SUICIDE
'Houston Chronicle'
Uncovers Another Iraq Vet
Suicide -- And His Wife Soon
Joined Him

By Greg Mitchell

Published: May 18, 2008 9:40 PM ET


NEW YORK Literally every day now brings a report
on a suicide by a veteran of the Iraq war who served
multiple tours there and/or suffered from PTSD. In
most cases, the stories emerge from small town
newspapers, as E&P has chronicled for nearly five
years. Today's example comes from a much bigger
paper, the Houston Chronicle, and probes at length
a case that occurred last year.

And in this case, the soldier's wife joined him as a
suicide the following day.

The article by Lindsay Wise on Aron Andersson and
Cassy Walton observes that when the former "killed
himself on March 6, 2007, he became one of at
least 16 Army recruiters to commit suicide
nationwide since 2000. Five of those suicides
occurred in Texas, including three at the Houston
Recruiting Battalion, where Andersson worked after
serving two tours of duty in Iraq.

"Roughly one in five U.S. troops returning from Iraq
and Afghanistan reports symptoms of
post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression,
but only slightly more than half have sought
treatment, according to a recently published Rand
Corp. study. Of those who did seek care, only about
half received minimally adequate treatment, the
study found.

"Amid increasing concerns about failure to screen,
diagnose and treat soldiers with mental health
problems adequately, Andersson's story raises
questions about the pressures faced by the growing
number of veterans who return from multiple combat
deployments to high-stress recruiting assignments
back home."

The article talks about the soldier's experience in
Iraq and return home: "The only thing the father
knew for sure was that his son had changed. He
was more frustrated, less patient and harder to talk
to. 'Did he come back different? Yeah,' Bob
Andersson said. 'I don't think there's anybody who
goes over there and fights on the front lines who
ever comes back the same.'

"The soldier once told his father about working a
barricade in Iraq when a white van barreled toward
U.S. troops, ignoring warning shots and orders to
stop. 'It was definitely a suicide mission, and he
said this van full of people came in and they had to,
quote, light it up,' Bob Andersson said. 'And he said
there were children in there and everything. I could
tell that really, really, bothered him.'"

The lengthy article is at:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5788103.h
tml
Fear That Suicides May
Top War Deaths
May 06, 2008
Agence France-Presse


Suicides and "psychological mortality" among U.S.
Soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan could
exceed battlefield deaths if their mental scars are left
untreated, the head of the U.S. Institute of Mental Health
is warning.

Of the 1.6 million U.S. troops who have been deployed in
Iraq and Afghanistan, 18-20 percent -- or around
300,000 -- show symptoms of post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), depression or both, said Thomas Insel,
head of the National Institute of Mental Health.

An estimated 70 percent of those at-risk Soldiers do not
seek help from the Department of Defense or the
Veterans Administration, he told a news conference May
5 launching the American Psychiatric Association' s
161st annual meeting here.

If "one just does the math", then allowing PTSD or
depression to go untreated in such numbers could result
in "suicides and psychological mortality trumping combat
deaths" in Iraq and Afghanistan, Insel warned.

More than 4,000 U.S. Soldiers have died in Iraq since
the U.S. invasion of 2003, and more than 400 in
Afghanistan since the U.S. led attacks there in 2001, of
which some 290 were killed in action and the rest in
on-combat deaths.

"It's predicted that most Soldiers -- 70 percent -- will not
seek treatment through the DoD or VA," Insel said at the
meeting, at which the psychological impact of war is
expected to top the agenda over the next four days.

Left untreated, PTSD and depression can lead to
substance abuse, alcoholism or other life-threatening
behaviors.

"It's a gathering storm for the civilian and public health
care sectors," Insel said.

He urged public-sector mental health caregivers to
recognize the symptoms of psychological troubles
resulting from deployment to a war zone and be ready to
provide adequate care for both Soldiers and their
families.

Other items on the agenda at the meeting, set to be
attended by some 19,000 psychiatrists and mental
health practitioners from around the world, include
violence in schools, the psychology of extremism, and
more light-hearted topics such as how music affects
mood.
Iraq war vets' suicide rates analyzed
High numbers found among members
of Guard, Reserves
Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
More than half of veterans who took their own lives
after returning from Iraq or Afghanistan were
members of the National Guard or Reserves,
according to new government data that prompted
activists on Tuesday to call for a closer examination
of the problem.

A Department of Veterans Affairs analysis of ongoing
research of deaths among veterans of both wars
found that Guard or Reserve members accounted
for 53 percent of the veteran suicides from 2001,
when the war in Afghanistan began, through the end
of 2005.

The research, conducted by the department's Office
of Environmental Epidemiology, provides the first
demographic look at suicides among veterans from
those wars who left the military.

Joe Davis, public affairs director for the Veterans of
Foreign Wars, said the Pentagon and VA must
combine efforts to track suicides among those who
have served in those countries to get a clearer
picture of the problem.

At certain times in 2005, members of the Guard and
Reserve made up almost half the troops fighting in
Iraq. Overall, they were almost 28 percent of all U.S.
military forces deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan or in
support of the operations, according to Defense
Department data through the end of 2007.

Many Guard members and Reservists have done
multiple tours that kept them away from home for 18
months, and that is taking a toll, Sen. Patty Murray,
D-Wash., said in a statement Tuesday.

"Until this administration understands that repeated
and prolonged deployments are stretching our brave
men and women to the brink, we will continue to see
these tragic figures," Murray said.

Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and
Afghanistan Veterans of America, said the military's
effort to rescreen Guard members and Reservists for
mental and physical problems three months after
they return home is a positive step, but a more
long-term, comprehensive approach is needed to
help them.

The VA has said there does not appear to be an
epidemic of suicide among returning veterans, and
suicide among the newer veterans is comparable to
the same demographic group in the general
population.

But an escalating suicide rate in the Army, as well as
high-profile suicides such as the death of Joshua
Omvig - an Iowa Reservist who shot himself in front
of his mother in December 2005 after an 11-month
tour in Iraq - have alarmed some members of
Congress and advocates.

In November, President Bush signed the Joshua
Omvig suicide prevention bill, which directed the VA
to improve its mental health training for staff.

According to the VA's research, 144 veterans
committed suicide from the start of the war in
Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, through the end of
2005. Of those, 35 veterans, or 24 percent, served
in the Reserves and 41, or 29 percent, served in the
National Guard. Sixty-eight - or 47 percent - had
been in the regular military. Statistics from 2006 and
2007 were not yet available, the VA said.

Among the total population of Iraq and Afghanistan
veterans who have been discharged from the
military, almost half are formerly regular military and
a little more than half were in the Guard and
Reserves, according to the VA.

Among those studied, more than half of the veterans
who committed suicide were aged 20 to 29. Almost
three-quarters used a firearm to take their lives.
Almost 82 percent were white.

The VA study does not include those who committed
suicide in the war zones or those who remained in
the military after returning home from war.

Last year, the Army said its suicide rate in 2006 rose
to 17.3 per 100,000 troops, the highest level in 26
years of record keeping. The Army said recently that
as many as 121 soldiers committed suicide last year.
If all are confirmed, the number would be more than
double the number reported in 2001.

Hot line
Veterans Affairs Department suicide hot line: (800)
273-8255
15,000 or more US
casualties in Iraq War          



By Mike Whitney

11/17/07 "ICH" -- -- The Pentagon has been
concealing the true number of American casualties
in the Iraq War. The real number exceeds 15,000
and CBS News can prove it.

CBS’s Investigative Unit  wanted to do a report on
the number of suicides in the military and “submitted
a Freedom of Information Act request to the
Department of Defense”. After 4 months they
received a document which showed--that between
1995 and 2007--there were 2,200 suicides among
“active duty” soldiers.

Baloney.

The Pentagon was covering up the real magnitude
of the “suicide epidemic”. Following an exhaustive
investigation of veterans’ suicide data collected from
45 states; CBS discovered that in 2005 alone
“THERE WERE AT LEAST 6,256   AMONG THOSE
WHO SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES. THAT’S
120 EACH AND EVERY WEEK IN JUST ONE YEAR.”

That is not a typo. Active and retired military
personnel, mostly young veterans between the ages
of 20 to 24, are returning from combat and killing
themselves in record numbers. We can assume that
"multiple-tours of duty" in a war-zone have
precipitated a mental health crisis of which the public
is entirely unaware and which the Pentagon is in
total denial.

   If we add the 6,256 suicide victims from 2005 to
the “official” 3,865 reported combat casualties; we
get a sum of 10,121. Even a low-ball estimate of
similar 2004 and 2006 suicide figures, would mean
that the total number of US casualties from the Iraq
war now exceed 15,000.

That’s right; 15,000 dead US servicemen and
women in a war that--as yet--has no legal or moral
justification.

 CBS interviewed Dr. Ira Katz, the head of mental
health at the Department of Veteran Affairs. Katz
attempted to minimize the surge in veteran suicides
saying, “There is no epidemic of suicide in the VA,
but suicide is a major problem.”
Maybe Katz right. Maybe there is no epidemic.
Maybe it’s perfectly normal for young men and
women to return from combat, sink into inconsolable
depression, and kill themselves at greater rates than
they were dying on the battlefield. Maybe it’s normal
for the Pentagon to abandon them as soon as soon
they return from their mission so they can blow their
brains out or hang themselves with a garden hose in
their basement. Maybe it's normal for politicians to
keep funding wholesale slaughter while they brush
aside the casualties they have produced by their
callousness and lack of courage. Maybe it is normal
for the president to persist with the same, bland lies
that perpetuate the occupation and continue to kill
scores of young soldiers who put themselves in
harm’s-way for their country.  
It’s not normal; it’s is a pandemic---an outbreak of
despair which is the natural corollary of living in
constant fear; of seeing one’s friends being
dismembered by roadside bombs or children being
blasted to bits at military checkpoints or finding
battered bodies dumped on the side of a riverbed
like a bag of garbage.
The rash of suicides is the logical upshot of Bush’s
war. Returning soldiers are traumatized by their
experience and now they are killing themselves in
droves. Maybe we should have thought about that
before we invaded.

Check it out the video at: CBS News “Suicide
Epidemic among Veterans” http://www.cbsnews.
com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3
496471.shtml
Iraq War-Related Soldier and Veteran Suicides Top 430
Aaron Glantz


The War Comes Home - KPFA


It’s time to change of count of American war dead upward.

The Associated Press has got hold of a preliminary government study on suicides by Iraq and Afghanistan war
veterans. According to the VA, at least 283 combat veterans who left the military between the start of the war in
Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 and the end of 2005 took their own lives. In addition, 147 troops have killed
themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars began bringing the government count to 430.


The VA’s count is not a complete one, however. It does not include members of the military who returned from
Iraq and then killed themselves before being discharged from the service – people like Sgt Brian Rand who shot
himself in the head after returning home from his second tour.

It also doesn’t include the deaths of people like Sgt. James Dean who was shot by Maryland state troopers after
he barricaded himself in his father’s farmhouse. Observers call those deaths “suicide by cop.”


And it doesn’t include the deaths of people like Sgt. Gerald Cassidy, a 32 year old Indiana National Guardsman,
who died at Fort Knox five months after returning from Iraq with brain damage from a roadside bomb.

How many more American deaths continue to go uncounted?

Regardless, it’s clear is that we need to change our count of casualties upward from 4,229 US military deaths
(3,842 in Iraq and 387 in Afghanistan) to closer to 5,000 – possibly more when you consider those deaths that
still haven’t been counted.

Veterans for Common Sense
Post Office Box 15514
Washington, DC 20003


800 273 TALK  (8255)

National Hot Line 24
hours
CALL 800 273 TALK - (8255)
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