Desperate Vets turn to Suicide

[Stuart G]

Source: Raw Story, Detroit News..

Thursday April 16, 2009

Marney Rich Keenan / The Detroit News

On June 11, 2006, at 8:30 p.m., Randen Harvey, a 24-year-old Marine Corps veteran, walked into the emergency room of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Ann Arbor in such a state of despair he warned he "might jump off the roof or put a hose in his car exhaust."

Four hours later, around 1 a.m., he was found on the roof of the nine-story building. Hospital security had to be called to bring him down.

Three days later, on June 15, the Marine who served two back-to-back combat tours in Iraq surrendered to his demons. He was found sprawled on the tile floor in the bathroom of his father's Farmington Hills home, dead from an overdose of street and prescription drugs.




Several branches of the military are reporting significant spikes in the number of suicides committed by both active-duty troops and veterans returning from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Experts are calling the number of military-related suicides sweeping the country an "epidemic."

Read more: http://www.detnews.com/article/20090416/METRO/904160420/Desperate+veterans+turn+to+suicide

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This awful story has been documented before. It must be repeated again and again... even here. Until the new budget is passed and all the money is in place to help, then maybe we can stop running stories like this. But that will years...sadly.

[thebabbster]

1. This is how we...

support our troops? Bumper stickers aren't enough. And no matter how much the GOP rants and raves about how much they support our troops, I still have two words for them: "Walter Reed".

[Stuart G]

2. Welcome to DU...and you are right...Walter Reed,

is and was a disgrace because of the Republicans and their ilk. This would would never have happened if it hadn't been...privatized.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

13. "Support Our Troops" to the GOP

has nothing to do with the troops. It's all about supporting their hateful, warmongering agenda.

[barbtries]

3. it is so sad

:cry:

we're ruining our sons and daughters. beating a dead horse (in Iraq). and i can't even summon the words to express how much i hate that soldiers are going back there time and again whether willingly or not. End war.

[aquart]

4. He begged for help. WHY WAS HE SENT HOME?

[bdamomma]

6. our whole mental health program and health care period needs

to be overhauled, these vets need mental health access.

[noamnety]

14. because he failed a breathalizer.

It's a hell of a circle - vets with PTSD can't get adequate care, they turn to drugs or alcohol, and then the VA uses that as an excuse to refuse any treatment for them.

[bertman]

5. While I don't know this for sure, I imagine that these vets who are committing suicide

are folks who joined the military because they believed that they would be helping to defend America and American values. Then they find themselves in a war where there is NO just cause and there is an unbelievable amount of horror inflicted upon the people our American troops are supposed to be helping. Once you see these types of things and participate in them, even if you didn't mean to, it's very hard to shake those thoughts from the brain.

No doubt these dead vets had a code of conduct and an ethical upbringing that has been so shattered that it could not be restored.

The pain and the sadness and the sense of guilt must be so unbearable.

Helping these veterans should be on the top of our President's agenda. This is unforgivable and a direct result of a Congress and former President who gave only lip service to taking care of those who sacrifice so much for us.

[gratuitous]

7. But try telling the facts prospectively

And you're in for a whole world of you-know-what. Instead, we fill our society with comforting nonsense about defending freedom, serving the country and making the world safer at the point of a gun, and we betray our young people into believing it. And, when the actual shattering truth can't be avoided any longer, we all cluck and tut and feel bad for a few moments about the lives ended at 22 or 24 or 35 or 61 or whenever the the truth catches up.

We then turn to other, meatier issues. And somewhere, another 20 men and women slip away and begin their journey to a violent end.

[bertman]

8. Of course, you're 100% correct, gratuitous. And to make matters worse, it's a national

effort by media and societal pressure to get our young men and women to serve.

I think that the most important element in this is getting families to educate their children about what our military empire REALLY does in the name of freedom and democracy. But that's the difficult part because we are so infused with patriotic fervor and warrior worship that we, as a nation, can't bring ourselves to recognize the awful truth.

[riverdeep]

15. We, like most nations, glorify war.

We put the proud soldier coming home with shiny medals and a parade after taking heroic action on the front page, and the ones who shot a car of innocent citizens because they didn't understand a check point rule, or worse, the outright sadists that seek out cruelty, they keep those stories in the back page.

Another comforting fable, like religion, that causes so much anguish.

In a terrible final blow, it's the sadists that probably have the least problems when they come back. The ethical ones are the ones left haunted.

[Dark]

9. A depressing kick

This needs to get out there.

Poor guys. Gave their country everything, and look at how we repaid them...

[babydollhead]

10. kick

[Imagevision]

11. Shenseki has this under control? Support the troops? yeah wear a ribbon...

[Old Vet]

12. VA Hospitals

Iam forced to get all my treatment for injuries received while in the service. Being treated less-then is sop most of the time. if you speak up or complain see how long you wait for your next appointment.

[fourlessone]

16. This Soldier was my younger Brother

Randen lived with me when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center and many Americans lost their lives. Not only did he feel compassion for the families who had lost their loved ones but he felt a sense of duty to defend our country from terrorist like this and decided to do something about it. He joined the Marines and was sent to Iraq. After his first tour It was obvious that the things he saw over there had changed him. He was an outgoing person that would give you the shirt off his own back during your time of need. When he returned he was distant and somber. He felt out of place and out of touch. He was not sure what to do and had a hard time interacting with society so he signed up for another tour. When he returned the second time the changes were drastic. You need only look into his eyes to see it. Being a truly caring and compassionate person he was never prepared for the things he would see and that would be expected of him as a Marine in wartime Iraq.
He had gone to the VA numerous times after his second tour to seek help only to be turned away. The medication that he overdosed on was the medication that was prescribed to him by the VA that was fully aware that he was suicidal. How can we allow our government and the VA to treat our soldiers, ours sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers who have served our country and our people, like this? It is a disgrace. We as Americans will not tolerate foreign soldiers being tortured yet when our own have been tortured physically or mentally by the war it is somehow accepted. An absolute disgrace.
My Honor and Respects to all who have served.

[cbayer]

17. Your post is heartbreaking and I am so sorry for your loss.

Your brother sounds like he was a wonderful person and his death is a tragedy. I couldn't agree with you more about the disgrace that is the lack of appropriate psychiatric care for our returning soldiers.

Welcome to DU and thank for taking the time to post this.

[alsame]

18. My deepest condolances to you and your family. And I hope

your brother is at peace. He was a brave and honorable man.

[Bryn]

19. I am so sorry for your loss

:cry: I know exactly how you and your family feel. I went through the same thing when my brother was killed in Viet Nam in 1969. I met a woman while back whom said that when her brother returned from Viet Nam, he was never the same. My brother, too was outgoing and was very sweet and friendly. I am so sorry that your brother did not get proper help he needed so bad. We need to do something to the government to change this.

You and you family are in my warm thoughts and prayers.

on edit: your brother's last name is same as my brother's.