120 Veteran Suicides Per Week: The Unknown Fallen

[Guest guest]

Estimate: 120 Veteran Suicides Per Week

 

Institute for Public Accuracy

 

915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045

(202) 347-0020 * _http://www.accuracy.org_ (http://www.accuracy.org/) *

_ipa_ (ipa)

_

PM Monday, March 24, 2008

 

Veteran and Soldier Suicides: " The Unknown Fallen "

 

Late last year, a CBS News investigation found that in 2005 " there were at

least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That's 120

each and every week, in just one year. "

 

Last week, CBS News reported on data it had just obtained from the

government on veterans who were recently treated by the Veterans Administration.

In

this limited sample, " two age groups stood out between

2000 and 2007. First, ages 20-24 -- those likely to have served during the

Iraq-Afghan wars. Suicide attempts rose from 11 to 47. And for vets ages 55 to

59, suicide attempts jumped from 19 to 117. "

 

JOYCE and KEVIN LUCEY, _kjlucey_ (kjlucey) Joyce and

Kevin Lucey are the parents of Jeffrey Lucey, who committed suicide after

being in Iraq for five months in 2004. Joyce Lucey said today: " My son was

betrayed first by a government who sent him to war and then by the Veterans

Administration for not giving him the treatment he needed.

 

He and others died from this war but their names will never be on a memorial

wall. " The letters we received from him were brief and sanitized. But to his

girlfriend of six years, he said in April of 2003 he felt he had done

immoral things and that he wanted to erase the last month of his life. 'There

are

things I wouldn't want to tell you or my parents, because I don't want you to

be worried. Even if I did tell you, you'd probably think I was just

exaggerating. I would never want to fight in a war again. I've seen and done

enough

horrible things to last me a lifetime.' "

 

Kevin Lucey said today: " Jeffrey had Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but

PTSD is not so much a mental dysfunction as a normal response to an abnormal

situation. Jeffrey refused to go to the VA due to the stigma associated with it.

We finally got him to the VA, but after he committed suicide, the VA wouldn't

give us all his medical records, claiming a Freedom of Information Act

exemption. We finally managed to get the records -- Jeffrey had told them how he

was thinking of committing suicide and they put him down as a moderate risk. "

 

Joyce and Kevin Lucey testified at the recent Winter Soldier conference.

Audio of their testimony is at _http://warcomeshome.org/taxonomy/term/62_

(http://warcomeshome.org/taxonomy/term/62) ; video of various testimony is at

<_http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier/testimony/video_

(http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier/testimony/video) .

 

CLOY RICHARDS, _cloy_

(cloy) , _http://grassrootsamerica4us.org_

(http://grassrootsamerica4us.org/) Cpl. Cloy Richards served two tours in Iraq

as a Marine, including a

siege of Fallujah. He returned home suicidal and fought with the VA for almost

two years trying to obtain help for his traumatic brain injury and PTSD.

Ultimately, his mother had to go to Congress to obtain the help he needed.

Richards

contributed several poems to " Warrior Writers: Re-Making Sense, " a

collection of creative writing and art by members of Iraq Veterans Against the

War.

One of his poems, " Survivor's Guilt, " is available at:

_http://www.robkall.com/articles/life_a_allen_l__070521_poems_from_a__p_t_s_.htm\

_

(http://www.robkall.com/articles/life_a_allen_l__070521_poems_from_a__p_t_s_.htm\

)

 

 

MIKE BOWMAN, _mikebowman_ (mikebowman) ,

_http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/Testimony.aspx?TID=11136_

(http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/Testimony.aspx?TID=11136)

Bowman testified before the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs in

December. He said: " As my family was preparing for our 2005 Thanksgiving meal,

our

son Timothy was lying on the floor of my shop office, slowly bleeding to death

from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His war was now over, his demons were

gone. Tim was laid to rest in a combination military, firefighter funeral that

was a tribute to the man he was. " Tim was the life of a party, happy-go-lucky

young man that joined the National Guard in 2003 to earn money for college

and get a little structure in his life.

 

On March 19 of 2005 when Specialist Timothy Noble Bowman got off the bus

with the other National Guard soldiers of Foxtrot 202 that were returning from

Iraq he was a different man. He had a glaze in his eyes and a 1,000-yard stare,

always looking for an insurgent. ... " [My son] was not counted in any VA

statistics of any kind. He had not made it into the VA system because of the

stigma of reporting mental problems, he was National Guard, and he was not on a

drill weekend when he took his life. The only statistical study that he was

counted in was the CBS study. And there are many more just like him. We call

them KBA's, killed because of action. The unknown fallen. "

 

YANIA PADILLA, _empressyania_

(empressyania) Sister of Walter Padilla, Yania said

today: " My brother committed suicide

on April 1, 2007. He was about to become engaged, they'd bought rings, they

had gone house-hunting the day before. He'd been discharged with PTSD in

February of 2005. He'd gone to the VA, but they just gave him some pills. He

was

withdrawn and introspective. " See " Vet's war continued at home " at:

_http://www.csindy.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A20523_

(http://www.csindy.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:20523) .

 

For background, see:

 

" Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans " Nov. 13, 2007

_http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtm\

l_

(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtm\

l)

 

 

" Suicides Seen Among Vets Treated By VA " March 20, 2008

_http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/20/cbsnews_investigates/main3956210.shtm\

l_

(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/20/cbsnews_investigates/main3956210.shtm\

l)

 

 

CNN reported Feb. 3, 2008 that according to the military's own statistics:

" Every day, five U.S. soldiers try to kill themselves. Before the Iraq war

began, that figure was less than one suicide attempt a day. "

_http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/01/military.suicides/index.html_

(http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/01/military.suicides/index.html)

 

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: David

Zupan, (541) 484-9167

 

 

 

 

 

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