31 Soldier Suicides

A friend and fellow Army retiree asked me why I though so many sokdeirs are committing suicide (31 just last month). It is rather long, but below is my answer to him, for whatever it is worth.

"Without doing any study or comparisons, I think that it is safe to say that the rate of suicides for the United States as a whole has greatly increased in the last fifty years. Like the answers to the question you asked, I am sure there is not any one reason for the increase but many different things that have changed in our society since 1960 and probably even further back than that.

But to get to your question, I don’t think there is any one reason that has caused 31 soldiers to commit suicide last month, rather, in my opinion, there are several things that have allowed this to happen.

First and foremost is the way that today’s young people look at death. THEY DO NOT THINK IT IS REAL AND PERMENANT. We are now into, at least, the second generation of people that were raised with violent Television and Video games where people constantly come back from the dead, either in the movie/video game or the actors just showing up alive in new roles for the next movie/video game. I think that, deep inside, they just don’t realize that death is real and permanent.

Then you have the fact that today it is an ALL VOLUNTEER MILITARY and for today’s young people it is JOB and not a VOCATION, Whether they come in for just enough to get the GI Bill or some other educational benefit or whether they intend to make it a career they just don’t have the dedication that the “Old Soldiers” had. Then when they find out that someone is shooting at them, they want out and for some the fastest and only way out is suicide.

And another factor is that DEDICATION I mentioned above. Without waving a bunch of flags, I think you know what I mean when I say that the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen prior to 1976 had a purpose for joining the military that had to do with God, Country and saving Mom’s Apple Pie and although it may have been a career it wasn’t just a way to get a paycheck. I know that when I joined the Army and especially when I went to Viet Nam twice, I was proud to serve and do my part to protect America from Communism and even to try to destroy Communism. I don’t see any such feelings in today’s soldier, all they seem to want is a paycheck and when they find out that to get it they may get shot at, many of them quit.

Finally, I don’t think that today’s solder has a real grasp of what the “War on Terror” is all about. With Communism, we had specific countries, like Russia, Cuba, North Korea, etc, and specific people, like Stalin, Mao, Castro, Ho Chi Min, etc. that represented the ENEMY. Today, even with Saddam and Iraq; the Taliban and Afghanistan and Bin Laden, the soldiers just don’t have a sense of who they are fighting AND WHY they are fighting. The real shame and problem with that is, I think the Muslims have a better change of conquering the world and establishing the Caliphate than Communism ever did. That being said, I don’t think today’s military (all ranks) really understand how great the threat is to our survival, nor does most of the American people and for **** sure the current President and Congress don’t understand the threat but seem to be helping the Islamists.

When you put all of that together, I have a feeling that those 31 soldiers didn’t think there was any other way out of the mess they were in."

Grumpy

I can respect your ideas but I always considered a suicide as a very selfish act. I'm sure there are exceptions to that. I've seen several friends lose their fathers from this, one was a Navy man who couldn't stand a pending divorce and the other was drugs. It was sad to see what it did to the famlies.

Don, I totally agree that it is selfish with a complete disrard for loved ones left behind. I also think that the selfcenteredness is another aspect of their not believing that death is real. Believe me, I am not making excuses for them or trying to justify why they take thier own life, I was just trying to explain, in my opinion, why I think it comes to that for many of them

Grumpy.

I use to think that suicide was a very selfish act as it left behind the distraught family and friends of the person. However, i now feel that the person who kills themselves feels they have no other way to deal with life and cant deal with life so they commit suicide.

I have 3 suicides that I have dealt with in my life. Two through work who were my probationers. One woman blew her head off with a rifle cuz she was going to spend the rest of her life in jail and she couldnt deal with it. She had killed someone so she decided to kill herself. No family left behind. Her choice. Second was a male client who was a sex offender and couldnt stop so he decided to stop himself by throwing himself off a high bridge. He left a mother and sister. I spend alot of time with them on this. Again his choice.

Finally, recently a good friends husband drowned himself cuz he felt he couldnt deal with something particularily difficult on his own. He had a loving family. Its taken me a year to realize that I have to respect that he choose to deal with things on his own and made his own decision. People who kill themselves are very depressed and not thinking straight. I think they feel backed into a corner with no way out except death. Not a nice place to be in. I dont think anyone could possibly know how they feel unless we ourselves have been close to committing suicide. Just my thoughts and experiences on the subject.

"And another factor is that DEDICATION I mentioned above. Without waving a bunch of flags, I think you know what I mean when I say that the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen prior to 1976 had a purpose for joining the military that had to do with God, Country and saving Mom’s Apple Pie and although it may have been a career it wasn’t just a way to get a paycheck."

I think you are totally wrong on this. And if we are going to group all soldiers together now and say they are not dedicated then we have to group all vietnam era soldiers together and say they were dope smoking hippies. The real truth is most of these soldiers are patriotic and yes I agree that some are here just for the job as many have been in the past but to put all soldiers in one group is wrong and out of touch with reality.

As for the suicides, nobody will ever truely know why these soldiers committed suicide. The enormous amount of stress that some of them are under can not be understood by the layman. I just hope that they are resting in peace and their families are coping with their loss.

[QUOTE=Redskeeter;422117]"And another factor is that DEDICATION I mentioned above. Without waving a bunch of flags, I think you know what I mean when I say that the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen prior to 1976 had a purpose for joining the military that had to do with God, Country and saving Mom’s Apple Pie and although it may have been a career it wasn’t just a way to get a paycheck."

I think you are totally wrong on this. And if we are going to group all soldiers together now and say they are not dedicated then we have to group all vietnam era soldiers together and say they were dope smoking hippies. The real truth is most of these soldiers are patriotic and yes I agree that some are here just for the job as many have been in the past but to put all soldiers in one group is wrong and out of touch with reality.

As for the suicides, nobody will ever truely know why these soldiers committed suicide. The enormous amount of stress that some of them are under can not be understood by the layman. I just hope that they are resting in peace and their families are coping with their loss.[/QUOTE]

I totally agree with your statment but would like to add my thoughts.

Some of the "Old Soldiers" from the WWII, Korea, and Vietnam era try to make it sound like our current VOLUNTEER soldiers are just looking for a uniform and a job; that somehow he is a weakling and less capable of being a "tough" soldier than they were. Nothing could be further from the truth. The old soldiers were DRAFTED which meant they were FORCED into the service. The "baby boom" was the result of having babies to keep from being drafted. To me, that is the same as draft dodging.

It is true that those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq aren't crawling on their bellies through jungles but they ARE crawling on their bellies through the sand, mountains, and caves, which makes them an open target for the enemy. Many of them have to circle their vehicles and sleep in holes dug in the sand, the rain, and sleep in the mudholes, while other soldiers stand watch over them.

I believe that part of the reason there is an increase in the number of soldiers committing suicide is because promises of ending the war have not been kept and they don't know when, or if, they will return home; hopelessness. Another reason is that some of the wives and girlfriends don't have enough sense to keep the bad news and Dear John letters stateside until the soldier returns home. The other sad reason is that the soldier has been maimed, lost limbs, been disfigured, and must depend on a wheelchair for the rest of his life. I have heard of wives rejecting their husbands and just walking away because he is no longer whole.

As for suicides among the teenage/younger generation, there is a group called Goths who are obsessed with death, the macabre, human remains, hell, etc. They promote death and encourage their friends to commit suicide for trivial reasons. They use suicide to punish parents who grounded them, took away driving priviledges, or wouldn't let them go places, date certain people, drink, etc. They encourage it to punish boyfriends or girlfriends who broke up with them or dated someone else. Goths have a "going away" party for the person who is considering suicide which, in my opinion, makes them feel obligated to follow through with it.

"The old soldiers were DRAFTED which meant they were FORCED into the service. The "baby boom" was the result of having babies to keep from being drafted. To me, that is the same as draft dodging."

Bug, talk about not knowing what you are talking about, you just took the prize. Since the beginning of our country and our military, the VAST MAJORITY of our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen have been volunteers NOT DRAFTEES. And, the "baby boom" happened after the war not because of it.

Grumpy

Grumpy, The US Census Bureau defines the demographic birth boom as between 1946 and 1964. Certain sources say the boom period could have begun as early as Jan. 1944 while others say it began in 1941.

The draft began some time around 1940 and ended in 1973. Lyndon Johnson extended it once or twice in order to draft additional soldiers for the Vietnam War. It was not renewed after it expired in 1973.

Really I never new this stuff about Goth's? I'm gonna have to be more educated on that because that sounds like a bad road to nowhere.

Thanks Bug, I admire people that are not afraid to admit when they are wrong.

Grumpy

Our grandson is starting his 7th year in the army, 5 of them have been overseas. 3 tours in the middle east, and now in Japan with the prospect of Korea awaiting him.My step dad was career army infantry,I was also in the service as an infantry men.Why the hell do we we have our troops scattered all over the world?These "kill em with kindness wars are killing us"We should NEVER have gone into Iraq, and we dis what we had to do in afganistan, we beat the snot out of the taliban and alkida, and now were spilling our futures blood over nothing!Dont give me that "fighting terorists"crapola, do what the russians did or ther germans, fight back using more terror.Does anyone know what pax romana meant? it meant you kill a roman, prepare for some serious pain.Over here we showwer them money.A few fuel gas bombs over those mountains would make believers out of those folks.

[QUOTE=Grumpy;422247]"The old soldiers were DRAFTED which meant they were FORCED into the service. The "baby boom" was the result of having babies to keep from being drafted. To me, that is the same as draft dodging."

Bug, talk about not knowing what you are talking about, you just took the prize. Since the beginning of our country and our military, the VAST MAJORITY of our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen have been volunteers NOT DRAFTEES. And, the "baby boom" happened after the war not because of it.

Grumpy[/QUOTE]
Yes, it happened after the war, but it was at least in part because of it. Veterans returning home, and being encouraged to invest in home ownership and higher education through the GI Bill contributed substantially to the baby boom. Many would say that's the main cause. But the idea that it was due to people trying to avoid the draft is a new one. It clearly was not, since being a parent has never been an exemption from the draft. Besides, if you look at the parents of us baby boomers, most who were eligible had already served, so they weren't going to get drafted anyway.