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Author Topic:   6,256 Iraq Vets Committed Suicide in 2005/ Average 120 For Each Week
Mirandee
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posted November 14, 2007 03:19 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This is shocking and staggering. Most of the suicides were vets in their early to late 20's. 6,256 suicides in just one year alone or 120 each and every week for just the year 2005 alone. I am certain this tops the number of suicides in Viet Nam vets. Just one year alone!!!! OMG!!!


The Veteran Suicide Epidemic
A CBS News Investigation Uncovers A Suicide Rate For Veterans Twice That Of Other Americans
NEW YORK, Nov. 13, 2007

CBS) They are the casualties of wars you don’t often hear about - soldiers who die of self-inflicted wounds. Little is known about the true scope of suicides among those who have served in the military.

But a five-month CBS News investigation discovered data that shows a startling rate of suicide, what some call a hidden “epidemic.” Chief Investigative Reporter Armen Keteyian has the exclusive report.

“I just felt like this silent scream inside of me,” said Jessica Harrell, the sister of a soldier who took his own life.

"I opened up the door and there he was," Mike Bowman, the father of an Army reservist.

"I saw the hose double looped around his neck,” said Kevin Lucey, another military father.

"He was gone,” said Mia Sagahon, whose soldier boyfriend committed suicide.

Keteyian spoke with the families of five former soldiers who each served in Iraq - only to die battling an enemy they could not conquer. Their loved ones are now speaking out in their names.

They survived the hell that's Iraq and then they come home only to lose their life.

Twenty-three year old Marine Reservist Jeff Lucey hanged himself with a garden hose in the cellar of this parents’ home - where his father, Kevin, found him.

"There's a crisis going on and people are just turning the other way,” Kevin Lucey said.

Kim and Mike Bowman’s son Tim was an Army reservist who patrolled one of the most dangerous places in Baghdad, known as Airport Road.

"His eyes when he came back were just dead. The light wasn't there anymore," Kim Bowman said.

Eight months later, on Thanksgiving Day, Tim shot himself. He was 23.

Diana Henderson’s son, Derek, served three tours of duty in Iraq. He died jumping off a bridge at 27.

"Going to that morgue and seeing my baby ... my life will never be the same," she said.

Beyond the individual loss, it turns out little information exists about how widespread suicides are among these who have served in the military. There have been some studies, but no one has ever counted the numbers nationwide.

"Nobody wants to tally it up in the form of a government total," Bowman said.

Why does he think that is?

"Because they don't want the true numbers of casualties to really be known," Lucey said.

Sen. Patty Murray is a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee.

"If you're just looking at the overall number of veterans themselves who've committed suicide, we have not been able to get the numbers,” Murray said.

CBS News’ investigative unit wanted the numbers, so it submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense asking for the numbers of suicides among all service members for the past 12 years.

Four months later, they sent CBS News a document, showing that between 1995 and 2007, there were almost 2,200 suicides. That’s 188 last year alone. But these numbers included only “active duty” soldiers.

CBS News went to the Department of Veterans Affairs, where Dr. Ira Katz is head of mental health.

"There is no epidemic in suicide in the VA, but suicide is a major problem," he said.

Why hasn't the VA done a national study seeking national data on how many veterans have committed suicide in this country?

"That research is ongoing,” he said.

So 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.

Dr. Steve Rathburn is the acting head of the biostatistics department at the University of Georgia. CBS News asked him to run a detailed analysis of the raw numbers that we obtained from state authorities for 2004 and 2005.

We 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 hightest 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.)

"Wow! Those are devastating," said Paul Sullivan, a former VA analyst who is now an advocate for veterans rights from the group Veterans For Common Sense.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml


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Mirandee
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posted November 14, 2007 03:26 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This was added onto the story today and an update:

"Those numbers clearly show an epidemic of mental health problems," he said.

“We are determined to decrease veteran suicides," Dr. Katz said.

“One hundred and twenty a week. Is that a problem?” Keteyian asked.

“You bet it’s a problem,” he said.

Is it an epidemic?

“Suicide in America is an epidemic, and that includes veterans,” Katz said.

Sen. Murray said the numbers CBS News uncovered are significant: “These statistics tell me we've really failed people that served our country."

Do these numbers serve as a wake-up call for this country?

“If these numbers don't wake up this country, nothing will,” she said. “We each have a responsibility to the men and women who serve us aren't lost when they come home."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An update: Another member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, responded to the CBS News story Tuesday.

“The report that the rate of suicide among veterans is double that of the general population is deeply troubling and simply unacceptable. I am especially concerned that so many young veterans appear to be taking their own lives. For too many veterans, returning home from battle does not bring an end to conflict. There is no question that action is needed."

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artlovesdawn
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posted November 14, 2007 01:31 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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Dervish
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posted November 14, 2007 06:16 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dervish     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Wars have always been rough. IMO, there should be a ritual to help people transition between military and civilian life and put the demons of the past down (if possible). I think it would help plenty. 'Course, enough suicide while IN the military.

There's a marine base not that far from me. Despite all the wonderful things I keep hearing about marines, that base has produced some scary individuals. One of them you might even recall, as he went on a cross country crime spree of rape and murder, and his kidnapping a woman from a Wal-Mart parking lot was caught on cam and made headlines.

Another one was honorable in that he went on a murderous rampage but wouldn't shoot civilians, simply telling them to leave (with a smoking gun in his hands, and probably eyes to make you shudder, they all did). Only cops. He'd called the cops himself and when they showed up, he started shooting until he himself was shot dead. IIRC, he used the same military rifle that he'd used in Iraq.

A friend of mine was touched indirectly by it. A relation of her friend had been abused by one of the marines at that base and had broken up with him. On Christmas, or close to it, the marine went out to pick up a hooker. He did, but when he found out that the prostitute was actually a male crossdresser, he shot him in the head and dumped the body out. I believe he was insane at the time because he did this right in front of several witnesses, including police officers. He'd later die in a hail of bullets when the cops ran his car off the road and he came out of his car shooting. (It affected the relation of my friend's friend because the marine's family blamed her for breaking up with him for his breaking down like that. Guess she should've just put up with his abuse and everything would've been fine.)


But isn't that fairly normal? All wars, including WW2, have plenty of psychically wounded and people who reached the darkest parts of their own nature during, and after, fighting in combat missions.

And once I read in Rolling Stone about some marines making their way to Baghdad. They were reporting being stressed out over it, losing their humanity. And as they passed a distant village, they thought that MAYBE someone in the village would take offense at their armed convoy and so to be safe ordered a jet to zoom in and "pacify" them. Real brave. Anyway, after the village was destroyed with a missile, one marine shouted, "I just saw 7 people vaporized!" It described a black mushroom cloud, too, which I found ominous.

That night, I dreamed I was leaving the fitness center when a missile hit, and I saw the black mushroom cloud go up, and people being vaporized.

If just READING about it had that effect on me, what must LIVING it do to someone?


Btw, I forget the exact number, but IIRC, it was thousands of underage students (I don't recall if it was just high schoolers or all of them combined) committed suicide every single year in the USA, too. Just one reason among many why I won't ever send any child I love (or even just didn't hate) to one.

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artlovesdawn
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posted November 14, 2007 07:48 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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Mirandee
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posted November 16, 2007 04:49 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Those are sad stories, Dervish and I recall hearing about two of them on the news.

The government does need to take care of it's troops better and provide counseling and adjustment services for them.

There were not this many suicides by vets during or after the Viet Nam war and that was a very horrible war to have to fight. My brother in law was an MP in Viet Nam and he told me that quite often they had to go in and get a soldier who had shot or maimed himself so he would have to be sent home. The draft was in effect then and most of the guys in that war had to go. They had no choice. My brother in law saw a lot of horrible things but he managed to adjust well after coming home. But if you questioned him further about what he actually saw he did not want to talk about it. His brother served in Viet Nam too and he has never been the same. Never managed to get his life together.

It was on the news two days ago that most of those who committed suicide were in the National Guard and not regular military. Though many were regular military as well. I think it is because they have to serve two and three and sometimes more tours of duty. I heard one vet say on a documentary that he felt like the only way he was going to ever go back home was in a body bag.

The National Guardsmen lose their jobs at home having to do that many subsequent tours of duty. Their families are not taken care of by the government so they also lose their homes. There are very few available jobs in the States now due to outsourcing and the economy. It was on the news that homeless shelters are now serving alot of Iraq vets. So many of them come home to nothing and along with that maybe a feeling of hopelessness for the world as well.

This is a shame. Those guys risk their life on a daily basis. War does screw up the psyche of those who have to fight them and see such terrible things every day. They deserve better treatment than this by those in the government who start the wars. They deserve better from the country they are laying their lives on the line for.

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Randall
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posted November 19, 2007 09:47 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

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