Jump In Suicides Spurs Army Stand Down

CBS Evening News: String Of Suicides Leads Army To Take Unprecedented Action

(CBS)  When Sgt. Larry Flores hung himself last August, his fellow Army recruiters in Texas never saw it coming, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

"It was a complete shock," said Staff Sgt. Amanda Henderson, who is also an Army recruiter. "I took it very bad.

But that was only the beginning of Amanda Henderson's nightmare. Two weeks later, her husband, Sgt. Patrick Henderson, called her from his cell phone.

"He was just hysterical, crying, screaming and he kept saying he had a shotgun and he can't deal with it anymore. He's done. He's done. He can't deal with it anymore," she said.

She coaxed him home and got the shotgun away from him, but he was still raving.

"He was saying that he sees Iraqi women and that the men will be along soon and we can get them," she said.

Sgts. Anderson and Flores had two things in common. They both had served in combat and were working 70-hour weeks as Army recruiters.

Six weeks after Flores hanged himself, Henderson did the same.

"He had taken the dog chain and strangled himself," Amanda Henderson said.

An investigation blamed the plague of suicides among recruiters on a toxic mix of job stress, poor leadership and personal problems.

But those suicides were only a small part of an Army-wide trend so disturbing that the Army Chief of Staff told President Obama about it the first time he visited the Pentagon.

Last year saw more Army suicides than any year on record. And now it has gotten worse - much worse.

There were 24 Army suicides in the month of January, double last year's rate and more than were killed in combat that month in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's so shocking that starting Sunday, the Army is ordering every soldier to stop what she or he is doing and undergo training in suicide prevention.

"There's never been an Army-wide stand down for the entire Army," said Maj. Gen. John Hawkins said. "That's how serious we're taking this."

It will include an interactive video in which a fictional soldier sees his best buddy killed and gets a Dear John e-mail. It addresses one of the Army's biggest problems - the stigma of admitting you can't handle it.

But the Army can't make the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan go away - and nearly 2/3 of soldiers who take their lives are either in the war zones or have been there.

[tuffone31]

Old pilot 954.
Get over it; got rid of Bush.
New guy, now.
Meeting problems -head on.
Head up, head off, head down.
It's all good.
You'll see.
Bush -he's in the bush.
Leave him be.
Help Obama.
Obama-helper.
You ole Bush-basher.
He gone.

[rnbwprsm5]

'' .. make consensual pornographic kids & ol folk disappear, not non-consensual non-pornographic folk .. ''

'' .. easy to imagine world fed, difficult imagine taxed .. statistically, far more often encounter quality & quantity friends what run out & feed world because they think silly to tax because enemy made it so .. i imagine plants should not only have flown before birds, but should rescape land regularly .. ''

'' .. little kids are wierd .. transmiss selfs to sick bed partys, churn out landfill''s worth arts & crafts & med math you are here map song dance skit kit, & throw all away: voteing to ship, at a cost to them of trillions dollars & billions missing war babys, their stealth pilots to all incidents & accidents .. & do it again & again .. ''

'' .. trillions years & millions dollars raped dead war babys throwing themselfs at our feet to plead mercy didn''t do tricks to make folk cry tears of volunteerism, just suffered & died .. could have taught them sticker our wounds with their garden-bloomed bandages, but is more satisfying listening to them whimper & whine, makes us feel like truly endless & potent little kids .. ''

'' .. haven''t you heard: stealths make war, kids get warred on .. no!, they chimed, & this is our first trillion dollar nuke bio chemo stealth ray get sick tax world first strike holy school tax job war, have patience .. ''

[rnbwprsm5]

'' .. statistics favor none of it, is a silly story .. smallest immortal is infinitely more big than all mortal worlds combined: but geometry says infinite points, infinite theoretical space, between even smallest closest points .. most folk most time weave vegetables, not war toys: most war folk most time whine how all vegetable weavets in their lifes are keeping them down .. if physics doesn''t offer something from nothing but universe spontaneously erupted in midst of endless oblivion: then is physics, is forever, just timeless re-memory of unending dreams re-echoed endless times each infinitely tinyest moment .. if sentience as we know races with opposable thumbs toward survival of fitest and weakest alike with exponential growth & discovery: then is not statistal default a perfect forever of seamlessly realistic virtual labrynths as rich as imaginations & as accessible as will & as charityably bestowed upon little sands & whole galaxys as upon us .. & didn''t we already in future go back to edit past .. didn''t ones 10 billion years alive before us do so too .. does not each of us, like so many internet-conjoined-life&wish-support machines, already rally round all infinite sick beds in forever each & every moment without waver without flinch without doubt & with limitless skill & dedication .. & isn''t each of those sick beds one of our very own: more so: infinite ones of our very own, each and every one .. ''

[rnbwprsm5]

'' .. arrange original shopgift bouquets of miracles & other cures & bulbs from your own portable custym landscapes & other adornments, hike & bus & camp & nap trail crossing to trail crossing, hold hands weave bouquets & bloom share free food meds sexx toys sponge bus rides dirt farms with all forever, song dance skit kit medical you are here maps, dance get well feed world get sick tax world hike naked dance dressed hike dressed dance naked porn songs, play zero-resistance tai chi aikido yogaerobic ink blot sport & puzzle as if ever is a dance & dine musical epic quest to cure uncommon mortal deaths & common immortal lifes, & party rally round sick beds what swim drift spore bloom weed dragon trail fickle first aid lunch farm cottage studio trail crossing yseedsberry trail group subsistance farms .. shift shapes & toggle virtual & realtime & travel eternitys at speeds of thoughts, you have infinite divergence with infinite wishes come true & infinite lines resolution with infinite fast refresh .. you''re all little dressed naked lazy diligent sober lusty dopey celibate intransient transient adult lilkid olfolk subsistance soldiet farmet bits of dust and endless oceans of eternal storyboards magically erupted in depths of endless fountains of oblivion and eternity .. ''

[rnbwprsm5]

'' .. make consensual pornographic kids & ol folk disappear, not non-consensual non-pornographic folk .. ''

'' .. easy to imagine world fed, difficult imagine taxed .. statistically, far more often encounter quality & quantity friends what run out & feed world because they think silly to tax because enemy made it so .. i imagine plants should not only have flown before birds, but should rescape land regularly .. ''

'' .. little kids are wierd .. transmiss selfs to sick bed partys, churn out landfill''s worth arts & crafts & med math you are here map song dance skit kit, & throw all away: voteing to ship, at a cost to them of trillions dollars & billions missing war babys, their stealth pilots to all incidents & accidents .. & do it again & again .. ''

'' .. trillions years & millions dollars raped dead war babys throwing themselfs at our feet to plead mercy didn''t do tricks to make folk cry tears of volunteerism, just suffered & died .. could have taught them sticker our wounds with their garden-bloomed bandages, but is more satisfying listening to them whimper & whine, makes us feel like truly endless & potent little kids .. ''

'' .. haven''t you heard: stealths make war, kids get warred on .. no!, they chimed, & this is our first trillion dollar nuke bio chemo stealth ray get sick tax world first strike holy school tax job war, have patience .. ''

[lila356]

Whine about Bush all you want but Congress approved everything he did.

Posted by oldpilot954

No they didn''t approve of everything because he was a rogue who lied to the American people and twisted intelligence and made up threats to serve his own agenda. He lied to the soldiers and the world. Wake Up.

[wardoglrs]

Capitalists can exploit you only with your permission: by trading with you, selling to you, asking you to sell out.

Government exploits you at the point of a gun.

As long as you limit the power of the latter, the former can only exploit by providing better products, services and options. if they collude, then all bets are off. But that is a problem with government--in that case fascism--not capitalism.

-dew


"I will accept the rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do." - Robert A. Heinlein


You let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up! Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one and if they ever figure that out there goes our way of life!


I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids. Gen Jack D. Ripper


"War will exist until the distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige as the warrior does today." -JFK

"I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war." -Einstein

[koko1998a]

If anything is responsible for these deaths it is the incredible pressure the military puts on these recruiters to make their quotas. Houston Texas is espcially bad. There the soldiers flat our lie, intimate and threaten our kids with jail or other civil penalties if the kids change their minds about joining up.

Don''t look to Iraq or Afganistan as the source of this problem, look at the Pentagon.

[runningralph]

Shell shock is a terrible thing. In the fifties I lived next door to a man who came back from WWII with a German bride. He went crazy and committed suicide in ''52. Poor guy. I heard him yelling sometimes. Lots of people just can''t handle it.

[lila356]

Good idea, yet too late for many. They should also implement a psychological deprogramming and complete re-entry program to all combat vets coming home. They are not equipped to be normal civilians after such a horrendous experience.

[wardoglrs]

The Voters killed these people but they wont take responsibility just like the leaders wont. The wars have torn the US into pieces of shame so shameful it disgusts me to be human among a Nation of murderers
that drop Nukes on innocent people the American way of doing business is to send troops in and kill as many people as possible for as long as possible just like Nam.

You let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up! Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one and if they ever figure that out there goes our way of life!
CFR member

[oldpilot954]

Whine about Bush all you want but Congress approved everything he did.

[johnpatrick9]

Grab those cowards: Bush and Cheney and Gonzalez and Yoo and Rumsfield and Wolfowitz and any other Neo-Con Republican Fascists and make them do two tours in Iraq/Afghanistan. Their arrogance and incompetence are the cause for the deaths not only of Iraqis and Afgthanis but our own sorely damaged Military....abused and misused by these Republican nincompoops.

[centerfall94]

More blood on the hands of Bush, Cheney, Rove and the neocons. Sad.

[biblethumpar]

Good men and women forced to experience indescribable
things which only they knew and never quite left.
if only the one who sent them there was to be so brave.

[bigrigman7]

It''s sad that 911 was a planned event orchestrated by those in high places within the ranks of the US government along side the the super elite families that control 2/3''s of this world''s economy. That said, thousands of lives have been wasted through combat, suicides, drug and alcohol abuse, etc. over a lie implanted into the minds of the masses carried out by a controlled mainstream media. It''s sad that the bulk of our population do not have a formal education...

[endrepubs]

Deploying our soldiers on 4 or even 5 tours of duty back to back is the best way to destroy our military families. No relationship can withstand that kind of separation. Thank you George Bush for wrecking the military an ruining millions of lives all over the world. So much for Repub family values. Bush fulfilled his personal family vendetta against Sadam and I guess that is all that counts.

[cddmills]

Someone needs to check whether the military had put them on one or more medications to help them cope with battle, and whether they were put on sleeping pills. What are the known side effects of each medication, and what are the effects of drug interactions among those medications? If they were given medications when they came home, what were they? What are the known side effects of those medications and what are effects of the drug interactions. The list should include "everything" - blood pressure medications, cholesterol-lowering medications, gastrointestinal medications, tranquilizers, sleep medications, "everything." All of the medications would be in their military medical files.

Members of the military who have taken their lives have endured "horrible" stresses over these many years. All sorts of medications can make patients "more" vulnerable emotionally and physically. Someone needs to review the list of medications prescribed for those who committed suicide.

[cddmills]

Someone needs to check whether the military had put them on one or more medications to help them cope with battle, and whether they were put on sleeping pills. What are the known side effects of each medication, and what are the effects of drug interactions among those medications? If they were given medications when they came home, what were they? What are the known side effects of those medications and what are effects of the drug interactions. The list should include "everything" - blood pressure medications, cholesterol-lowering medications, gastrointestinal medications, tranquilizers, sleep medications, "everything." All of the medications would be in their military medical files.

Members of the military who have taken their lives have endured "horrible" stresses over these many years. All sorts of medications can make patients "more" vulnerable emotionally and physically. Someone needs to review the list of medications prescribed for those who committed suicide.

[cddmills]

Someone needs to check whether the military had put them on one or more medications to help them cope with battle, and whether they were put on sleeping pills. What are the known side effects of each medication, and what are the effects of drug interactions among those medications? If they were given medications when they came home, what were they? What are the known side effects of those medications and what are effects of the drug interactions. The list should include "everything" - blood pressure medications, cholesterol-lowering medications, gastrointestinal medications, tranquilizers, sleep medications, "everything." All of the medications would be in their military medical files.

Members of the military who have taken their lives have endured "horrible" stresses over these many years. All sorts of medications can make patients "more" vulnerable emotionally and physically. Someone needs to review the list of medications prescribed for those who committed suicide.