Soldier Who Killed 5 Was In Counseling

CBS Evening News: Sgt. John Russell's Father, Son Speak Out, Say He Just E-Mailed For Mother's Day

(CBS)  Tuesday the army identified the American soldier who went on a deadly rampage at an Army base in Iraq and charged him with the murder of five other U.S. service members.

Sgt. John Russell, a 44-year-old Texan, has been in the military 20 years. Russell was on his third tour of duty in Iraq and, as CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports, there were signs he was in trouble.

His commanders feared Russell was on the edge. So, they took away his weapon and ordered him to counseling at a combat stress clinic in Baghdad.

And it was there Monday, officials say, that Russell opened fire, killing five fellow service members. Among his victims: Navy Commander Charles Springle, a licensed clinical social worker.

Today at their home in Sherman, Tex., Russell's 20-year-old son struggled to understand how his dad, a decorated electronics expert, now faces five counts of murder.

"He's got medals. He was doing good for the country," John Russell II said. "For him to do something like that, he couldn't of been in his right state of mind. They had to have put him to a breaking point. Because he just had to have lost it lost all train of thought to do anything like that."

Sgt. Russell's father said he may have snapped out of fear that his military career could be ended by a stress diagnosis.

"His life was over as far as he was concerned. He was gonna lose everything. I guess it was just too much," Wilburn Russell said.

Military investigators don't know what triggered the shootings, but say Russell was agitated when he was asked to leave the clinic after arguing with a counselor.

A short time later, Russell returned to the stress center with a weapon he apparently stole from his armed escort. The rampage played out quickly.

"His chain of command had concerns about him. He had been undergoing counseling within the command. Again, they had already taken the immediate measure of removing his weapon," Gen. David Perkins said.

The incident is the deadliest involving soldier on soldier violence in the six-year Iraq war. In response, the Army has launched an investigation to determine if it needs more people and facilities in war zones to deal with combat stress and soldiers on the brink.

"These are the canaries in the mine," said Patrick Campbell of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Of America. "If we don't start addressing these issues people are get more and more injured and it's going to get harder to treat them."

For Russell, who'd planned to be home by July, it's too late.

"We are crestfallen, heartbroken," Wilburn Russell said. "His mother is hiding in there crying. We're sorry for the families involved too."

Russell's family says they knew of no warning signs. Russell recently e-mailed his son on his birthday and just Sunday, e-mailed his mother for mother's day.

[rrozsa]

War is the dumbest thing mankind has created... and it will be our down fall, if not during the actual war, it will be crumbling from the inside when all the poor people like John start to snap.
Posted by Iamnotasheep at 2:54 AM : May 13, 2009

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Just "talking it over and getting along with everyone" is a great idea -- I'm all for it, if only the rest of the world would go along with it too. Unfortunately we've seen this is not the case -- there are those who will not rest until everyone's freedoms are done away with, including free speech, freedom of thought, and freedom of religion. Sometimes peace cannot be accomplished without a fight.

[rrozsa]

That's right. Idiots like Pelosi have done everything they possibly could to impede these wars. They have caused them to drag on years longer than they otherwise might have. Had we simply accepted that war is a terrible thing and gotten it over with swift fury this man would be home BBQing with his family. SHAME ON THOSE WHO prolonged these conflicts. War must be swift and decisive. War must be such that it extinguishes any desire whatsoever in our enemies for generations. Instead we worried about poor poor insurgents standing on cardboard boxes!!!!
Posted by allylic at 11:58 PM : May 12, 2009

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Thank you for saying what many of us have been thinking. I hate war, but if war is necessary, as it sometimes is, fighting it half-azzed is worse than just surrendering to the enemy on day one, since it costs thousands more lives.

[naj1953]

I feel for all our boys in the middle east fighting this war. I feel bad for all concerned with what happened. I have a nephew who came back from there and I think it is a shame that these boys do more then one time in that hell....God Bless our boys....

[nena200977]

First of all I feel for the victims.....I can`t imagine what they are going through!! Second we can discuss all we want about the war but this soldiers had a history not being fit for the military. He went a wall 6 years ago after an argument with his superiors. He only got demoted instead of getting kicked. He was not supposed to be there in the first place. The Military failed to acknowledge the problem. The Military needs the body count or it would not be able to make all these deployments.

[mjinba07]

You're posting word salad there, edtblvgbl

[Renegade.Rivers]

The more that the military uses stopgap procedures to maintain their military force, the more that things like this are going to happen. Sometime ago, the military started paying anyone who was being held beyond their ETS (end of term in service) date in the military $500.00 more a month. This was done as a "moral booster," for those who were not being allowed to ETS. While this might seem to be a smart move on the part of the Pentagon, what they fail to realize is the fact that the human mind can only take so much before it begins to crumble. So all of the money in the world, cannot keep these men and women from suffering the effects of PTSD and other mental disabilities.

There have been several studies done, which for the most part the mainstream media has failed to pickup on, showing that between 10 to 20% of those who are sent on second tours and beyond in Iraq and Afghanistan are not "fit for duty," due to mental issues. This is due to the lack of turn around time before these soldiers are being sent back into combat zones, and therefore unable to deal with what they are having to face.

It seems that from a logical standpoint that one of three things must happen, either more troops have to be enlisted to fill the slots now left vacant by those returning from combat zones, there has to be a reinstitution of the draft, or we must begin bringing the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The first option for the most part seems to not be working, as more and more young men and women see how the military is being treated. With the lack of support our trrops are receiving while in combat zones from issues such as shortages of clean water, poorly installed electrical and plumbing facilities, and little mental health care, and then the poor treatment they receive from the medical facilities both in the military, and the VA system, these are not good incentives to encourage enlistment.

The second option, a reinstatement of the draft, is not a popular alternative, especially with the liberals. While an all volunteer military may work during times of peace, it does not work when there are combat zones to be dealt with. This is especially true in the case where troops are being sent to combat zones on tour after tour. Many of the troops now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are on their third tour in a combat zone, and many of them have had tours extended in order to fill slots needed to operate in these combat zones.

Until these issues are dealt with we will continue to see the breakdown of more and more troops due to PTSD and the stress of living with daily threats of attack, and and hostile actions within the combat zone.

The only other logical alternative is to start bring the troops home, and stop the illegally instigated wars that the Bush administration started in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to statistics that the mainstream media fails to bring to the public attention, the actual number of casualities in Afghanistan are over 70,000 including those who have been killed, and those severally wounded.

What many fail to realize is that many of those wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan would have died in previous conflicts, but due to the advances in medical care, many of those now wounded are being kept alive. This in itself carries a two-edged sword. One the one hand, it is good that many who would have died in previous conflicts are now being kept alive, but at the same time the cost to care for these wounded, will be a burden to the American taxpayer for decades to come. Unfortunately little of this cost was considered when our leaders decided that we should send combat troops into Afghanistan and Iraq. As the price of waging these wars continues to spiral upward, and the shortage of manpower within the military continues to increase, the logic for continuing these combat operations continues to decrease.

[mjinba07]

Any ideas on what, if anything, the public can do to help those in our military get the proper treatment where and when they need it? These brave, fellow Americans deserve no less! Any less....should be unacceptable to every fellow American!
Posted by Solarrays247 at 9:46 PM : May 12, 2009

What the public can do to help:

At present a soldier, sailor, airman or guardsman can be in combat one day and then discharged the next - stepping off the plane in their home town with no more orders, no more guidance, and no support. We put them through rigorous basic to reshape them for military life and war, then just expect them to automatically return happily to civilian life when we're done with them? SO, write your representatives and senators and demand that each branch of the military institute an adequate readjustment phase for soldiers returning home from combat zones. The military has access to sensible ways this can be designed and implemented. It'll take money and strong arming, but it's one of the costs of war which we are paying now in damage to our vets, their families and society caused by PTSD.

When you know of a soldier who's returned and seems to be in trouble, walk him into a Vet Center in your area. Don't just suggest he or she goes. Go there with him. You can take him to the VA, too, and there are an awful lot of good, dedicated people and excellent programs there. There's more baggage around the VA's reputation and some will be swayed by that. No place is going to be "trouble free."

If you know of a woman who'd served and is having trouble, call the VA and find the nearest facility with a program for WOMEN. This is important because of the frequency of military sexual assault and the uselessness, if not unintentional further damage, done by male dominated treatment facilities.

Become aware of the support systems we do have for veterans and those which are in your area - county and state Veteran Service Offices, the DAV, Order of the Purple Heart, IWVO, American Legion, VFW, etc. The people in these organizations can be helpful to you, too, in understanding and connecting with resources for your vet.

Posted by Iamnotasheep at 5:25 AM : May 13, 2009
Thanks for your point and the insights you provide here. You're right, the civilian American public by and large has no idea whatsoever what military service and life is like. This is crazy, especially since we all benefit greatly from the work and the sacrifices our folks in uniform provide. Posts like yours and others here help to educate at least a little.

[Iamnotasheep]

They only send the ones they see about to snap to these centers.

My brother in law has been out there 5 times, and he's one of the guys who's ordered to kick down doors and shoot everyone inside.
He wakes up and night attacking my sister because he doesn't know where he is and what's going on. Sometimes his "on/off button" is broken. There are tons of guys like him, who take it to their commanders and they don't want to lose these guys due to mental illness, so they don't send them to get checked out by the psychiatrists.

He's a good guy, he's been doing right for his country, but if he were to have snapped while he was out there i wouldn't have been surprised. And i would have said he had to have had a reason too. It wouldn't change what he did, but there would be a bigger WHO responsible for it.

when he was out there my sister was in a high risk pregnancy, she had cancer to top it all off, and they were supposed to send him home 3 different times because she was stationed in a state all by herself away from us, her family. He wasn't allowed home to help her because they didn't want to bring him home, even though he was due to get out of the military TWO MONTHS before his tour was going to be up. They didn't let him get out either they FORCED him to sign on for more time because they weren't going to let him go home.. it's not important to let one soldier fly home alone even after his time and 5 tours of serving was up.

They would give him a 30 minute satelite phone to call my sister and talk to her during her long pregnancy and he'd often get defected phones that wouldn't work or the 30 minute cards only had 10 mintues on them after all the fees that phone company charged and stuff so he'd get pissed about that.

Going through all of that he almost lost it a couple of times out there, and there were a couple of times we really thought he would. And even since he's gotten back there have been a couple of times he's freaked out, but we don't blame him because we know he's been through a lot and he's a good guy.

He talked about how it starts to get to you that when you're out there you can't talk to people normally. You have to shove a gun in people's faces to get them to listen to you even if it's for their own safety and that puts our soldiers at risk too. But you people wouldn't hear about all of this kind of **** on t.v would you?

SO before some of you go judging people you should consider the fact that you ARE NOT THERE, and you don't know everyone's situations. Sure the majority of soldiers are stable and don't run the risk of hurting people, but not everyone has gone through the same things out there in the war. So you don't KNOW what caused it, because if his own family didn't see his break down coming who the hell do you think you are to know any different and know that he's just a cold hearted murderer??

As far as I'm concerned the majority of the American people have NO idea what's really going on in our military men and women's lives. So don't act like you do.

[julesarcher1]

I'm just going to leave it alone because obviously you really haven't had to deal with the war personally.

And trust me. One person feeling for the this man and his family is going to be minuscule next to all the people like you who will be out for blood.

Posted by Iamnotasheep at 4:47 AM : May 13, 2009

Nothing about me is obvious to you. I haven't revealed a thing about my experiences with the military. You're making an assumption and calling it "obvious". Well, you're wrong. And I'm not out for blood. You're wrong again. I said nothing about what should happen to him. You made another bad assumption. Stick to your points instead of trying to make assumptions about me when there's no way you could have info that would reasonably lead you to those conclusions.

All I did was respond to your posts. You claimed him a victim. Maybe he is, but the others involved are victims more than he. I don't know what happened, but I'm not going to call him "poor John".

Yes, I will leave it at that.

[panhandlpete]

He was under couseling, but was he being given drugs? No one has made a statement to that fact, and these so-called emotional drugs have side effects.

Instead of sending MORE personnel to Iraq/Afghanistan to deal with stress related issues of the soldiers.......why not DO what was promised, BRING ALL THE SOLDIERS HOME from there and provide any/all care they need to make them whole again if it is possible?????

Realistically, WAR is a support mechanism for power, greed and population control with the human factor of injuries and deaths being the negative efffects with lasting ramifications. All soldiers are "taught" killing machines so sometimes the on/off switch gets broken, and bad things may happen, but the WHO that should be held accountable is the big question.

Is this how the HSD is developing its list of potential "terrorist" soldiers by gathering info from the clinics working with stressed out soldiers who are doing second, third or more tours in this war zone?