name withheld for security reasons) reflects how he felt when receiving care packages from home during a 1968-69 deployment to Vietnam.

Christmas boxes sent to Afghanistan by residents of Wasco and Hood River counties are shown with the team of defense contractors who received them. Other shipments arrived at the base of an Oregon National Guard unit and Marine Raiders in the Middle East. A total of 85 boxes were sent to the field and the Holiday for Heroes Committee, which organized the outreach effort, credits the generosity of community members for the success of the mission.

The Holiday for Heroes Committee received a photo Dec. 27 from a team of defense contractors in Afghanistan posing with 31 Christmas boxes they received from Gorge residents.

The photo was accompanied by these words from Miguel, one of the team members: “This isn't everyone but it's everyone I could muster right now. Had some guys working and others just dispersed around the camp.

“The guys descended on the gifts like locusts, laughing and giving thanks to the group that sent the packages. This was a gigantic morale builder, more so than I would have imagined. Thank you doesn't quite cut it but thank you so very much. Merry Christmas and God bless all of our supporters. Your efforts were greatly noticed and appreciated by the men here.”

He added, “believe it or not, the most popular items are the handmade letters and drawings from children.”

Area schools participated in the troop support effort by allowing students to write messages and send works of art to the defense team and 29 members of an Oregon National Guard military police unit who train in Hood River.

Capt. Rich Smith of that unit said Tuesday the tempo of operations has been too high for a Christmas party, so pictures of his soldiers opening their care packages were not yet available.
read more here

Oregon VA Hospital Turns Veterans Away Because of "Risk"

At Veterans Hospital in Oregon, a Push for Better Ratings Puts Patients at Risk, Doctors Say
New York Times
By DAVE PHILIPPS
JAN. 1, 2018

“The doctors were mad; the nurses were mad,” said Mr. Savage’s son-in-law, Mark Ridimann. “And my dad, he was mad, too. He kept saying, ‘I’ve laid my life on the line, two years in Vietnam, and this is what I get?’”

ROSEBURG, Ore. — An 81-year-old veteran hobbled into the emergency room at the rural Veterans Affairs hospital here in December, malnourished and dehydrated, his skin flecked with ulcers and his ribs broken from a fall at home.

A doctor examining the veteran — a 20-year Air Force mechanic named Walter Savage who had been living alone — decided he was in no shape to care for himself and should be admitted to the hospital. A second doctor running the inpatient ward agreed.

But the hospital administration said no.

Though there were plenty of empty beds, records show that a nurse in charge of enforcing administration restrictions said Mr. Savage was not sick enough to qualify for admission to the hospital. He waited nine hours in the emergency room until, finally, he was sent home.

Fewer patients meant fewer chances of bad outcomes and better scores for a ranking system that grades all veterans hospitals on a scale of one to five stars. In 2016, administrators began cherry-picking cases against the advice of doctors — turning away complicated patients and admitting only the lowest-risk ones in order to improve metrics, according to multiple interviews with doctors and nurses at the hospital and a review of documents.

Those metrics helped determine both the Roseburg hospital’s rating and the leadership’s bonus checks. By denying veterans care, the ratings climbed rapidly from one star to two in 2016 and the director earned a bonus of $8,120.
read more here

UPDATE

Roseburg VA official calls New York Times story about patient care 'false'

"At its core, the Roseburg VAHCS is primarily an outpatient center, and that’s why the hospital’s clinical leadership has made clear to its physicians that the facility has limited capabilities to care for patients with certain clinical conditions that are far better treated in nearby community hospitals.

This is precisely why we’re being transparent with our doctors about the conditions that the facility is unable to treat, because it’s in Veterans’ best interests for them to be seen at other hospitals in the community with greater capabilities to deliver them the best care for those conditions." You can read the rest here

Mindless stunts on suicide awareness continue

Welcome to 2018, looks like we're about to enter into another decade of people getting publicity for something they didn't bother to learn anything about!

Another mindless stunt sold as raising awareness that veterans are committing suicide, when they cannot even get the number right...or even ask what they can do to change the outcome.

This is from WAAY News. Reporter didn't care about the story either!

Miles helps organize the event every year to raise awareness about mental health issues and suicide rates among veterans."The VA reports that about 22 veterans a day, from Vietnam veterans to today's war veterans, take their life and that's unacceptable," said Miles.

Yes, it is unacceptable that Miles did not read the report to know that number was an average of limited data from just 21 states. Also unacceptable is that apparently the report afterwards by the VA putting the number at "20" a day had pretty much been unchanged SINCE 1999!

Too many veterans have committed suicide because they did not know that tomorrow could be any better than their last worst day was!

Veterans don't need awareness they want to die. They need to know they can heal and take their lives back instead of ending them!

Korean War Veteran Patrols Streets for Homeless

Korean War vet keeps homeless warm at night
San Diego Union Tribune
Pam Kragen
January 2, 2018

Since 2011, the campaign has distributed more than 3,250 sleeping bags. About 40 percent of downtown’s homeless population are veterans, Field said, but the bags are distributed to any one in clear need.

San Diego Veterans for Peace volunteer Stan Levin, 88, gives Shayne Dunn, who is homeless, a package of food before he and Gilbert Fields, background, a new sleeping bag in downtown San Diego on Friday. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

At age 88, Korean War veteran Stan Levin has earned the right to spend all his evenings in the warm comfort of his Serra Mesa home.

But several nights a month for the past six years, Levin has patrolled the streets of downtown San Diego, handing out free sleeping bags, socks and snacks to homeless men and women he finds sleeping on the sidewalks.

read more here

Suicide Awareness Stunts Don't Work in Australia or Anywhere

A year ago, this was the headline from Australia.

More Australian Defence Force veterans have killed themselves this YEAR than those who died in combat in Afghanistan due to post-traumatic stress disorders

• More soldiers committed suicide in 2016 than were killed in Afghanistan

• At least 50 Australian Defence Force personnel killed themselves this year 

• The Department of Veteran Affairs have been slammed by former soldiers

• They said the Department force them into lengthy battles for support

So they pulled stunts, just like here in the US. The headline from 2017 is this.

Veterans' 2017 suicide toll is 84, say activists

Loren Ries drew this on a road in Huonville, Tasmania, for the Veteran Chalk Challenge to draw attention to 84 Australian veterans' suicides in 2017.  Photo: Supplied

Mr Steley said the 84 figure "is a conservative estimate and only the deaths that veterans themselves can confirm as the government is still unwilling to even attempt to keep a record of the number of deaths". 

Mr Steley said the veterans had "offered so much to Australia and our government to protect them; now when they need help they are being either ignored or actively targeted by an uncaring, inflexible system." read more here

Fight to take back your life! I did!

Trauma is what happens but surviving is what we make it!

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 1, 2018

By the time this picture was taken, I had already survived five times.

Before I turned six, it was already three times. There was a car accident and I still have the scar on my chin from hitting the dashboard while my head hit the windshield. 

I was pushed off a slide, had a concussion and scull fracture (along with brain damage) but the Doctor missed all that and told my parents to let me have a good nights sleep.

The next day, it was obvious I was in trouble. The next Doctor told my parents that I should have died twice the night before. Not "could have" but "should have died." There was no reason I was still alive.

Then there was the health scare that was caused by shingles. Yes, the one that "old people" get. It was horrible, painful and terrifying but usually not life threatening. It only seemed that way.

My Dad turned into a violent alcoholic but I was not his target. My oldest brother was. He kept drinking and causing misery until I was 13. Then he stopped after the was pulling apart the living room, threw a chair that almost hit me. He didn't know I was there.

Years later, another car accident. That was followed by my ex-husband coming home from work one night and deciding I needed to die. He stalked me for over a year.

By the time I met my Vietnam veteran husband, I understood what trauma could do to a person first hand. While I did not know what war was like, even though my Dad and Uncles were veterans, I just knew what war was doing to them.

I miscarried twins and hemorrhaged. By then I knew what PTSD was but what I didn't know was that night was PTSD was about to get worse. He totally changed. When our Doctor explained the egg split wrong, he refused to listen and blamed himself for having Agent Orange.

After our daughter was born, I had an infection that did not totally clear up and I ended up in the hospital. Yet again, I heard the words "should have died" when my Doctor said he had never seen a bacteria count that high on a live patient.

That was the last thing I could take. My husband was no longer my best friend. He was a stranger and he was standing by the hospital bed holding our baby, listening as the nurse told him I was fighting for my life. They didn't know I was praying to let go of it.

I lost all hope and the will to fight. Then I understood what drove people to commit suicide. The only thing that stopped me was when I was able to open my eyes long enough to see our daughter's big brown eyes looking right back at me. I couldn't leave her.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because while trauma cannot be prevented, what it does can be stopped from taking over your life.

In my family, there were no secrets. Everything was talked to death. Turns out that is what Crisis Intervention does. It takes you out of the abnormal moments of facing death and brings the survivor back into a safe place within what "normal" life should be.

I knew the worst that could happen but also knew how to take back control over the rest of my life. I became a Chaplain for that reason and trained with the IFOC so that I could help first responders and veterans better than I could have on my own. 

That training was followed by two more years worth of every free training I could get here in Florida. I refuse to be called a "victim" of anything. I AM A SURVIVOR! I do not have PTSD because of what was done soon after the times that tried to take my life.

We learned a lot of things from Vietnam veterans coming home and fight for all the research. I learned a lot about veterans because of the veterans in my life. I learned a lot about about lives can be so much better when we fight to take back control and heal.

Over 35 years later, researching, living with PTSD, I am living proof that tomorrow does not have to be another dark day of misery. It can be a brighter day with the hope of healing.

I also became a leader with Point Man International Ministries because of the spiritual healing that must be included when treating PTSD, especially within those who faced multiple traumatic events.

Some advice on this first day of the New Year. Take the negative energy you are using up and use it to put something good into your life. Fight as hard now to heal as you did to survive the "IT" that could have killed you and stop thinking it "should have" killed you.

Defeat PTSD and fight to take back your life! I did!

Fort Riley Deaths Investigated

Details in soldier deaths show cases of hanging, gunshot wound

The Mercury

Stephanie Casanova

December 31, 2017

The U.S. Army has provided details on investigations into three Fort Riley soldier deaths that occurred in 2017, two of which appear to have been self-inflicted.

Records indicate the cases are still under investigation by local agencies, and the Army continues to say the cause of each death is undetermined. The Mercury requested information on seven of the 12 non-combat-related soldier deaths that have occurred since June 2017, those that appear to have been suicides. The Army so far has returned documents on three.

In the first, a Junction City Police Department detective found Staff Sgt. Garett Swift, 37, “hanging in the backyard of his residence” in Junction City at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 4, according to one report.

read more here

Homeless Veteran "They wouldn't help me."

Turned away at Bedford VA hospital, a life lost
Veteran's suicide adds to questions about response, policies
Lowell Sun
By Todd Feathers
UPDATED: 12/30/2017

He sought care at VA hospitals in Arizona, Wyoming, and South Dakota. About three years ago, Earles decided to move to Massachusetts.

BEDFORD -- Byron Wade Earles sat hunched over, his head resting in his hands, by Building 78 of the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital.
The nurse who rushed out to help found him bleeding and despondent.

"They wouldn't admit me," he told her, according to an account of the incident in Earles' medical records. "They wouldn't help me."

As the nurse spoke with him, Earles took out a knife and began to cut his throat.

Byron Earles, a homeless Army veteran,
tried to commit suicide on Nov. 7, 2016
after the Bedford VA hospital s mental
health clinic denied him admission.
He died by suicide two months later.
(PHOTO COURTESY OF PAUL EARLES)

The 44-year-old Army veteran had arrived at the Bedford VA mental health walk-in clinic on Nov. 7, 2016 -- days after being discharged from the Brockton VA -- asking to be admitted to the hospital because he was thinking about hurting himself and others.

The Bedford clinic turned him away, according to a portion of Earles' medical records obtained by The Sun, because a mental health worker did not believe his account of a recent suicide attempt and suspected he wanted to escape the cold.

Maureen Heard, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said Earles left of his own accord after a psychiatrist suggested he seek a homeless shelter. Hospital administrators declined an interview request, but Heard said several clinic policies changed as a result of the Earles incident.

While Earles didn't die that day -- two VA police officers convinced him to drop the knife so the nurse could treat his wound -- he did die by suicide two months later, on Jan. 6, after walking out of a counseling session at the Bedford hospital.
read more here