Army Suicides, Some Causalities Are Not On The Battlefield

Army Vice Chief of Staff General Peter Chiarelli said that as of Monday, 140 active duty soldiers are believed to have died of self-inflicted wounds. That’s the same as were confirmed for all of 2008.
“We are almost certainly going to end the year higher than last year — this is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way,” he said. AP News

As the wars stretch on mental stress will build up. The long separations and families having to learn to adapt without an important family member puts wear on relationships. One minute mom/dad/husband/wife are there the next they are not. Additionally families learn to move on while their soldier is deployed, but the soldier does not. For them the time has not moved on, they were gone but need the routine they remembered from the previous year. The readjustment is hard and its not always easy to identify.

In the past with medical abnormalities and illnesses, like Agent Orange or the Desert Storm Virus, the military has been slow to respond or not willing to. In this case, it has hit home. The Army, like all branches take after their own. The Army G-1, the staff office responsible for personnel, has created a resource, training, and makes sure leadership is aware of suicide signs. Even still its hard to spot. Soldiers are our heros. They are tough, resilient, and its almost impossible to imagine that something can defeat them. It hits near and far, and even after our soldiers come home.

The Army is on top of it as best it can but with the stress our soldiers are experiencing fighting two wars is taking its toll. The time has come to end it. If we are to do anything, Mr. President, let us commit the full measure of our warmachine and finish this fight so that our soldiers may come home. No more meetings, no more deliberations, let us act now lest more soldiers are lost.

I say this not as a citizen journalist, nor as a liberty activist, but as a former soldier who has already lost one friend too many.

Let us end it.

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