Suicide

[DSmith21]

I just experienced my 3rd one in the past year from a fellow Marine...is there any way or anything we can do where we can avoid this?

For some, man's best friend may be a partial answer. Companion animals are proven to reduce depression and force the owner to be active in the here and now.

https://petsforpatriots.org/can-companion-pets-reduce-veteran-suicide/

 

[FrankUnderwood]

My father put a shotgun to his head in 94 and ended his life. No one knows why except speculation. That said, he wasn't a good father. He was gone from us early and pretty much always. I remember seeing him maybe 10 times. My grandfather raised us. But it still perplexed us.

Holy **** dude... I’m so sorry to hear that

 

[JDHoss]

The 76 year old father of a long time friend shot himself two days ago. He left a note saying he was tired of suffering. He had a couple of polyps removed early last week in an outpatient procedure, and everything was fine except that he was a little sore. He had no other known health problems.

 

[mailman85_rivals376684]

Totally agree with this -
You never know when something innocuous you say or do may spark a significant reaction in someone else...

I was active duty until 2002 and while I took on some interesting assignments- I wasn’t ever in combat like some of these units have been

But even back then I vividly recall a visiting 2-star general (came to ramstein ab from the pentagon) telling us that the shift in policy that was using national guard units as frequently and as widely as if they were active duty - was going to rapidly erode readiness and ultimately “break” the services

I remember the army publishing papers from their “center for lessons learned “ (Leavenworth ks?) - outlining specific examples of armored units being repurposed to patrol streets in the former Yugoslavia....

What they found was that...since USArmy armored divisions / tanks were supposed to...destroy other enemy tanks - that having their men do foot patrol ERODED THEIR MILITARY READINESS


This
Fast forward to the era of never ending global war on “TERROR”....

Deployments that don’t end
Enemies that aren’t clearly identified
Families strained to the breaking point
A military mental health system and culture that makes it almost IMPOSSIBLE to self identify when you can’t take anymore....

And it goes on and on - no end in sight - conditions of victory unclear or non-existent

And that doesn’t touch on the insane/ black activities that may well rest on a mans conscience until he dies

In 2014 we learned that about 35 military veterans were committing Suicide A DAY...

(the numbers were believed to actually be higher since the VA found a way to get some of their patients removed from the data pool)


We need big picture changes that ultimately END the “global war on terror “ and give our beleaguered GIs a respite

We also needed changes in the VA system which DID START UNDER THIS PRESIDENTS ADMIN (have details if interested)

And we need friends/family/churches/civic groups and others to be engaged and communicating with GIs - especially young active duty families and ...sadder still, the population of homeless veterans we have in this country

 

[jedwar]

Holy **** dude... I’m so sorry to hear that

Appreciate that. A weird situation in that I was not close to him in any way but still felt bad for him.