HEADLINE: Army says suicides likely jumped last month
The number could surpass January combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan
That's the headline from MSNBC. Really? We're going to investigate why people are committing suicide in record numbers? Do we need an investigation? The investigation sounds like a bunch of CYOA beauracratic bullshit to me. Do the senior leaders care? I'm sure they do, I mean afterall they are human.
Let me save you the time and money: We're spending 3/4 of our lives in COMBAT ZONES conducting dangerous operations. Even if you're not directly in the combat zone and you get deployed there is still separation hardships, troubles and problems back home, etc.
Why are suicides spiking now? Because the largest group of people are beginning to come back from their 2nd 15 month deployments, including me. I'm still in the shit for a few more months but my wife and I have both spent 30 of the last 42 months deployed.
The unfortunate thing is that the damage is already done and there is no problem to be solved. These things can't be fixed. The officer divorce rate is around 60 percent. Spousal abuse is at an all time high. More and more soldiers are having to enroll in substance abuse programs. This is your Army of empire people. Those that aren't doing illicit substances or abusing the legal ones are getting prescriptions for mood altering medications to combat depression and PTSD. Welcome to the Army. Is it all of us? No. But it's enough to have us wondering what the hell is going to happen to the Army in the next 3-5 years.
There is nothing you can do to get that soldier's wife to come back because their relationship fell apart while he spent 3/4 of the last 5 years in the combat zone. What are you going to do? You can't give them that time back. You can't give soldiers back the 3 or more years they've missed of their children(s') lives. That time is gone. They are already guilt-stricken for missing that. And what did they miss it for. To go liberate a country that didn't want to be liberated. To free a bunch of people that just want to kill us. To go watch their fellow Soldiers get blown out of their fucking trucks and then burn to death.
Fuck you and your beauracratic CYOA bullshit. There's nothing you can do. The damage is done and as more of us return from our second EXTENDED deployment therewill be more suicides, divorces, spoual abuse, spousal homicide. We don't know how to live in that world anymore. Home is here in theater where we spend 3/4 of our time. Home station is just a place where we go to fucking train for the next deployment. Some of us have a hard time adjusting to that life. We can't be in crowded rooms, noisy places, or around loud bangs because our reaction to those things back there is not normal. When I hit the ground here that's the norm that's what you are supposed to do. My behavior has been modified for the combat zone, and just as I start to adjust, guess what, I'm back on a plane bound for this shithole again.
We now have to deal with the conflict of not wanting to stay here but not wanting to be home. Sounds a bit crazy doesn't it. That's because it is. It's crazy to spend 3/4 of your life over the course of 4years in a combat zone.
My son is nearly 4 years old and my wife and I have spent 18 months of his life with him. How do you solve that problem? How do you give me that time back? Bottom line is, you can't.
