By Dana Priest and Anne HullWashington Post Staff Writers Sunday, December 2, 2007; Page A01
In a nondescript conference room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside listened last week as an Army prosecutor outlined the criminal case against her in a preliminary hearing. The charges: attempting suicide and endangering the life of another soldier while serving in Iraq.
Her hands trembled as Maj. Stefan Wolfe, the prosecutor, argued that Whiteside, now a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed, should be court-martialed. After seven years of exemplary service, the 25-year-old Army reservist faces the possibility of life in prison if she is tried and convicted.
Read the rest of this story in The Washington Post at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/01/AR2007120101782.html?hpid=rightpromo1
Friday, December 21, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Related Links from Patti Woodard
This came in from Patti:
AP IMPACT: Despite signs, suicidal soldier not taken out of Iraq Herald Tribune SANFORD, N.C. -- Private First Class Jason Scheuerman nailed a suicide note to his barracks closet in Iraq, stepped inside and shot himself. "Maybe finally I can get some peace," said the 20-year-old,...
Investigations into Scheuerman's death The News & Observer Pfc. Jason Scheuerman committed suicide in Iraq on July 30, 2005. His parents do not believe a thorough and independent investigation was conducted. His father sought the assistance of Rep. Bob Etheridge,...
Findings of investigations into death of Pfc. Jason Scheuerman The News & Observer Pfc. Jason Scheuerman committed suicide in Iraq on July 30, 2005. His parents do not believe a thorough and independent investigation was conducted. His father sought the assistance of Rep. Bob Etheridge,...
Living without Colby MSNBC TOUCHED BY WAR: COLBY UMBRELL'S STORY PART FOUR OF FOUR - Mark and Nancy Umbrell are surrounded with memories of their son. "So it's pretty much every day that I run into someone who says, 'I'm very sorry about...
US probe confirms 2 friendly-fire deaths The Boston Globe WASHINGTON—Two U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq in February were killed by friendly fire, according to a military investigation that said poor training and planning were to blame. Pvt. Matthew Zeimer, 18,...
Text of Scheuerman's suicide note The Miami Herald Text of Private First Class Jason Scheuerman's neatly written suicide note, including misspellings and blacked out names: This I leave as my last message to those who...
Text of Private Scheuerman's suicide note The News & Observer Text of Private First Class Jason Scheuerman's neatly written suicide note, including misspellings and blacked out names: This I leave as my last message to those...
Military: Friendly Fire Killed 2 Soldiers In Iraq MSNBC WASHINGTON --Two U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq in February were killed by friendly fire, according to a military investigation that said poor training and planning were to blame. Pvt. Matthew Zeimer, 18, of...
Friendly fire killed 2 U.S. soldiers in Iraq, investigation finds Houston Chronicle TOOLS WASHINGTON - Two U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq in February were killed by friendly fire, according to a military investigation that said poor training and planning were to blame. Pvt. Matthew Zeimer, 18,...
US Friendly-Fire Deaths in Iraq Las Vegas Sun By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Two U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq in February were killed by friendly fire, according to a military investigation that said poor training and...
APNewsBreak: Military says friendly fire killed Tucson soldier Washington Examiner WASHINGTON (, ) - Two U.S. soldiers who died in in February were killed by friendly fire, according to a military investigation that said poor training and planning were to blame. , 18, of , , and , 20, of , ,...
AP IMPACT: Despite signs, suicidal soldier not taken out of Iraq Herald Tribune SANFORD, N.C. -- Private First Class Jason Scheuerman nailed a suicide note to his barracks closet in Iraq, stepped inside and shot himself. "Maybe finally I can get some peace," said the 20-year-old,...
Investigations into Scheuerman's death The News & Observer Pfc. Jason Scheuerman committed suicide in Iraq on July 30, 2005. His parents do not believe a thorough and independent investigation was conducted. His father sought the assistance of Rep. Bob Etheridge,...
Findings of investigations into death of Pfc. Jason Scheuerman The News & Observer Pfc. Jason Scheuerman committed suicide in Iraq on July 30, 2005. His parents do not believe a thorough and independent investigation was conducted. His father sought the assistance of Rep. Bob Etheridge,...
Living without Colby MSNBC TOUCHED BY WAR: COLBY UMBRELL'S STORY PART FOUR OF FOUR - Mark and Nancy Umbrell are surrounded with memories of their son. "So it's pretty much every day that I run into someone who says, 'I'm very sorry about...
US probe confirms 2 friendly-fire deaths The Boston Globe WASHINGTON—Two U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq in February were killed by friendly fire, according to a military investigation that said poor training and planning were to blame. Pvt. Matthew Zeimer, 18,...
Text of Scheuerman's suicide note The Miami Herald Text of Private First Class Jason Scheuerman's neatly written suicide note, including misspellings and blacked out names: This I leave as my last message to those who...
Text of Private Scheuerman's suicide note The News & Observer Text of Private First Class Jason Scheuerman's neatly written suicide note, including misspellings and blacked out names: This I leave as my last message to those...
Military: Friendly Fire Killed 2 Soldiers In Iraq MSNBC WASHINGTON --Two U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq in February were killed by friendly fire, according to a military investigation that said poor training and planning were to blame. Pvt. Matthew Zeimer, 18, of...
Friendly fire killed 2 U.S. soldiers in Iraq, investigation finds Houston Chronicle TOOLS WASHINGTON - Two U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq in February were killed by friendly fire, according to a military investigation that said poor training and planning were to blame. Pvt. Matthew Zeimer, 18,...
US Friendly-Fire Deaths in Iraq Las Vegas Sun By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Two U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq in February were killed by friendly fire, according to a military investigation that said poor training and...
APNewsBreak: Military says friendly fire killed Tucson soldier Washington Examiner WASHINGTON (, ) - Two U.S. soldiers who died in in February were killed by friendly fire, according to a military investigation that said poor training and planning were to blame. , 18, of , , and , 20, of , ,...
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Data sought on veterans' suicide
By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer Thu Dec 13, 2:27 AM ET
WASHINGTON - The parents of an Iraq war veteran who committed suicide and members of Congress on Wednesday questioned why there's not a comprehensive tracking system of suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
Mike Bowman, of Forreston, Ill., said his son, Spc. Timothy Bowman, 23, is a member of the "unknown fallen" not counted in statistics. His son, a member of the Illinois National Guard, took his own life in 2005 eight months after returning from war. Bowman said he considers his son a "KBA" — killed because of action.
"If the veteran suicide rate is not classified as an epidemic that needs immediate and drastic attention, then the American fighting soldier needs someone in Washington who thinks it is," Bowman said.
Bowman was one of several witnesses who testified before the House Veterans' Affairs Committee on the issue.
Rep. Bob Filner, the committee chairman, questioned why the comprehensive tracking wasn't already being done.
"They don't want to know this, it looks to me," said Filner, D-Calif. "This could be tracked."
Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's deputy chief patient care service officer for mental health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, defended the work being done by his agency to tackle the issue, including implementing a suicide prevention hotline.
"We have a major suicide prevention program, the most comprehensive in the nation," Katz said. Katz questioned why Filner was focusing on the number of suicides instead of looking at treatment programs implemented to help prevent suicide.
Awareness of suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans was heightened earlier this year when the Army said its suicide rate in 2006 rose to 17.3 per 100,000 troops — the highest level in 26 years of record-keeping.
The Department of Veterans Affairs tracks the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who commit suicide, but only if they have been discharged from the military.
The Pentagon tracks the number of suicides in Iraq and Afghanistan. For an earlier story, a Pentagon spokeswoman told The Associated Press the military does not keep track of whether active duty troops who took who took their own lives served in Iraq or Afghanistan.
In an e-mail on Wednesday, the same spokeswoman, Cynthia Smith, said, "We track all suicides, I just don't have combat service information readily available."
At least 152 troops have committed suicide in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Defense Manpower Data Center, which tracks casualties for the Pentagon.
On Oct. 31, the AP reported that preliminary research from the Department of Veterans Affairs had found that from the start of the war in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, and the end of 2005, 283 troops who served in the wars who had been discharged from the military had committed suicide. On Wednesday, Katz said the VA's number had been changed to 144 because some of the veterans counted were actually in the active military and not discharged on the day they committed suicide.
Smith said that the military's suicide rate is still lower than that of the general population.
After leaving the military, however, veterans appear to be at greater risk for suicide than those who didn't serve. Earlier this year, researchers at Portland State University in Oregon found male veterans were twice as likely to commit suicide as their civilian counterparts.
In a report last May, the VA Inspector General said VA officials estimate 1,000 suicides per year among veterans receiving care within the agency and as many as 5,000 per year among all veterans.
"When decision makers do no have reliable data, we must rely on anecdotal evidence," said Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind. "While these may help inform us, it does not help us to develop strategies
to diminish the risk and prevent incidents of suicide."
----------------------------------
Editor's note: I listened to this contentious hearing and noticed that the suicide rate among female soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan was actually higher than that of the civilian population. For me, there was an 800 pound gorilla in the room which neither the House Veteran's Affairs Committee members nor the VA spokespeople could not, or would not bring up. That was the fact that not all suicides are actually suicides in the military. Some are homicides. This can skew any statistical analysis to the point where it is meaningless.
The military does not do CSI-type investigations in these cases. Families are lucky if any serious investigation at all is done. We have family members in our group who have had to do their own investigations. Some of the "suicides" are obviously homicides. See http://non-combat-death.org for Our Loved Ones' Stories.
I'm guessing that some "suicides" are politically expedient. Some homicides are covered up because if the public knew that soldiers were murdering one another the recruiting rate would go down even more.
I wish the Congress and the VA would drop the dance and get down to the heart of the question.
Is an undeclared war, started on a false premise demoralizing?
Do repeated, frequent deployments add to the stress that may cause actual suicide?
Are soldiers, especially female soldiers, being murdered and the murders covered up as suicide?
Braveheart
WASHINGTON - The parents of an Iraq war veteran who committed suicide and members of Congress on Wednesday questioned why there's not a comprehensive tracking system of suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
Mike Bowman, of Forreston, Ill., said his son, Spc. Timothy Bowman, 23, is a member of the "unknown fallen" not counted in statistics. His son, a member of the Illinois National Guard, took his own life in 2005 eight months after returning from war. Bowman said he considers his son a "KBA" — killed because of action.
"If the veteran suicide rate is not classified as an epidemic that needs immediate and drastic attention, then the American fighting soldier needs someone in Washington who thinks it is," Bowman said.
Bowman was one of several witnesses who testified before the House Veterans' Affairs Committee on the issue.
Rep. Bob Filner, the committee chairman, questioned why the comprehensive tracking wasn't already being done.
"They don't want to know this, it looks to me," said Filner, D-Calif. "This could be tracked."
Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's deputy chief patient care service officer for mental health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, defended the work being done by his agency to tackle the issue, including implementing a suicide prevention hotline.
"We have a major suicide prevention program, the most comprehensive in the nation," Katz said. Katz questioned why Filner was focusing on the number of suicides instead of looking at treatment programs implemented to help prevent suicide.
Awareness of suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans was heightened earlier this year when the Army said its suicide rate in 2006 rose to 17.3 per 100,000 troops — the highest level in 26 years of record-keeping.
The Department of Veterans Affairs tracks the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who commit suicide, but only if they have been discharged from the military.
The Pentagon tracks the number of suicides in Iraq and Afghanistan. For an earlier story, a Pentagon spokeswoman told The Associated Press the military does not keep track of whether active duty troops who took who took their own lives served in Iraq or Afghanistan.
In an e-mail on Wednesday, the same spokeswoman, Cynthia Smith, said, "We track all suicides, I just don't have combat service information readily available."
At least 152 troops have committed suicide in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Defense Manpower Data Center, which tracks casualties for the Pentagon.
On Oct. 31, the AP reported that preliminary research from the Department of Veterans Affairs had found that from the start of the war in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, and the end of 2005, 283 troops who served in the wars who had been discharged from the military had committed suicide. On Wednesday, Katz said the VA's number had been changed to 144 because some of the veterans counted were actually in the active military and not discharged on the day they committed suicide.
Smith said that the military's suicide rate is still lower than that of the general population.
After leaving the military, however, veterans appear to be at greater risk for suicide than those who didn't serve. Earlier this year, researchers at Portland State University in Oregon found male veterans were twice as likely to commit suicide as their civilian counterparts.
In a report last May, the VA Inspector General said VA officials estimate 1,000 suicides per year among veterans receiving care within the agency and as many as 5,000 per year among all veterans.
"When decision makers do no have reliable data, we must rely on anecdotal evidence," said Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind. "While these may help inform us, it does not help us to develop strategies
to diminish the risk and prevent incidents of suicide."
----------------------------------
Editor's note: I listened to this contentious hearing and noticed that the suicide rate among female soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan was actually higher than that of the civilian population. For me, there was an 800 pound gorilla in the room which neither the House Veteran's Affairs Committee members nor the VA spokespeople could not, or would not bring up. That was the fact that not all suicides are actually suicides in the military. Some are homicides. This can skew any statistical analysis to the point where it is meaningless.
The military does not do CSI-type investigations in these cases. Families are lucky if any serious investigation at all is done. We have family members in our group who have had to do their own investigations. Some of the "suicides" are obviously homicides. See http://non-combat-death.org for Our Loved Ones' Stories.
I'm guessing that some "suicides" are politically expedient. Some homicides are covered up because if the public knew that soldiers were murdering one another the recruiting rate would go down even more.
I wish the Congress and the VA would drop the dance and get down to the heart of the question.
Is an undeclared war, started on a false premise demoralizing?
Do repeated, frequent deployments add to the stress that may cause actual suicide?
Are soldiers, especially female soldiers, being murdered and the murders covered up as suicide?
Braveheart
Suspected Army suicides set record
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — A record number of soldiers — 109 — have killed themselves this year, according to Army statistics showing confirmed or suspected suicides.
The deaths occur as soldiers serve longer combat deployments and the Army spends $100 million on support programs.
ON DEADLINE: Vets' suicides also being scrutinized
"Soldiers, families and equipment are stretched and stressed," Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, told Congress last month.
The Army provided suicide statistics to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. Her staff shared them with USA TODAY.
Those numbers show 77 confirmed suicides Army-wide this year through Nov. 27 and 32 other deaths pending final determination as suicides.
The Army updated those statistics Wednesday, confirming 85 suicides, including 27 in Iraq and four in Afghanistan.
The highest number of Army suicides recorded since 1990 was 102 in 1992 — a period when the service was 20% larger than today.
A total of 109 suicides this year would equal a rate of 18.4 per 100,000, the highest since the Army started counting in 1980. The civilian suicide rate was 11 per 100,000 in 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The military hasn't erased the stigma surrounding mental health issues, so troubled soldiers often do not seek help, Murray says.
"I want to say I'm surprised" by the suicide increase, she says. "But when we're not doing everything we can to deal with mental health, when we know the Army is under such stress, it's not a surprise. It has to be a wakeup call."
The Army has moved more aggressively in recent years to stem suicides, instituting mandatory training for every soldier about mental health and establishing a program to study its suicides.
Research released by the Army in August shows that almost 70% of suicides in 2006 were spurred by failed relationships.
The Army continues to improve its suicide-prevention programs, spokesman Paul Boyce said Wednesday. A hotline number — 800-342-9647 — is also available.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, records show that 128 soldiers have killed themselves while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
One was Spc. Travis Virgadamo, 19, of Las Vegas. His family said he was on suicide watch but was eventually taken off, and his gun was returned. "That night he killed himself," says his grandmother, Kate O'Brien, of Pahrump, Nev.
O'Brien says her grandson desperately wanted to come home.
"He would say, 'Grandma, pray for me.' " she says. "What good is somebody (to the war effort) that is under such stress?"
WASHINGTON — A record number of soldiers — 109 — have killed themselves this year, according to Army statistics showing confirmed or suspected suicides.
The deaths occur as soldiers serve longer combat deployments and the Army spends $100 million on support programs.
ON DEADLINE: Vets' suicides also being scrutinized
"Soldiers, families and equipment are stretched and stressed," Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, told Congress last month.
The Army provided suicide statistics to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. Her staff shared them with USA TODAY.
Those numbers show 77 confirmed suicides Army-wide this year through Nov. 27 and 32 other deaths pending final determination as suicides.
The Army updated those statistics Wednesday, confirming 85 suicides, including 27 in Iraq and four in Afghanistan.
The highest number of Army suicides recorded since 1990 was 102 in 1992 — a period when the service was 20% larger than today.
A total of 109 suicides this year would equal a rate of 18.4 per 100,000, the highest since the Army started counting in 1980. The civilian suicide rate was 11 per 100,000 in 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The military hasn't erased the stigma surrounding mental health issues, so troubled soldiers often do not seek help, Murray says.
"I want to say I'm surprised" by the suicide increase, she says. "But when we're not doing everything we can to deal with mental health, when we know the Army is under such stress, it's not a surprise. It has to be a wakeup call."
The Army has moved more aggressively in recent years to stem suicides, instituting mandatory training for every soldier about mental health and establishing a program to study its suicides.
Research released by the Army in August shows that almost 70% of suicides in 2006 were spurred by failed relationships.
The Army continues to improve its suicide-prevention programs, spokesman Paul Boyce said Wednesday. A hotline number — 800-342-9647 — is also available.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, records show that 128 soldiers have killed themselves while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
One was Spc. Travis Virgadamo, 19, of Las Vegas. His family said he was on suicide watch but was eventually taken off, and his gun was returned. "That night he killed himself," says his grandmother, Kate O'Brien, of Pahrump, Nev.
O'Brien says her grandson desperately wanted to come home.
"He would say, 'Grandma, pray for me.' " she says. "What good is somebody (to the war effort) that is under such stress?"
Thursday, December 13, 2007
VA Must Act to Curb Combat-Vet Suicides, Panel Hears
by Chris Adams
WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs needs to do more to find and treat returning soldiers who’re at risk of killing themselves if the country is going to avert a rash of veterans’ suicides, lawmakers and witnesses told a congressional hearing Wednesday.
In an often-combative hearing of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the parents of a National Guardsman told how their son had slipped quickly from the war zone in Iraq to his old life in rural Illinois with virtually no attention paid to his precarious mental health.
Timothy Bowman, 23, killed himself at his family’s business on Thanksgiving Day as his relatives gathered for an extended-family dinner in 2005.
Bowman’s story was featured in an article that ran in McClatchy newspapers nationwide last February, detailing how the soldier’s National Guard unit had returned from treacherous duty in Iraq and scattered to dozens of towns spread across five states. In the process, many were left to languish.
The McClatchy story also detailed how the VA, even by its own measures, wasn’t prepared to give returning veterans the care that could best help them overcome destructive, and sometimes fatal, mental health ailments. VA mental-health care is uneven across the country, with some clinics offering little or no specialized mental-health care and many of the VA’s hospital networks not offering special programs for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Timothy Bowman’s parents, Mike and Kim, captivated the committee, and the audience erupted in applause as they testified.
“The VA mental-health system is broken in function and understaffed in operation,” Mike Bowman said.
“We have the technology to create the most highly advanced military system, but when these veterans come home they find an understaffed, under-funded and under-equipped VA mental-health system that has so many challenges to get through it that many just give up trying,” he added.
Among the key issues raised at the hearing was the breakdown when soldiers transition from service in the Department of Defense to life as veterans. The government needs to do more to prevent people from slipping through the cracks as they leave active duty, Bowman and several lawmakers said.
Another key issue was the extent of veteran suicides, with the VA attacking a recent CBS News study that attempted to quantify the scope of the problem. While the agency criticized CBS’s methodology, the key Democrat on the committee lambasted the VA as trying to sidestep the issue. CBS News told McClatchy that it stands by its story.
The chairman of the committee, Rep. Bob Filner of California, blasted the agency’s top mental-health official as downplaying the problem and trying to obscure the issue with a series of mind-numbing numbers.
“I have to say, you’re ignoring the whole problem,” Filner said.
The VA official, Ira Katz, said his agency had boosted mental health funding substantially, that it had new suicide-prevention programs in place and that it had enough resources to care for veterans’ mental-health needs adequately.
© McClatchy Newspapers 2007
WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs needs to do more to find and treat returning soldiers who’re at risk of killing themselves if the country is going to avert a rash of veterans’ suicides, lawmakers and witnesses told a congressional hearing Wednesday.
In an often-combative hearing of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the parents of a National Guardsman told how their son had slipped quickly from the war zone in Iraq to his old life in rural Illinois with virtually no attention paid to his precarious mental health.
Timothy Bowman, 23, killed himself at his family’s business on Thanksgiving Day as his relatives gathered for an extended-family dinner in 2005.
Bowman’s story was featured in an article that ran in McClatchy newspapers nationwide last February, detailing how the soldier’s National Guard unit had returned from treacherous duty in Iraq and scattered to dozens of towns spread across five states. In the process, many were left to languish.
The McClatchy story also detailed how the VA, even by its own measures, wasn’t prepared to give returning veterans the care that could best help them overcome destructive, and sometimes fatal, mental health ailments. VA mental-health care is uneven across the country, with some clinics offering little or no specialized mental-health care and many of the VA’s hospital networks not offering special programs for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Timothy Bowman’s parents, Mike and Kim, captivated the committee, and the audience erupted in applause as they testified.
“The VA mental-health system is broken in function and understaffed in operation,” Mike Bowman said.
“We have the technology to create the most highly advanced military system, but when these veterans come home they find an understaffed, under-funded and under-equipped VA mental-health system that has so many challenges to get through it that many just give up trying,” he added.
Among the key issues raised at the hearing was the breakdown when soldiers transition from service in the Department of Defense to life as veterans. The government needs to do more to prevent people from slipping through the cracks as they leave active duty, Bowman and several lawmakers said.
Another key issue was the extent of veteran suicides, with the VA attacking a recent CBS News study that attempted to quantify the scope of the problem. While the agency criticized CBS’s methodology, the key Democrat on the committee lambasted the VA as trying to sidestep the issue. CBS News told McClatchy that it stands by its story.
The chairman of the committee, Rep. Bob Filner of California, blasted the agency’s top mental-health official as downplaying the problem and trying to obscure the issue with a series of mind-numbing numbers.
“I have to say, you’re ignoring the whole problem,” Filner said.
The VA official, Ira Katz, said his agency had boosted mental health funding substantially, that it had new suicide-prevention programs in place and that it had enough resources to care for veterans’ mental-health needs adequately.
© McClatchy Newspapers 2007
Sunday, December 09, 2007
From The Iraq Veterans Against the War Newsletter
I regret to bring you the sad news of the death of one of our IVAW members, Sammantha Owen-Ewing.
Last Monday, November 26, Sammantha Owen-Ewing, one of IVAW's newest members, the wife of my friend Scott, and a former Army medic like me, committed suicide in her Rhode Island home. Sammantha was only 20 years old, and in that short time had been an Army medic training to become a nurse while stationed at Walter Reed, then became a patient herself in Walter Reed's mental health ward. In June, she married Scott Ewing, also an IVAW member, and was discharged from the Army. Despite an uphill battle to receive care from the VA, things seemed to be looking up; she was getting settled into life in Rhode Island, planned to continue her medical career, and was becoming active in Iraq Veterans Against the War. Although most of us were never fortunate enough to know Sammantha, she was one of us and we mourn her passing.
It is impossible to sum up the life of a person, their personality and how much they meant to the people who loved them, in a few short lines. In her obituary, Sammantha was described as "sweet, thoughtful, and loving. She brought joy to the lives of those around her." I'm sorry I will never meet Sammantha and my deepest condolences go out to her family. I know that many IVAW members have suffered through depression, PTSD, and other forms of internal anguish, and many of us still deal with these things on a daily basis.
IVAW has set up a memorial fund on behalf of Sammantha Owen-Ewing to help her family offset her funeral costs. We will be accepting donations through the end of December, if you'd like to make a donation, go to www.ivaw.org/memorialfund.
Suicide is a very real threat, especially for veterans. A recent CBS news investigation found that in 2005, veterans were twice as likely to commit suicide as non-vets, with 120 veteran suicides each week. Those of us who are between the ages of 20-24 have the highest rate of suicides, between 2 – 4 times higher than our civilian peers. For many veterans, the fighting doesn't end once we return from a war zone or get discharged from the military. If you are a veteran, or have a loved one who is, please be aware of the following resources that can offer help to those suffering from PTSD, depression, and other forms of mental suffering.
The Wounded Warrior Call-Center 1-877-487-6299 – This is a hotline for injured, wounded, or ill former and current Marines, Sailors and their family members. They offer information, resources, and advocacy for men and women suffering from either physical or psychological wounds.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255) – By calling and pressing "1" you will be connected with round-the-clock access to mental health professionals who focus solely on helping veterans.
SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education) http://www.save.org/ – This non-profit's mission is to prevent suicide through public awareness and education, reduce stigma, and serve as a resource for those touched by suicide.
Vets 4 Vets, (520) 319-5500, http://www.vets4vets.us/ – Vets 4 Vets is a peer support group for recent veterans. In weekend workshops and local groups, veterans talk and listen to each other to help heal from negative wartime and military experiences. Contact them to find out about upcoming workshops.
National Veterans Foundation, 1-888-777-4443, http://www.nvf.org/ – This non-profit, non-governmental organization gives assistance, information and resources to veterans from all military branches.
Peace,Kelly DoughertyFormer Sergeant, Army National Guard Executive Director Iraq Veterans Against the War
P.S. Cards may be sent to Scott Ewing c/o IVAW: IVAWPO Box 8296Philadelphia, PA 19101
-- submitted by Laura Kent
Last Monday, November 26, Sammantha Owen-Ewing, one of IVAW's newest members, the wife of my friend Scott, and a former Army medic like me, committed suicide in her Rhode Island home. Sammantha was only 20 years old, and in that short time had been an Army medic training to become a nurse while stationed at Walter Reed, then became a patient herself in Walter Reed's mental health ward. In June, she married Scott Ewing, also an IVAW member, and was discharged from the Army. Despite an uphill battle to receive care from the VA, things seemed to be looking up; she was getting settled into life in Rhode Island, planned to continue her medical career, and was becoming active in Iraq Veterans Against the War. Although most of us were never fortunate enough to know Sammantha, she was one of us and we mourn her passing.
It is impossible to sum up the life of a person, their personality and how much they meant to the people who loved them, in a few short lines. In her obituary, Sammantha was described as "sweet, thoughtful, and loving. She brought joy to the lives of those around her." I'm sorry I will never meet Sammantha and my deepest condolences go out to her family. I know that many IVAW members have suffered through depression, PTSD, and other forms of internal anguish, and many of us still deal with these things on a daily basis.
IVAW has set up a memorial fund on behalf of Sammantha Owen-Ewing to help her family offset her funeral costs. We will be accepting donations through the end of December, if you'd like to make a donation, go to www.ivaw.org/memorialfund.
Suicide is a very real threat, especially for veterans. A recent CBS news investigation found that in 2005, veterans were twice as likely to commit suicide as non-vets, with 120 veteran suicides each week. Those of us who are between the ages of 20-24 have the highest rate of suicides, between 2 – 4 times higher than our civilian peers. For many veterans, the fighting doesn't end once we return from a war zone or get discharged from the military. If you are a veteran, or have a loved one who is, please be aware of the following resources that can offer help to those suffering from PTSD, depression, and other forms of mental suffering.
The Wounded Warrior Call-Center 1-877-487-6299 – This is a hotline for injured, wounded, or ill former and current Marines, Sailors and their family members. They offer information, resources, and advocacy for men and women suffering from either physical or psychological wounds.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255) – By calling and pressing "1" you will be connected with round-the-clock access to mental health professionals who focus solely on helping veterans.
SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education) http://www.save.org/ – This non-profit's mission is to prevent suicide through public awareness and education, reduce stigma, and serve as a resource for those touched by suicide.
Vets 4 Vets, (520) 319-5500, http://www.vets4vets.us/ – Vets 4 Vets is a peer support group for recent veterans. In weekend workshops and local groups, veterans talk and listen to each other to help heal from negative wartime and military experiences. Contact them to find out about upcoming workshops.
National Veterans Foundation, 1-888-777-4443, http://www.nvf.org/ – This non-profit, non-governmental organization gives assistance, information and resources to veterans from all military branches.
Peace,Kelly DoughertyFormer Sergeant, Army National Guard Executive Director Iraq Veterans Against the War
P.S. Cards may be sent to Scott Ewing c/o IVAW: IVAWPO Box 8296Philadelphia, PA 19101
-- submitted by Laura Kent
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Marine's mother disputes suicide as cause of death
BY JENNY SHEARER, Californian staff writer
e-mail: jshearer@bakersfield.com Friday, Dec 7 2007 10:20 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Dec 7 2007 10:44 PM
The grieving mother of a Marine found dead in his barracks in August at Twentynine Palms doesn't believe her son committed suicide.
Rachel Hernandez with a photo of her son, Marine Lance Cpl. Ramiro Hernandez III, who was found dead in his barracks at Twentynine Palms in August.
But a military investigation concluded that Lance Cpl. Ramiro Hernandez III, 24, died in his barracks by hanging himself with a belt.
His roommate found him early on Aug. 20. No suicide note was found, and he had no history of depression, according to a suicide incident report from the Navy.
But Rachel Hernandez said her son wasn't the type of person to commit suicide.
"Anybody that knows Ramiro knows he's not a suicidal person," she said.
She believes foul play was involved in her son's death and thinks the Marines are trying to protect their image by concluding he killed himself.
Strange relationship
Both Rachel Hernandez and the military agree there was a woman in Ramiro's life who caused him to be troubled. But Ramiro Hernandez never met this woman in person; they communicated over the Internet through MySpace, text messages and phone calls.
Still, she contacted Ramiro Hernandez's relatives and he said he wanted his family to get to know her.
Ramiro Hernandez wore a wedding ring and told fellow Marines that he had married the woman in Las Vegas. But the military's investigation shows there's no evidence the two ever married.
The military's report states his parents did not approve of his relationship with the woman.
His mother said the woman drove a wedge between her son and his family, friends in the military and friends in Bakersfield.
The Navy's suicide incident report noted 55 statements of fact based on interviews with Marines who knew Ramiro Hernandez.
Opinions drawn from these facts include "the suicide was the result of repeated issues that LCpl Hernandez had with this proclaimed wife over the span of a few months and the habitual lying to his peers, command and family. Further, the disruption in his family ties only furthered the problem."
Ramiro Hernandez had surgery to fix a hernia several weeks before his death and was taking prescribed vicodin and naproxen for pain.
The report states Ramiro Hernandez fell into a depression the week "leading up to his death, which caused him to mix a combination of prescription drugs and alcohol, which only furthered his depression."
Rachel Hernandez has no evidence to refute the report, but she believes her son wasn't depressed, and she maintains he didn't do drugs.
After his death, the woman spoke with a sergeant at Twentynine Palms, according to the report. She was worried about getting in trouble, and told the sergeant she and Ramiro Hernandez were not married.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is looking into his death. The inquiry is "open and ongoing, pending lab work and additional interviews," said Paul O'Donnell, deputy communications director, in an e-mail message sent Friday afternoon. "It is our policy not to comment on open investigations."
The service investigates all non-combat, medically unattended deaths within the Navy.
"It is standard procedure for NCIS to investigate all aspects of every death," O'Donnell wrote.
Deaths go through two reviews.
"This process, along with the associated lab analysis, can take an extended period of time to complete, and is not necessarily indicative of foul play," O'Donnell said.
Ramiro Hernandez was viewed as a highly motivated Marine and a future leader in his platoon. His apparent suicide shocked his fellow Marines.
His mother fears the military will try to cover up what really happened to her son. Yet she's determined to find the truth.
"I have to be strong because I know I have a long fight," she said.
--submitted by Jane Tier
e-mail: jshearer@bakersfield.com Friday, Dec 7 2007 10:20 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Dec 7 2007 10:44 PM
The grieving mother of a Marine found dead in his barracks in August at Twentynine Palms doesn't believe her son committed suicide.
Rachel Hernandez with a photo of her son, Marine Lance Cpl. Ramiro Hernandez III, who was found dead in his barracks at Twentynine Palms in August.
But a military investigation concluded that Lance Cpl. Ramiro Hernandez III, 24, died in his barracks by hanging himself with a belt.
His roommate found him early on Aug. 20. No suicide note was found, and he had no history of depression, according to a suicide incident report from the Navy.
But Rachel Hernandez said her son wasn't the type of person to commit suicide.
"Anybody that knows Ramiro knows he's not a suicidal person," she said.
She believes foul play was involved in her son's death and thinks the Marines are trying to protect their image by concluding he killed himself.
Strange relationship
Both Rachel Hernandez and the military agree there was a woman in Ramiro's life who caused him to be troubled. But Ramiro Hernandez never met this woman in person; they communicated over the Internet through MySpace, text messages and phone calls.
Still, she contacted Ramiro Hernandez's relatives and he said he wanted his family to get to know her.
Ramiro Hernandez wore a wedding ring and told fellow Marines that he had married the woman in Las Vegas. But the military's investigation shows there's no evidence the two ever married.
The military's report states his parents did not approve of his relationship with the woman.
His mother said the woman drove a wedge between her son and his family, friends in the military and friends in Bakersfield.
The Navy's suicide incident report noted 55 statements of fact based on interviews with Marines who knew Ramiro Hernandez.
Opinions drawn from these facts include "the suicide was the result of repeated issues that LCpl Hernandez had with this proclaimed wife over the span of a few months and the habitual lying to his peers, command and family. Further, the disruption in his family ties only furthered the problem."
Ramiro Hernandez had surgery to fix a hernia several weeks before his death and was taking prescribed vicodin and naproxen for pain.
The report states Ramiro Hernandez fell into a depression the week "leading up to his death, which caused him to mix a combination of prescription drugs and alcohol, which only furthered his depression."
Rachel Hernandez has no evidence to refute the report, but she believes her son wasn't depressed, and she maintains he didn't do drugs.
After his death, the woman spoke with a sergeant at Twentynine Palms, according to the report. She was worried about getting in trouble, and told the sergeant she and Ramiro Hernandez were not married.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is looking into his death. The inquiry is "open and ongoing, pending lab work and additional interviews," said Paul O'Donnell, deputy communications director, in an e-mail message sent Friday afternoon. "It is our policy not to comment on open investigations."
The service investigates all non-combat, medically unattended deaths within the Navy.
"It is standard procedure for NCIS to investigate all aspects of every death," O'Donnell wrote.
Deaths go through two reviews.
"This process, along with the associated lab analysis, can take an extended period of time to complete, and is not necessarily indicative of foul play," O'Donnell said.
Ramiro Hernandez was viewed as a highly motivated Marine and a future leader in his platoon. His apparent suicide shocked his fellow Marines.
His mother fears the military will try to cover up what really happened to her son. Yet she's determined to find the truth.
"I have to be strong because I know I have a long fight," she said.
--submitted by Jane Tier
Friday, December 07, 2007
The Case of Lt. Whiteside
The Washington Post:
When it comes to the psychological wounds a war inflicts, the Army still doesn't get it.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
ARMY OFFICIALS are distressed that personal details about the health of 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside have been made public. We bet: They look ridiculous in their cruel pursuit of legal charges against a woman injured in service to her country. This is not an isolated case of insensitivity. The abuse of Lt. Whiteside raises questions about how far the military has really come in its treatment of mental health problems.
Lt. Whiteside faces a possible court-martial on charges that she attempted suicide in Iraq. As reported by The Post's Dana Priest and Anne Hull, the 25-year-old Army reservist had a stellar record of service but had a breakdown, possibly caused by her service in war-torn Baghdad.
After a series of stressful incidents, she shot herself in the stomach. Despite the unequivocal judgment of psychiatrists that she suffers from significant mental illness, her commanders pressed criminal charges against her, and she's now waiting to hear whether the Army will court-martial her.
The Army contends that it couldn't look the other way, because serious allegations of kidnapping and aggravated assault are also involved. Yet, for all its sanctimonious talk, the Army was prepared to do just that -- as long as Lt. Whiteside was willing to quietly leave the service in a deal her lawyer says would have deprived her of benefits, including all-important health care. No final decision has been made on whether she will face a court-martial, which could lead to a possible life sentence. Maj. Gen. Richard J. Rowe Jr. will soon receive the results of an investigation. We hope he'll bring common sense and decency to bear on this sad tale and allow Lt. Whiteside to continue her recovery. That the case got as far as it did is a troubling indication of a culture in the military that gives little credence to psychiatric ills. How else to explain the fact that the relatives of a service member who loses a leg are provided free lodging and a per diem to help in the recovery while relatives of a service member receiving outpatient psychiatric care have to fend for themselves? There is no question that the Army has launched a number of worthy initiatives to help veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental ailments. Still, the trend of disparate treatment continues; as Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) observed, too many soldiers believe they are better off losing a limb than suffering a mental disorder.
It was reassuring to hear retired Lt. Gen. James B. Peake, President Bush's nominee to be secretary of veterans affairs, tell the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs at his confirmation hearing yesterday that treating veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder is "a very high priority." As the country grapples with how to treat its "invisible wounded," it is important that there be a command structure that actually listens to doctors and that doesn't send the message that those in need of help will be punished.
When it comes to the psychological wounds a war inflicts, the Army still doesn't get it.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
ARMY OFFICIALS are distressed that personal details about the health of 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside have been made public. We bet: They look ridiculous in their cruel pursuit of legal charges against a woman injured in service to her country. This is not an isolated case of insensitivity. The abuse of Lt. Whiteside raises questions about how far the military has really come in its treatment of mental health problems.
Lt. Whiteside faces a possible court-martial on charges that she attempted suicide in Iraq. As reported by The Post's Dana Priest and Anne Hull, the 25-year-old Army reservist had a stellar record of service but had a breakdown, possibly caused by her service in war-torn Baghdad.
After a series of stressful incidents, she shot herself in the stomach. Despite the unequivocal judgment of psychiatrists that she suffers from significant mental illness, her commanders pressed criminal charges against her, and she's now waiting to hear whether the Army will court-martial her.
The Army contends that it couldn't look the other way, because serious allegations of kidnapping and aggravated assault are also involved. Yet, for all its sanctimonious talk, the Army was prepared to do just that -- as long as Lt. Whiteside was willing to quietly leave the service in a deal her lawyer says would have deprived her of benefits, including all-important health care. No final decision has been made on whether she will face a court-martial, which could lead to a possible life sentence. Maj. Gen. Richard J. Rowe Jr. will soon receive the results of an investigation. We hope he'll bring common sense and decency to bear on this sad tale and allow Lt. Whiteside to continue her recovery. That the case got as far as it did is a troubling indication of a culture in the military that gives little credence to psychiatric ills. How else to explain the fact that the relatives of a service member who loses a leg are provided free lodging and a per diem to help in the recovery while relatives of a service member receiving outpatient psychiatric care have to fend for themselves? There is no question that the Army has launched a number of worthy initiatives to help veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental ailments. Still, the trend of disparate treatment continues; as Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) observed, too many soldiers believe they are better off losing a limb than suffering a mental disorder.
It was reassuring to hear retired Lt. Gen. James B. Peake, President Bush's nominee to be secretary of veterans affairs, tell the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs at his confirmation hearing yesterday that treating veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder is "a very high priority." As the country grapples with how to treat its "invisible wounded," it is important that there be a command structure that actually listens to doctors and that doesn't send the message that those in need of help will be punished.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Soldier Charged in Sgt.'s Death in Iraq
December 4, 2007
FORT LEWIS, Wash. (AP) — A Fort Lewis soldier has been charged with murder in the death of his platoon sergeant in Iraq, though military investigators do not think the killing was intentional, the Army said Tuesday.
Cpl. Timothy Ayers, 21, is accused of shooting Sgt. 1st Class David A. Cooper Jr., who died Sept. 5 in Baghdad. Cooper was 36.
Investigators believe Ayers discharged a pistol in "wanton disregard for human life" at Forward Operating Base Falcon.
A Fort Lewis spokesman said Army prosecutors do not believe the killing was premeditated or that Ayers intended to kill Cooper.
A pretrial hearing to determine whether there's evidence to support a court-martial is scheduled for Feb. 5 at Fort Lewis. It was not immediately clear if Ayers had an attorney.
When Cooper died, the Defense Department said only that he suffered a non-combat injury that was under investigation. The charge was filed Nov. 8. Fort Lewis released the information after The News Tribune of Tacoma inquired about the investigation.
Fort Lewis spokesman Joseph Piek declined Tuesday to provide other details.
Cooper and Ayers were part of the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division that deployed to Iraq last April on a tour that is to last until this summer.
Piek said Ayers returned in October and has been assigned to his unit's rear detachment. He is not in custody.
Ayers, from Long Beach, Calif., joined the Army in 2004. He was on his first deployment.
Cooper, a native of State College, Pa., served four years in the Army Reserve and then 15 in active duty. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
FORT LEWIS, Wash. (AP) — A Fort Lewis soldier has been charged with murder in the death of his platoon sergeant in Iraq, though military investigators do not think the killing was intentional, the Army said Tuesday.
Cpl. Timothy Ayers, 21, is accused of shooting Sgt. 1st Class David A. Cooper Jr., who died Sept. 5 in Baghdad. Cooper was 36.
Investigators believe Ayers discharged a pistol in "wanton disregard for human life" at Forward Operating Base Falcon.
A Fort Lewis spokesman said Army prosecutors do not believe the killing was premeditated or that Ayers intended to kill Cooper.
A pretrial hearing to determine whether there's evidence to support a court-martial is scheduled for Feb. 5 at Fort Lewis. It was not immediately clear if Ayers had an attorney.
When Cooper died, the Defense Department said only that he suffered a non-combat injury that was under investigation. The charge was filed Nov. 8. Fort Lewis released the information after The News Tribune of Tacoma inquired about the investigation.
Fort Lewis spokesman Joseph Piek declined Tuesday to provide other details.
Cooper and Ayers were part of the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division that deployed to Iraq last April on a tour that is to last until this summer.
Piek said Ayers returned in October and has been assigned to his unit's rear detachment. He is not in custody.
Ayers, from Long Beach, Calif., joined the Army in 2004. He was on his first deployment.
Cooper, a native of State College, Pa., served four years in the Army Reserve and then 15 in active duty. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
120 War Vets Commit Suicide Each Week
By Penny Coleman, AlterNet
Posted on November 26, 2007,
Printed on November 26, 2007
Earlier this year, using the clout that only major broadcast networks seem capable of mustering, CBS News contacted the governments of all 50 states requesting their official records of death by suicide going back 12 years. They heard back from 45 of the 50. From the mountains of gathered information, they sifted out the suicides of those Americans who had served in the armed forces. What they discovered is that in 2005 alone -- and remember, this is just in 45 states -- there were at least 6,256 veteran suicides, 120 every week for a year and an average of 17 every day.
As the widow of a Vietnam vet who killed himself after coming home, and as the author of a book for which I interviewed dozens of other women who had also lost husbands (or sons or fathers) to PTSD and suicide in the aftermath of the war in Vietnam, I am deeply grateful to CBS for undertaking this long overdue investigation. I am also heartbroken that the numbers are so astonishingly high and tentatively optimistic that perhaps now that there are hard numbers to attest to the magnitude of the problem, it will finally be taken seriously. I say tentatively because this is an administration that melts hard numbers on their tongues like communion wafers.
Since these new wars began, and in spite of a continuous flood of alarming reports, the Department of Defense has managed to keep what has clearly become an epidemic of death beneath the radar of public awareness by systematically concealing statistics about soldier suicides. They have done everything from burying them on official casualty lists in a category they call "accidental noncombat deaths" to outright lying to the parents of dead soldiers. And the Department of Veterans Affairs has rubber-stamped their disinformation, continuing to insist that their studies indicate that soldiers are killing themselves, not because of their combat experiences, but because they have "personal problems."
Active-duty soldiers, however, are only part of the story. One of the well-known characteristics of post-traumatic stress injuries is that the onset of symptoms is often delayed, sometimes for decades. Veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam are still taking their own lives because new PTSD symptoms have been triggered, or old ones retriggered, by stories and images from these new wars. Their deaths, like the deaths of more recent veterans, are written up in hometown newspapers; they are locally mourned, but officially ignored. The VA doesn't track or count them. It never has. Both the VA and the Pentagon deny that the problem exists and sanctimoniously point to a lack of evidence they have refused to gather.
They have managed this smoke and mirrors trick for decades in large part because suicide makes people so uncomfortable. It has often been called "that most secret death" because no one wants to talk about it. Over time, in different parts of the world, attitudes have fluctuated between the belief that the act is a sin, a right, a crime, a romantic gesture, an act of consummate bravery or a symptom of mental illness. It has never, however, been an emotionally neutral issue.
In the United States, the rationalism of our legal system has acknowledged for 300 years that the act is almost always symptomatic of a mental illness. For those same 300 years, organized religions have stubbornly maintained that it's a sin. In fact, the very worst sin. The one that is never forgiven because it's too late to say you're sorry.
The contradiction between religious doctrine and secular law has left suicide in some kind of nether space in which the fundamentals of our systems of justice and belief are disrupted. A terrible crime has been committed, a murder, and yet there can be no restitution, no punishment. As sin or as mental illness, the origins of suicide live in the mind, illusive, invisible, associated with the mysterious, the secretive and the undisciplined, a kind of omnipresent Orange Alert. Beware the abnormal. Beware the Other.
For years now, this administration has been blasting us with high-decibel, righteous posturing about suicide bombers, those subhuman dastards who do the unthinkable, using their own bodies as lethal weapons. "Those people, they aren't like us; they don't value life the way we do," runs the familiar xenophobic subtext: And sometimes the text isn't even sub-: "Many terrorists who kill innocent men, women, and children on the streets of Baghdad are followers of the same murderous ideology that took the lives of our citizens in New York, in Washington and Pennsylvania," proclaimed W, glibly conflating Sept. 11, the invasion of Iraq, Islam, fanatic fundamentalism and human bombs.
Bush has also expressed the opinion that suicide bombers are motivated by despair, neglect and poverty. The demographic statistics on suicide bombers suggest that this isn't the necessarily the case. Most of the Sept. 11 terrorists came from comfortable middle- to upper-middle-class families and were well-educated. Ironically, despair, neglect and poverty may be far more significant factors in the deaths of American soldiers and veterans who are taking their own lives.
Consider the 25 percent of enlistees and the 50 percent of reservists who have come back from the war with serious mental health issues. Despair seems an entirely appropriate response to the realization that the nightmares and flashbacks may never go away, that your ability to function in society and to manage relationships, work schedules or crowds will never be reliable. How not to despair if your prognosis is: Suck it up, soldier. This may never stop!
Neglect? The VA's current backlog is 800,000 cases. Aside from the appalling conditions in many VA hospitals, in 2004, the last year for which statistics are available, almost 6 million veterans and their families were without any healthcare at all. Most of them are working people -- too poor to afford private coverage, but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or means-tested VA care. Soldiers and veterans need help now, the help isn't there, and the conversations about what needs to be done are only just now beginning.
Poverty? The symptoms of post-traumatic stress injuries or traumatic brain injuries often make getting and keeping a job an insurmountable challenge. The New York Times reported last week that though veterans make up only 11 percent of the adult population, they make up 26 percent of the homeless. If that doesn't translate into despair, neglect and poverty, well, I'm not sure the distinction is one worth quibbling about.
There is a particularly terrible irony in the relationship between suicide bombers and the suicides of American soldiers and veterans. With the possible exception of some few sadists and psychopaths, Americans don't enlist in the military because they want to kill civilians. And they don't sign up with the expectation of killing themselves. How incredibly sad that so many end up dying of remorse for having performed acts that so disturb their sense of moral selfhood that they sentence themselves to death.
There is something so smugly superior in the way we talk about suicide bombers and the cultures that produce them. But here is an unsettling thought. In 2005, 6,256 American veterans took their own lives. That same year, there were about 130 documented deaths of suicide bombers in Iraq.* Do the math. That's a ratio of 50-to-1. So who is it that is most effectively creating a culture of suicide and martyrdom? If George Bush is right, that it is despair, neglect and poverty that drive people to such acts, then isn't it worth pointing out that we are doing a far better job?
*I say "about" because in the aftermath of a suicide bombing, it is often very difficult for observers to determine how many individual bodies have been blown to pieces.
Penny Coleman is the widow of a Vietnam veteran who took his own life after coming home. Her latest book, Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide and the Lessons of War, was released on Memorial Day, 2006. Her blog is Flashback.
--contributed by Patti Woodard
Posted on November 26, 2007,
Printed on November 26, 2007
Earlier this year, using the clout that only major broadcast networks seem capable of mustering, CBS News contacted the governments of all 50 states requesting their official records of death by suicide going back 12 years. They heard back from 45 of the 50. From the mountains of gathered information, they sifted out the suicides of those Americans who had served in the armed forces. What they discovered is that in 2005 alone -- and remember, this is just in 45 states -- there were at least 6,256 veteran suicides, 120 every week for a year and an average of 17 every day.
As the widow of a Vietnam vet who killed himself after coming home, and as the author of a book for which I interviewed dozens of other women who had also lost husbands (or sons or fathers) to PTSD and suicide in the aftermath of the war in Vietnam, I am deeply grateful to CBS for undertaking this long overdue investigation. I am also heartbroken that the numbers are so astonishingly high and tentatively optimistic that perhaps now that there are hard numbers to attest to the magnitude of the problem, it will finally be taken seriously. I say tentatively because this is an administration that melts hard numbers on their tongues like communion wafers.
Since these new wars began, and in spite of a continuous flood of alarming reports, the Department of Defense has managed to keep what has clearly become an epidemic of death beneath the radar of public awareness by systematically concealing statistics about soldier suicides. They have done everything from burying them on official casualty lists in a category they call "accidental noncombat deaths" to outright lying to the parents of dead soldiers. And the Department of Veterans Affairs has rubber-stamped their disinformation, continuing to insist that their studies indicate that soldiers are killing themselves, not because of their combat experiences, but because they have "personal problems."
Active-duty soldiers, however, are only part of the story. One of the well-known characteristics of post-traumatic stress injuries is that the onset of symptoms is often delayed, sometimes for decades. Veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam are still taking their own lives because new PTSD symptoms have been triggered, or old ones retriggered, by stories and images from these new wars. Their deaths, like the deaths of more recent veterans, are written up in hometown newspapers; they are locally mourned, but officially ignored. The VA doesn't track or count them. It never has. Both the VA and the Pentagon deny that the problem exists and sanctimoniously point to a lack of evidence they have refused to gather.
They have managed this smoke and mirrors trick for decades in large part because suicide makes people so uncomfortable. It has often been called "that most secret death" because no one wants to talk about it. Over time, in different parts of the world, attitudes have fluctuated between the belief that the act is a sin, a right, a crime, a romantic gesture, an act of consummate bravery or a symptom of mental illness. It has never, however, been an emotionally neutral issue.
In the United States, the rationalism of our legal system has acknowledged for 300 years that the act is almost always symptomatic of a mental illness. For those same 300 years, organized religions have stubbornly maintained that it's a sin. In fact, the very worst sin. The one that is never forgiven because it's too late to say you're sorry.
The contradiction between religious doctrine and secular law has left suicide in some kind of nether space in which the fundamentals of our systems of justice and belief are disrupted. A terrible crime has been committed, a murder, and yet there can be no restitution, no punishment. As sin or as mental illness, the origins of suicide live in the mind, illusive, invisible, associated with the mysterious, the secretive and the undisciplined, a kind of omnipresent Orange Alert. Beware the abnormal. Beware the Other.
For years now, this administration has been blasting us with high-decibel, righteous posturing about suicide bombers, those subhuman dastards who do the unthinkable, using their own bodies as lethal weapons. "Those people, they aren't like us; they don't value life the way we do," runs the familiar xenophobic subtext: And sometimes the text isn't even sub-: "Many terrorists who kill innocent men, women, and children on the streets of Baghdad are followers of the same murderous ideology that took the lives of our citizens in New York, in Washington and Pennsylvania," proclaimed W, glibly conflating Sept. 11, the invasion of Iraq, Islam, fanatic fundamentalism and human bombs.
Bush has also expressed the opinion that suicide bombers are motivated by despair, neglect and poverty. The demographic statistics on suicide bombers suggest that this isn't the necessarily the case. Most of the Sept. 11 terrorists came from comfortable middle- to upper-middle-class families and were well-educated. Ironically, despair, neglect and poverty may be far more significant factors in the deaths of American soldiers and veterans who are taking their own lives.
Consider the 25 percent of enlistees and the 50 percent of reservists who have come back from the war with serious mental health issues. Despair seems an entirely appropriate response to the realization that the nightmares and flashbacks may never go away, that your ability to function in society and to manage relationships, work schedules or crowds will never be reliable. How not to despair if your prognosis is: Suck it up, soldier. This may never stop!
Neglect? The VA's current backlog is 800,000 cases. Aside from the appalling conditions in many VA hospitals, in 2004, the last year for which statistics are available, almost 6 million veterans and their families were without any healthcare at all. Most of them are working people -- too poor to afford private coverage, but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or means-tested VA care. Soldiers and veterans need help now, the help isn't there, and the conversations about what needs to be done are only just now beginning.
Poverty? The symptoms of post-traumatic stress injuries or traumatic brain injuries often make getting and keeping a job an insurmountable challenge. The New York Times reported last week that though veterans make up only 11 percent of the adult population, they make up 26 percent of the homeless. If that doesn't translate into despair, neglect and poverty, well, I'm not sure the distinction is one worth quibbling about.
There is a particularly terrible irony in the relationship between suicide bombers and the suicides of American soldiers and veterans. With the possible exception of some few sadists and psychopaths, Americans don't enlist in the military because they want to kill civilians. And they don't sign up with the expectation of killing themselves. How incredibly sad that so many end up dying of remorse for having performed acts that so disturb their sense of moral selfhood that they sentence themselves to death.
There is something so smugly superior in the way we talk about suicide bombers and the cultures that produce them. But here is an unsettling thought. In 2005, 6,256 American veterans took their own lives. That same year, there were about 130 documented deaths of suicide bombers in Iraq.* Do the math. That's a ratio of 50-to-1. So who is it that is most effectively creating a culture of suicide and martyrdom? If George Bush is right, that it is despair, neglect and poverty that drive people to such acts, then isn't it worth pointing out that we are doing a far better job?
*I say "about" because in the aftermath of a suicide bombing, it is often very difficult for observers to determine how many individual bodies have been blown to pieces.
Penny Coleman is the widow of a Vietnam veteran who took his own life after coming home. Her latest book, Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide and the Lessons of War, was released on Memorial Day, 2006. Her blog is Flashback.
--contributed by Patti Woodard
Saturday, November 24, 2007
US pays British troops for Iraq crash injuries
In a groundbreaking move, the Pentagon is compensating servicemen seriously hurt when an American tank convoy forced them off the road
Mark Townsend, defence correspondent
Sunday November 4, 2007 The Observer
The Pentagon has agreed to pay more than £300,000 in compensation to British soldiers who were seriously injured when their vehicle was in a collision with a US tank convoy on an Iraqi road.
The landmark decision is the first time that the US military has offered money to British troops injured by US forces after admitting liability. The decision could, say lawyers, pave the way for more payouts to British servicemen accidentally injured in Iraq and Afghanistan by the Americans.
Corporal Jane McLauchlan, Staff Sergeant James Rogerson, Corporal Stephen Smith and their interpreter, Khalid Allahou, have been told they will receive collective compensation of £320,000 from the US authorities after the accident more than four years ago.
Initially, the American military denied it had any record of the incident. Later it emerged that the collision had been officially recorded at the time. Lawyers for the British troops have accused the US authorities of attempting to 'dump' their inquiry in a move to block the compensation claim, the first private action involving coalition allies in Iraq.
Michael Doyle, a personal injury lawyer for Houston-based firm Doyle Raizner which took the case against the Pentagon, said the claimants were relieved their ordeal was over. 'They only ever wanted the US to admit fault. After years of denying such an incident even occurred, they have now admitted liability for what happened. As far as we can tell, this is the first and only time the US has paid out to British troops.'
The decision, a rare admission of liability from the Pentagon, increases the likelihood that more British troops injured by US forces could receive compensation. However, legal sources said that 'friendly-fire' incidents were unlikely to be affected by the ruling. Doyle said that in those cases the US authorities were protected by 'combat immunity' and that he had secured the £320,000 payout by using the US Foreign Claims Act, which provides compensation for death or injuries caused by non-combat activities of US military personnel.
The Pentagon has refused to compensate the family of ITN journalist Terry Lloyd, despite claims that US Marines 'almost certainly' fired the shots that killed him and his interpreter, Hussein Osman, near the Shatt al-Basra bridge in 2003.
A number of British troops have also been accidentally killed by US fighter planes in Iraq and Afghanistan, including three men from the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment in northern Helmand province, Afghanistan, last August. 'This was a unique case. This was always a case where there was a wrong, but we were never sure that we could find a right,' Doyle said.
In the incident a Royal Military Police Land Rover was struck twice from behind by a US tank transporter. Corporal McLauchlan, who was at the wheel of the Land Rover, was unable to keep control and crashed off the road. Initially, the Royal Military Police launched a detailed inquiry into the incident and named the US unit and driver involved, before the Pentagon said it would take over the investigation.
Only after substantial pressure did the Pentagon admit the existence of a three-page statement by the US National Guard convoy involved in the incident, which mentioned that they 'had run some guys off the road'.
McLauchlan, 35, sustained multiple skull fractures, brain damage and punctured internal organs. She also claims she has suffered personality changes. She was assigned a non-combat role after the collision, but decided to leave the army last year.
Staff Sergeant Rogerson suffered head and spinal injuries. Allahou, who lives in Folkestone, Kent, with his British wife and had volunteered to work as a translator for the army, is said to be suffering long-term effects. Corporal Smith has made a good recovery and is now serving in Afghanistan.
Mark Townsend, defence correspondent
Sunday November 4, 2007 The Observer
The Pentagon has agreed to pay more than £300,000 in compensation to British soldiers who were seriously injured when their vehicle was in a collision with a US tank convoy on an Iraqi road.
The landmark decision is the first time that the US military has offered money to British troops injured by US forces after admitting liability. The decision could, say lawyers, pave the way for more payouts to British servicemen accidentally injured in Iraq and Afghanistan by the Americans.
Corporal Jane McLauchlan, Staff Sergeant James Rogerson, Corporal Stephen Smith and their interpreter, Khalid Allahou, have been told they will receive collective compensation of £320,000 from the US authorities after the accident more than four years ago.
Initially, the American military denied it had any record of the incident. Later it emerged that the collision had been officially recorded at the time. Lawyers for the British troops have accused the US authorities of attempting to 'dump' their inquiry in a move to block the compensation claim, the first private action involving coalition allies in Iraq.
Michael Doyle, a personal injury lawyer for Houston-based firm Doyle Raizner which took the case against the Pentagon, said the claimants were relieved their ordeal was over. 'They only ever wanted the US to admit fault. After years of denying such an incident even occurred, they have now admitted liability for what happened. As far as we can tell, this is the first and only time the US has paid out to British troops.'
The decision, a rare admission of liability from the Pentagon, increases the likelihood that more British troops injured by US forces could receive compensation. However, legal sources said that 'friendly-fire' incidents were unlikely to be affected by the ruling. Doyle said that in those cases the US authorities were protected by 'combat immunity' and that he had secured the £320,000 payout by using the US Foreign Claims Act, which provides compensation for death or injuries caused by non-combat activities of US military personnel.
The Pentagon has refused to compensate the family of ITN journalist Terry Lloyd, despite claims that US Marines 'almost certainly' fired the shots that killed him and his interpreter, Hussein Osman, near the Shatt al-Basra bridge in 2003.
A number of British troops have also been accidentally killed by US fighter planes in Iraq and Afghanistan, including three men from the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment in northern Helmand province, Afghanistan, last August. 'This was a unique case. This was always a case where there was a wrong, but we were never sure that we could find a right,' Doyle said.
In the incident a Royal Military Police Land Rover was struck twice from behind by a US tank transporter. Corporal McLauchlan, who was at the wheel of the Land Rover, was unable to keep control and crashed off the road. Initially, the Royal Military Police launched a detailed inquiry into the incident and named the US unit and driver involved, before the Pentagon said it would take over the investigation.
Only after substantial pressure did the Pentagon admit the existence of a three-page statement by the US National Guard convoy involved in the incident, which mentioned that they 'had run some guys off the road'.
McLauchlan, 35, sustained multiple skull fractures, brain damage and punctured internal organs. She also claims she has suffered personality changes. She was assigned a non-combat role after the collision, but decided to leave the army last year.
Staff Sergeant Rogerson suffered head and spinal injuries. Allahou, who lives in Folkestone, Kent, with his British wife and had volunteered to work as a translator for the army, is said to be suffering long-term effects. Corporal Smith has made a good recovery and is now serving in Afghanistan.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Quincy soldier threatened: Before she was slain, Durkin wrote that a soldier pointed a gun at her
By SUE SCHEIBLE
The Patriot Ledger
QUINCY - Three months before she was found dead with a single gunshot wound to the head, Cpl. Ciara Durkin wrote to a friend that another soldier had pointed a 9mm handgun at her.
Durkin, who was stationed at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, wrote that the soldier had been jailed and asked her friend not to tell others about the incident, Durkin family spokesman Douglas Bailey confirmed.‘‘That remains another thing to be tracked down,’’ Bailey said Sunday, referring to the military investigation of Durkin’s death.
Her body was found Sept. 28 near a church on the base, her M-16 rifle nearby. The death was initially reported as combat-related but Durkin’s family back in Quincy immediately suspected something else, since during her last visit home in September, she talked about ‘‘making enemies’’ because of things she learned working in a finance unit on the base.
The military has since called the death a non-combat fatality.Bailey confirmed that there are ‘‘third-hand’’ reports that Durkin was shot in the mouth, indicating suicide. ‘‘Someone in the military may have told a family member who told another family member’’ that the fatal gunshot was in the mouth, he said.
But family members have discounted the suicide theory, saying Durkin had plans for the future and appeared happy during her visit home.
The military is investigating the death but has released no information including whether there is any connection between it and Durkin’s report about having a gun pointed at her in June.
The Durkin family hopes to hear ‘‘any day now’’ about the military’s autopsy results, Bailey said. ‘‘The autopsy won’t be the end of the investigation,’’ he added. ‘‘There are a lot of leads that still need to be followed up on, more people to be interviewed.’’
The results of a separate autopsy are expected soon, Bailey said.
Meanwhile, the Durkin family is anxious for the investigation to move forward, he said. ‘‘They don’t expect closure soon but would like to start getting some better information. It could still take a year or more for the military to conclude more about the cause of death and the final report could reach no finding,’’ he said.
Durkin enlisted in the Army National Guard in 2005 and was assigned to the 726th Finance Batallion based in West Newton. She was deployed to Afghanistan in February.
Sue Scheible may be reached at sscheible@ledger.com .
Copyright 2007 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Monday, November 19, 2007
The Patriot Ledger
QUINCY - Three months before she was found dead with a single gunshot wound to the head, Cpl. Ciara Durkin wrote to a friend that another soldier had pointed a 9mm handgun at her.
Durkin, who was stationed at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, wrote that the soldier had been jailed and asked her friend not to tell others about the incident, Durkin family spokesman Douglas Bailey confirmed.‘‘That remains another thing to be tracked down,’’ Bailey said Sunday, referring to the military investigation of Durkin’s death.
Her body was found Sept. 28 near a church on the base, her M-16 rifle nearby. The death was initially reported as combat-related but Durkin’s family back in Quincy immediately suspected something else, since during her last visit home in September, she talked about ‘‘making enemies’’ because of things she learned working in a finance unit on the base.
The military has since called the death a non-combat fatality.Bailey confirmed that there are ‘‘third-hand’’ reports that Durkin was shot in the mouth, indicating suicide. ‘‘Someone in the military may have told a family member who told another family member’’ that the fatal gunshot was in the mouth, he said.
But family members have discounted the suicide theory, saying Durkin had plans for the future and appeared happy during her visit home.
The military is investigating the death but has released no information including whether there is any connection between it and Durkin’s report about having a gun pointed at her in June.
The Durkin family hopes to hear ‘‘any day now’’ about the military’s autopsy results, Bailey said. ‘‘The autopsy won’t be the end of the investigation,’’ he added. ‘‘There are a lot of leads that still need to be followed up on, more people to be interviewed.’’
The results of a separate autopsy are expected soon, Bailey said.
Meanwhile, the Durkin family is anxious for the investigation to move forward, he said. ‘‘They don’t expect closure soon but would like to start getting some better information. It could still take a year or more for the military to conclude more about the cause of death and the final report could reach no finding,’’ he said.
Durkin enlisted in the Army National Guard in 2005 and was assigned to the 726th Finance Batallion based in West Newton. She was deployed to Afghanistan in February.
Sue Scheible may be reached at sscheible@ledger.com .
Copyright 2007 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Monday, November 19, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Pentagon Cover Up: 15,000 or more US casualties in Iraq War
By Mike Whitney
11/17/07 "ICH" -- -- The Pentagon has been concealing the true number of American casualties in the Iraq War. The real number exceeds 15,000 and CBS News can prove it.
CBS’s Investigative Unit wanted to do a report on the number of suicides in the military and “submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense”. After 4 months they received a document which showed--that between 1995 and 2007--there were 2,200 suicides among “active duty” soldiers.
Baloney.
The Pentagon was covering up the real magnitude of the “suicide epidemic”. Following an exhaustive investigation of veterans’ suicide data collected from 45 states; CBS discovered that in 2005 alone “THERE WERE AT LEAST 6,256 AMONG THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES. THAT’S 120 EACH AND EVERY WEEK IN JUST ONE YEAR.”
That is not a typo. Active and retired military personnel, mostly young veterans between the ages of 20 to 24, are returning from combat and killing themselves in record numbers. We can assume that "multiple-tours of duty" in a war-zone have precipitated a mental health crisis of which the public is entirely unaware and which the Pentagon is in total denial.
If we add the 6,256 suicide victims from 2005 to the “official” 3,865 reported combat casualties; we get a sum of 10,121. Even a low-ball estimate of similar 2004 and 2006 suicide figures, would mean that the total number of US casualties from the Iraq war now exceed 15,000.
That’s right; 15,000 dead US servicemen and women in a war that--as yet--has no legal or moral justification.
CBS interviewed Dr. Ira Katz, the head of mental health at the Department of Veteran Affairs. Katz attempted to minimize the surge in veteran suicides saying, “There is no epidemic of suicide in the VA, but suicide is a major problem.”
Maybe Katz right. Maybe there is no epidemic. Maybe it’s perfectly normal for young men and women to return from combat, sink into inconsolable depression, and kill themselves at greater rates than they were dying on the battlefield. Maybe it’s normal for the Pentagon to abandon them as soon as soon they return from their mission so they can blow their brains out or hang themselves with a garden hose in their basement. Maybe it's normal for politicians to keep funding wholesale slaughter while they brush aside the casualties they have produced by their callousness and lack of courage. Maybe it is normal for the president to persist with the same, bland lies that perpetuate the occupation and continue to kill scores of young soldiers who put themselves in harm’s-way for their country.
It’s not normal; it’s is a pandemic---an outbreak of despair which is the natural corollary of living in constant fear; of seeing one’s friends being dismembered by roadside bombs or children being blasted to bits at military checkpoints or finding battered bodies dumped on the side of a riverbed like a bag of garbage.
&nsp; The rash of suicides is the logical upshot of Bush’s war. Returning soldiers are traumatized by their experience and now they are killing themselves in droves. Maybe we should have thought about that before we invaded.
Check it out the video at: CBS News “Suicide Epidemic among Veterans” http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml
--contributed by Patti Woodard
11/17/07 "ICH" -- -- The Pentagon has been concealing the true number of American casualties in the Iraq War. The real number exceeds 15,000 and CBS News can prove it.
CBS’s Investigative Unit wanted to do a report on the number of suicides in the military and “submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense”. After 4 months they received a document which showed--that between 1995 and 2007--there were 2,200 suicides among “active duty” soldiers.
Baloney.
The Pentagon was covering up the real magnitude of the “suicide epidemic”. Following an exhaustive investigation of veterans’ suicide data collected from 45 states; CBS discovered that in 2005 alone “THERE WERE AT LEAST 6,256 AMONG THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES. THAT’S 120 EACH AND EVERY WEEK IN JUST ONE YEAR.”
That is not a typo. Active and retired military personnel, mostly young veterans between the ages of 20 to 24, are returning from combat and killing themselves in record numbers. We can assume that "multiple-tours of duty" in a war-zone have precipitated a mental health crisis of which the public is entirely unaware and which the Pentagon is in total denial.
If we add the 6,256 suicide victims from 2005 to the “official” 3,865 reported combat casualties; we get a sum of 10,121. Even a low-ball estimate of similar 2004 and 2006 suicide figures, would mean that the total number of US casualties from the Iraq war now exceed 15,000.
That’s right; 15,000 dead US servicemen and women in a war that--as yet--has no legal or moral justification.
CBS interviewed Dr. Ira Katz, the head of mental health at the Department of Veteran Affairs. Katz attempted to minimize the surge in veteran suicides saying, “There is no epidemic of suicide in the VA, but suicide is a major problem.”
Maybe Katz right. Maybe there is no epidemic. Maybe it’s perfectly normal for young men and women to return from combat, sink into inconsolable depression, and kill themselves at greater rates than they were dying on the battlefield. Maybe it’s normal for the Pentagon to abandon them as soon as soon they return from their mission so they can blow their brains out or hang themselves with a garden hose in their basement. Maybe it's normal for politicians to keep funding wholesale slaughter while they brush aside the casualties they have produced by their callousness and lack of courage. Maybe it is normal for the president to persist with the same, bland lies that perpetuate the occupation and continue to kill scores of young soldiers who put themselves in harm’s-way for their country.
It’s not normal; it’s is a pandemic---an outbreak of despair which is the natural corollary of living in constant fear; of seeing one’s friends being dismembered by roadside bombs or children being blasted to bits at military checkpoints or finding battered bodies dumped on the side of a riverbed like a bag of garbage.
&nsp; The rash of suicides is the logical upshot of Bush’s war. Returning soldiers are traumatized by their experience and now they are killing themselves in droves. Maybe we should have thought about that before we invaded.
Check it out the video at: CBS News “Suicide Epidemic among Veterans” http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml
--contributed by Patti Woodard
Friday, November 16, 2007
120 US war veteran suicides a week
From correspondents in New York
November 15, 2007 09:47am
THE US military is experiencing a "suicide epidemic" with veterans killing themselves at the rate of 120 a week, according to an investigation by US television network CBS.
At least 6256 US veterans committed suicide in 2005 - an average of 17 a day - the network reported, with veterans overall more than twice as likely to take their own lives as the rest of the general population.
While the suicide rate among the general population was 8.9 per 100,000, the level among veterans was between 18.7 and 20.8 per 100,000.
That figure rose to 22.9 to 31.9 suicides per 100,000 among veterans aged 20 to 24 - almost four times the non-veteran average for the age group.
"Those numbers clearly show an epidemic of mental health problems,'' CBS quoted veterans' rights advocate Paul Sullivan as saying.
CBS quoted the father of a 23-year-old soldier who shot himself in 2005 as saying the military did not want the true scale of the problem to be known.
"Nobody wants to tally it up in the form of a government total,'' Mike Bowman said.
"They don't want the true numbers of casualties to really be known.''
There are 25 million veterans in the United States, 1.6 million of whom served in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to CBS.
"Not everyone comes home from the war wounded, but the bottom line is nobody comes home unchanged,'' Paul Rieckhoff, a former Marine and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America said on CBS.
The network said it was the first time that a nationwide count of veteran suicides had been conducted.
The tally was reached by collating suicide data from individual states for both veterans and the general population from 1995.
November 15, 2007 09:47am
THE US military is experiencing a "suicide epidemic" with veterans killing themselves at the rate of 120 a week, according to an investigation by US television network CBS.
At least 6256 US veterans committed suicide in 2005 - an average of 17 a day - the network reported, with veterans overall more than twice as likely to take their own lives as the rest of the general population.
While the suicide rate among the general population was 8.9 per 100,000, the level among veterans was between 18.7 and 20.8 per 100,000.
That figure rose to 22.9 to 31.9 suicides per 100,000 among veterans aged 20 to 24 - almost four times the non-veteran average for the age group.
"Those numbers clearly show an epidemic of mental health problems,'' CBS quoted veterans' rights advocate Paul Sullivan as saying.
CBS quoted the father of a 23-year-old soldier who shot himself in 2005 as saying the military did not want the true scale of the problem to be known.
"Nobody wants to tally it up in the form of a government total,'' Mike Bowman said.
"They don't want the true numbers of casualties to really be known.''
There are 25 million veterans in the United States, 1.6 million of whom served in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to CBS.
"Not everyone comes home from the war wounded, but the bottom line is nobody comes home unchanged,'' Paul Rieckhoff, a former Marine and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America said on CBS.
The network said it was the first time that a nationwide count of veteran suicides had been conducted.
The tally was reached by collating suicide data from individual states for both veterans and the general population from 1995.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Soldier who took overdose on eve of Iraq trip 'feared having to shoot children'
A young soldier was so traumatised by the prospect of his first Iraqi posting, he took an overdose which killed him.
Private Jason Chelsea couldn't come to terms with the thought that he might have to "shoot children" carrying suicide bombs.
He was so afraid, on the eve of the tour of duty with the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment he took a lethal quantity of paracetamol and iron tablets.
Unknown to Jason, they were a particularly destructive combination and he died from multi-organ failure following severe damage to his liver.
But as he lay dying, he repeatedly told medical staff: "I never wanted to die."
A donor organ had been found - despite the national shortage - as he battled for life in the renal unit at St James' Hospital, in Leeds, but he was by then too ill to face surgery.
Following the 19-year-old's death in August 2006, a Ministry of Defence Board of Inquiry was held into the circumstances behind his death.
And although the hearing remains confidential, it has been discovered it makes several recommendations about changes to Army procedure.
Jason, who was dyslexic, had also complained about bullying by some soldiers during his five and half year training.
He had been angry and insulted after hearing some say they wouldn't want to get into battle with him "in case he got them killed."
And he had self harmed, "superficially" slashing his wrists on two earlier occasions, after heavy drinking sessions, while on service.
An inquest was told he died after taking a fatal overdose of prescription drugs but Coroner Jennifer Leeming recorded a verdict of accidental death after hearing he had phoned for an emergency ambulance himself immediately after ingesting the pills at the family home in Wigan, Lancashire.
"Within a very short period of time after taking the tablets Jason had summoned the ambulance himself to take him to hospital and this was clearly not the action of someone who wanted to end his life," Mrs Leeming told Bolton Coroner's Court.
"This act could more consistently be described as a cry for help from a fragile young man about to serve in Iraq and faced with some financial problems and clearly finding it difficult to cope with these matters.
"Due to the fact that he had been drunk, perhaps these were out of proportion in his mind."
His mother, Kerry, told the hearing that her son originally wanted to be a chef but had joined the armed forces - against her wishes - after a recruitment road show landed at his school.
Jason, she said, was always the first to comfort neighbours in distress and was always there when anybody had problems.
But he was increasingly concerned about his impending tour of duty and what may be expected of him in Iraq.
She said this showed itself in his heavy drinking which, with his father Tony, she had tried her best to control.
She said: "Before he joined the army Jason didn't drink and his dad doesn't drink at all and I am only a very light drinker on social occasions.
"But when I asked him why he did drink so much now he said that that was army life and you would be the odd one out if you didn't do it - he didn't want to be left behind.
"He told me he used to drink vodka and gin because it wouldn't show on his breath so much and after he died we found empty spirits bottles hidden in the garage.
"After the overdose, when he came around the next morning, he told me that he really didn't want to go to Iraq and he was scared at having to maybe shoot children or adults because he said he didn't want to kill anybody.
"Basically I think he had just got himself in a state over it all.
"He also said that some boys had been nasty to him because he took a while to pick up the things he had to learn because he was dyslexic.
"He used to do the ironing and polishing the boots of friends and they would then help teach him the marching and the academic side of things in return."
Army company second in command Captain Steven Caldwell said that Kingsman Chelsea hadn't done anything "to raise the alarm" with his behaviour because a lot of young soldiers were "socially undeveloped" before they progressed.
He pointed out that operationally not every soldier was called upon to kill, and said the media had to shoulder some of the blame for "focussing on the negative" which, he acknowledged, had left some soldiers feeling "doomed."
He insisted their training did adequately prepare young soldiers for the psychological side of battle theatre situations.
Private Jason Chelsea couldn't come to terms with the thought that he might have to "shoot children" carrying suicide bombs.
He was so afraid, on the eve of the tour of duty with the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment he took a lethal quantity of paracetamol and iron tablets.
Unknown to Jason, they were a particularly destructive combination and he died from multi-organ failure following severe damage to his liver.
But as he lay dying, he repeatedly told medical staff: "I never wanted to die."
A donor organ had been found - despite the national shortage - as he battled for life in the renal unit at St James' Hospital, in Leeds, but he was by then too ill to face surgery.
Following the 19-year-old's death in August 2006, a Ministry of Defence Board of Inquiry was held into the circumstances behind his death.
And although the hearing remains confidential, it has been discovered it makes several recommendations about changes to Army procedure.
Jason, who was dyslexic, had also complained about bullying by some soldiers during his five and half year training.
He had been angry and insulted after hearing some say they wouldn't want to get into battle with him "in case he got them killed."
And he had self harmed, "superficially" slashing his wrists on two earlier occasions, after heavy drinking sessions, while on service.
An inquest was told he died after taking a fatal overdose of prescription drugs but Coroner Jennifer Leeming recorded a verdict of accidental death after hearing he had phoned for an emergency ambulance himself immediately after ingesting the pills at the family home in Wigan, Lancashire.
"Within a very short period of time after taking the tablets Jason had summoned the ambulance himself to take him to hospital and this was clearly not the action of someone who wanted to end his life," Mrs Leeming told Bolton Coroner's Court.
"This act could more consistently be described as a cry for help from a fragile young man about to serve in Iraq and faced with some financial problems and clearly finding it difficult to cope with these matters.
"Due to the fact that he had been drunk, perhaps these were out of proportion in his mind."
His mother, Kerry, told the hearing that her son originally wanted to be a chef but had joined the armed forces - against her wishes - after a recruitment road show landed at his school.
Jason, she said, was always the first to comfort neighbours in distress and was always there when anybody had problems.
But he was increasingly concerned about his impending tour of duty and what may be expected of him in Iraq.
She said this showed itself in his heavy drinking which, with his father Tony, she had tried her best to control.
She said: "Before he joined the army Jason didn't drink and his dad doesn't drink at all and I am only a very light drinker on social occasions.
"But when I asked him why he did drink so much now he said that that was army life and you would be the odd one out if you didn't do it - he didn't want to be left behind.
"He told me he used to drink vodka and gin because it wouldn't show on his breath so much and after he died we found empty spirits bottles hidden in the garage.
"After the overdose, when he came around the next morning, he told me that he really didn't want to go to Iraq and he was scared at having to maybe shoot children or adults because he said he didn't want to kill anybody.
"Basically I think he had just got himself in a state over it all.
"He also said that some boys had been nasty to him because he took a while to pick up the things he had to learn because he was dyslexic.
"He used to do the ironing and polishing the boots of friends and they would then help teach him the marching and the academic side of things in return."
Army company second in command Captain Steven Caldwell said that Kingsman Chelsea hadn't done anything "to raise the alarm" with his behaviour because a lot of young soldiers were "socially undeveloped" before they progressed.
He pointed out that operationally not every soldier was called upon to kill, and said the media had to shoulder some of the blame for "focussing on the negative" which, he acknowledged, had left some soldiers feeling "doomed."
He insisted their training did adequately prepare young soldiers for the psychological side of battle theatre situations.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Who Will Probe 'Noncombat' Deaths in Iraq?
About 20% of the U.S. deaths in Iraq are officially labeled "noncombat," and that number has been surging. This includes accidents, friendly fire and well over 120 suicides. But the government, and the media, seem reluctant to expose the tragedy, argues vets leader Paul Rieckhoff.
By Greg Mitchell NEW YORK (November 06, 2007)
-- Pretty much alone in the media, E&P for weeks had been charting a troubling increase in non-combat deaths among U.S. troops in Iraq.
So it came as no surprise recently when the Pentagon announced that it would probe the perplexing trend. Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, operations director of the Joint Staff, said commanders in Iraq were concerned enough about the spike in non-combat deaths -- from accidents, illness, friendly-fire or suicide -- that it had asked for an assessment by an Army team.
According to Pentagon figures, 29 soldiers lost their lives in August for non-hostile reasons, and another 23 died of non-combat causes in September. Compare that with the average for the first seven months of this year: fewer than nine per month.
The spike has coincided with extended 15-month deployments, one senior military official said. The military officially counts about 20% of the nearly 3900 U.S. fatalities in Iraq as "noncombat." It has officially confirmed 128 suicides in Iraq since 2003, with many others under investigation (and still more taking place on the return home).
Lt. Gen. Ham said morale remains high, but added, "I think there is a general consensus ... that for the Army, 15 months is a long hard tour. It's hard on the soldiers."
As I've noted repeatedly, the military releases little news to the press when a service member dies from a non-hostile cause, beyond saying it is "under investigation."
When that probe ends, many months later, the military normally does not tell anyone but family members of the deceased.
For more than four years, however, E&P has kept close tabs on non-combat deaths, and nearly every day lately I have combed the Web for details on new cases. Sometimes local newspapers find out about preliminary determinations -- including suicides -- passed along to families. So I checked again today on October casualties Vincent Kamka, Dr. Roselle Hoffmaster, and others.
In doing that a few days ago, I discovered what happened to Cpt. Erik T. Garoutte of Santee, Ca. He was a Marine who died last month at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune he "was exercising when he collapsed. He never regained consciousness."
More tragedy followed: His mother, Donna Stone, also of Santee, had a heart attack after hearing about his death. The Union-Tribune related that "the family hopes an autopsy will explain what caused Garoutte to die."
But why has the press given this so little attention to noncombat deaths, going back to the early days of the war?
Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq vet and now leader of the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, has long shared my concerns and frustration. Rieckhoff, author of the memoir "Chasing Ghosts," calls this "one of the most under- reported stories of the war.
I've been pitching the story to people for over two years. A lot of deaths are taking place under questionable circumstances -- the number would surprise you -- and no one looks at them, in theater or at home. It's a broad research project, and maybe it is not sexy, but it needs to be done."
The Veterans Administration doesn't track the deaths, Rieckhoff says. "I'd like to see a study of how many Iraq vets have died under any circumstance back in this country," he declares.
"We have suicide rates tracked in the military, but once they leave it is untraced. We have argued for a national registry, if you have been in the war."
Nobody has ever taken the step of pulling it all together. I know it would be expensive, time-consuming, and difficult for the media, but it is their responsibility. They did it with body armor, with corruption, now with Blackwater. You could at least do a clustering, like around Fort Bragg -- look at the deaths of all veterans within a 100-mile radius. If we could fund it, we would, but our group is too small."
What is his theory about the recent spike? "We know that our people are under tremendous stress," he replies.
"The operational tempo is unprecedented. I met a guy in a bar who has been there eight times. He said, 'Thank God I am young and single.' "We can push them harder, but is it smart? I don't think it is smart, or is right."
The surge in non-hostile deaths does not mean just suicides, but accidents due to overwork. Soldiers don't have a union like police and firemen, Rieckhoff points out. Federal agencies "would have a field day with working conditions," he adds. Why has there been so little coverage?
"I know access to the battle zone is an issue," he admits. "And dealing with families is delicate, but you can still handle it sensitively."
But he also cites what he calls a cultural issue: "After World War II, a lot of vets went into media and could navigate the system. Now so few reporters have served. Many don't know the difference between a brigade and a battalion. Also there is fear of how it is going to play in the pro- or anti-war debate. But this is not a partisan issue. Either way -- get to the bottom of this."
American people don't know a lot about these issues. People abroad ask me, are Americans stupid? I say, 'No, they just aren't told enough.'"
***UPDATE: I received the following two letters in response to the above.
*Thank you for addressing the non-combat deaths issue. I’ve been struck by the number of people killed when vehicles drove into canals (Michael Kelly of the Washington Post being the best known of these). Another mystery you should call attention to is the medivacs of people for non-combat injuries and illnesses, which far exceed those for combat injuries.
Icasualties.org reports 24,912 non-hostile medivacs, which means the people were flown out or Iraq and to Germany (or perhaps other military hospitals). Some 18,741 of the patients suffer from disease/other (as opposed to the 6,171 for non-combat related injuries, presumably trauma).
Disease? Three times as many of our troops are being flown out of Iraq for disease than wounds in battle (6,354), and yet we hear nothing about this epidemic, or whatever it is.
Soldiers are selected for their good health to begin with and most troops deployed are in their 20s and almost all, other than the National Guard duffers who have been sent over, are under 40. These diseases are serious enough that the soldiers have been flown out of the country, so we’re not talking about colds or even the clap, which can be treated with antibiotics. And Iraq seems a little short on prostitutes and brothels serving the U.S. forces anyway, unless they among the “contractors” being flown in from Thailand and other countries to provide services.
So we have a situation where thousands of certifiably healthy young men and women are coming down with diseases of some sort that are serious enough to get them flown out of the country on an emergency basis. What’s going on over there? Also, as for stress levels, the U.S. Army concluded in WWII that 24 weeks of combat was about all anyone could take and still be able to function as reasonably effective soldiers. That is about a third of the current tours of duty in Iraq.
Edward Furey New York, N.Y.*
*I would defy anyone to say with any assurance that they know what the Iraq combat casualties are (under the traditional definition) or that they know of a way to calculate them. The media has made it a practice to show only the number of deaths. On the rare occasion that they show deaths and wounded they are hit with a barrage of letters accusing them of being anti-war. Lord help them if they ever reported a total casualties figure. Even the dead reported may be under counted. We just have no way of knowing from official figures.
No one can sit there in Dover and count the airplanes and the caskets. Its verboten.
Has anyone ever attempted to use Nexis-Lexis to count the dead in news stories from around the country? I t is obscene to count as a non-combat death a death that occurs when a military vehicle overturns in a combat zone-- and all of Iraq is a combat zone. If I had a son or daughter killed in Iraq in that manner I would feel that that son or daughter had some how been denigrated, that their death was not as "worthy" as that of someone shot by an Iraqi.
The media now controlled by conglomerates involved with the defense industries or dependent on favorable governmental rulings no longer serves a higher purpose (if it ever did). It is all too ready to go along to get along.
Bob Reynolds Orange Park, Fla.
--reprinted with permission
By Greg Mitchell NEW YORK (November 06, 2007)
-- Pretty much alone in the media, E&P for weeks had been charting a troubling increase in non-combat deaths among U.S. troops in Iraq.
So it came as no surprise recently when the Pentagon announced that it would probe the perplexing trend. Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, operations director of the Joint Staff, said commanders in Iraq were concerned enough about the spike in non-combat deaths -- from accidents, illness, friendly-fire or suicide -- that it had asked for an assessment by an Army team.
According to Pentagon figures, 29 soldiers lost their lives in August for non-hostile reasons, and another 23 died of non-combat causes in September. Compare that with the average for the first seven months of this year: fewer than nine per month.
The spike has coincided with extended 15-month deployments, one senior military official said. The military officially counts about 20% of the nearly 3900 U.S. fatalities in Iraq as "noncombat." It has officially confirmed 128 suicides in Iraq since 2003, with many others under investigation (and still more taking place on the return home).
Lt. Gen. Ham said morale remains high, but added, "I think there is a general consensus ... that for the Army, 15 months is a long hard tour. It's hard on the soldiers."
As I've noted repeatedly, the military releases little news to the press when a service member dies from a non-hostile cause, beyond saying it is "under investigation."
When that probe ends, many months later, the military normally does not tell anyone but family members of the deceased.
For more than four years, however, E&P has kept close tabs on non-combat deaths, and nearly every day lately I have combed the Web for details on new cases. Sometimes local newspapers find out about preliminary determinations -- including suicides -- passed along to families. So I checked again today on October casualties Vincent Kamka, Dr. Roselle Hoffmaster, and others.
In doing that a few days ago, I discovered what happened to Cpt. Erik T. Garoutte of Santee, Ca. He was a Marine who died last month at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune he "was exercising when he collapsed. He never regained consciousness."
More tragedy followed: His mother, Donna Stone, also of Santee, had a heart attack after hearing about his death. The Union-Tribune related that "the family hopes an autopsy will explain what caused Garoutte to die."
But why has the press given this so little attention to noncombat deaths, going back to the early days of the war?
Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq vet and now leader of the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, has long shared my concerns and frustration. Rieckhoff, author of the memoir "Chasing Ghosts," calls this "one of the most under- reported stories of the war.
I've been pitching the story to people for over two years. A lot of deaths are taking place under questionable circumstances -- the number would surprise you -- and no one looks at them, in theater or at home. It's a broad research project, and maybe it is not sexy, but it needs to be done."
The Veterans Administration doesn't track the deaths, Rieckhoff says. "I'd like to see a study of how many Iraq vets have died under any circumstance back in this country," he declares.
"We have suicide rates tracked in the military, but once they leave it is untraced. We have argued for a national registry, if you have been in the war."
Nobody has ever taken the step of pulling it all together. I know it would be expensive, time-consuming, and difficult for the media, but it is their responsibility. They did it with body armor, with corruption, now with Blackwater. You could at least do a clustering, like around Fort Bragg -- look at the deaths of all veterans within a 100-mile radius. If we could fund it, we would, but our group is too small."
What is his theory about the recent spike? "We know that our people are under tremendous stress," he replies.
"The operational tempo is unprecedented. I met a guy in a bar who has been there eight times. He said, 'Thank God I am young and single.' "We can push them harder, but is it smart? I don't think it is smart, or is right."
The surge in non-hostile deaths does not mean just suicides, but accidents due to overwork. Soldiers don't have a union like police and firemen, Rieckhoff points out. Federal agencies "would have a field day with working conditions," he adds. Why has there been so little coverage?
"I know access to the battle zone is an issue," he admits. "And dealing with families is delicate, but you can still handle it sensitively."
But he also cites what he calls a cultural issue: "After World War II, a lot of vets went into media and could navigate the system. Now so few reporters have served. Many don't know the difference between a brigade and a battalion. Also there is fear of how it is going to play in the pro- or anti-war debate. But this is not a partisan issue. Either way -- get to the bottom of this."
American people don't know a lot about these issues. People abroad ask me, are Americans stupid? I say, 'No, they just aren't told enough.'"
***UPDATE: I received the following two letters in response to the above.
*Thank you for addressing the non-combat deaths issue. I’ve been struck by the number of people killed when vehicles drove into canals (Michael Kelly of the Washington Post being the best known of these). Another mystery you should call attention to is the medivacs of people for non-combat injuries and illnesses, which far exceed those for combat injuries.
Icasualties.org reports 24,912 non-hostile medivacs, which means the people were flown out or Iraq and to Germany (or perhaps other military hospitals). Some 18,741 of the patients suffer from disease/other (as opposed to the 6,171 for non-combat related injuries, presumably trauma).
Disease? Three times as many of our troops are being flown out of Iraq for disease than wounds in battle (6,354), and yet we hear nothing about this epidemic, or whatever it is.
Soldiers are selected for their good health to begin with and most troops deployed are in their 20s and almost all, other than the National Guard duffers who have been sent over, are under 40. These diseases are serious enough that the soldiers have been flown out of the country, so we’re not talking about colds or even the clap, which can be treated with antibiotics. And Iraq seems a little short on prostitutes and brothels serving the U.S. forces anyway, unless they among the “contractors” being flown in from Thailand and other countries to provide services.
So we have a situation where thousands of certifiably healthy young men and women are coming down with diseases of some sort that are serious enough to get them flown out of the country on an emergency basis. What’s going on over there? Also, as for stress levels, the U.S. Army concluded in WWII that 24 weeks of combat was about all anyone could take and still be able to function as reasonably effective soldiers. That is about a third of the current tours of duty in Iraq.
Edward Furey New York, N.Y.*
*I would defy anyone to say with any assurance that they know what the Iraq combat casualties are (under the traditional definition) or that they know of a way to calculate them. The media has made it a practice to show only the number of deaths. On the rare occasion that they show deaths and wounded they are hit with a barrage of letters accusing them of being anti-war. Lord help them if they ever reported a total casualties figure. Even the dead reported may be under counted. We just have no way of knowing from official figures.
No one can sit there in Dover and count the airplanes and the caskets. Its verboten.
Has anyone ever attempted to use Nexis-Lexis to count the dead in news stories from around the country? I t is obscene to count as a non-combat death a death that occurs when a military vehicle overturns in a combat zone-- and all of Iraq is a combat zone. If I had a son or daughter killed in Iraq in that manner I would feel that that son or daughter had some how been denigrated, that their death was not as "worthy" as that of someone shot by an Iraqi.
The media now controlled by conglomerates involved with the defense industries or dependent on favorable governmental rulings no longer serves a higher purpose (if it ever did). It is all too ready to go along to get along.
Bob Reynolds Orange Park, Fla.
--reprinted with permission
Sunday, November 04, 2007
US pays British troops for Iraq crash injuries
In a groundbreaking move, the Pentagon is compensating servicemen seriously hurt when an American tank convoy forced them off the road
Mark Townsend, defence correspondent
Sunday November 4, 2007
The Observer
The Pentagon has agreed to pay more than £300,000 in compensation to British soldiers who were seriously injured when their vehicle was in a collision with a US tank convoy on an Iraqi road. The landmark decision is the first time that the US military has offered money to British troops injured by US forces after admitting liability. The decision could, say lawyers, pave the way for more payouts to British servicemen accidentally injured in Iraq and Afghanistan by the Americans.
Corporal Jane McLauchlan, Staff Sergeant James Rogerson, Corporal Stephen Smith and their interpreter, Khalid Allahou, have been told they will receive collective compensation of £320,000 from the US authorities after the accident more than four years ago. Initially, the American military denied it had any record of the incident. Later it emerged that the collision had been officially recorded at the time. Lawyers for the British troops have accused the US authorities of attempting to 'dump' their inquiry in a move to block the compensation claim, the first private action involving coalition allies in Iraq.
Michael Doyle, a personal injury lawyer for Houston-based firm Doyle Raizner which took the case against the Pentagon, said the claimants were relieved their ordeal was over. 'They only ever wanted the US to admit fault. After years of denying such an incident even occurred, they have now admitted liability for what happened. As far as we can tell, this is the first and only time the US has paid out to British troops.'
The decision, a rare admission of liability from the Pentagon, increases the likelihood that more British troops injured by US forces could receive compensation. However, legal sources said that 'friendly-fire' incidents were unlikely to be affected by the ruling. Doyle said that in those cases the US authorities were protected by 'combat immunity' and that he had secured the £320,000 payout by using the US Foreign Claims Act, which provides compensation for death or injuries caused by non-combat activities of US military personnel.
The Pentagon has refused to compensate the family of ITN journalist Terry Lloyd, despite claims that US Marines 'almost certainly' fired the shots that killed him and his interpreter, Hussein Osman, near the Shatt al-Basra bridge in 2003. A number of British troops have also been accidentally killed by US fighter planes in Iraq and Afghanistan, including three men from the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment in northern Helmand province, Afghanistan, last August. 'This was a unique case. This was always a case where there was a wrong, but we were never sure that we could find a right,' Doyle said.
In the incident a Royal Military Police Land Rover was struck twice from behind by a US tank transporter. Corporal McLauchlan, who was at the wheel of the Land Rover, was unable to keep control and crashed off the road. Initially, the Royal Military Police launched a detailed inquiry into the incident and named the US unit and driver involved, before the Pentagon said it would take over the investigation. Only after substantial pressure did the Pentagon admit the existence of a three-page statement by the US National Guard convoy involved in the incident, which mentioned that they 'had run some guys off the road'.
McLauchlan, 35, sustained multiple skull fractures, brain damage and punctured internal organs. She also claims she has suffered personality changes. She was assigned a non-combat role after the collision, but decided to leave the army last year.
Staff Sergeant Rogerson suffered head and spinal injuries. Allahou, who lives in Folkestone, Kent, with his British wife and had volunteered to work as a translator for the army, is said to be suffering long-term effects. Corporal Smith has made a good recovery and is now serving in Afghanistan.
Mark Townsend, defence correspondent
Sunday November 4, 2007
The Observer
The Pentagon has agreed to pay more than £300,000 in compensation to British soldiers who were seriously injured when their vehicle was in a collision with a US tank convoy on an Iraqi road. The landmark decision is the first time that the US military has offered money to British troops injured by US forces after admitting liability. The decision could, say lawyers, pave the way for more payouts to British servicemen accidentally injured in Iraq and Afghanistan by the Americans.
Corporal Jane McLauchlan, Staff Sergeant James Rogerson, Corporal Stephen Smith and their interpreter, Khalid Allahou, have been told they will receive collective compensation of £320,000 from the US authorities after the accident more than four years ago. Initially, the American military denied it had any record of the incident. Later it emerged that the collision had been officially recorded at the time. Lawyers for the British troops have accused the US authorities of attempting to 'dump' their inquiry in a move to block the compensation claim, the first private action involving coalition allies in Iraq.
Michael Doyle, a personal injury lawyer for Houston-based firm Doyle Raizner which took the case against the Pentagon, said the claimants were relieved their ordeal was over. 'They only ever wanted the US to admit fault. After years of denying such an incident even occurred, they have now admitted liability for what happened. As far as we can tell, this is the first and only time the US has paid out to British troops.'
The decision, a rare admission of liability from the Pentagon, increases the likelihood that more British troops injured by US forces could receive compensation. However, legal sources said that 'friendly-fire' incidents were unlikely to be affected by the ruling. Doyle said that in those cases the US authorities were protected by 'combat immunity' and that he had secured the £320,000 payout by using the US Foreign Claims Act, which provides compensation for death or injuries caused by non-combat activities of US military personnel.
The Pentagon has refused to compensate the family of ITN journalist Terry Lloyd, despite claims that US Marines 'almost certainly' fired the shots that killed him and his interpreter, Hussein Osman, near the Shatt al-Basra bridge in 2003. A number of British troops have also been accidentally killed by US fighter planes in Iraq and Afghanistan, including three men from the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment in northern Helmand province, Afghanistan, last August. 'This was a unique case. This was always a case where there was a wrong, but we were never sure that we could find a right,' Doyle said.
In the incident a Royal Military Police Land Rover was struck twice from behind by a US tank transporter. Corporal McLauchlan, who was at the wheel of the Land Rover, was unable to keep control and crashed off the road. Initially, the Royal Military Police launched a detailed inquiry into the incident and named the US unit and driver involved, before the Pentagon said it would take over the investigation. Only after substantial pressure did the Pentagon admit the existence of a three-page statement by the US National Guard convoy involved in the incident, which mentioned that they 'had run some guys off the road'.
McLauchlan, 35, sustained multiple skull fractures, brain damage and punctured internal organs. She also claims she has suffered personality changes. She was assigned a non-combat role after the collision, but decided to leave the army last year.
Staff Sergeant Rogerson suffered head and spinal injuries. Allahou, who lives in Folkestone, Kent, with his British wife and had volunteered to work as a translator for the army, is said to be suffering long-term effects. Corporal Smith has made a good recovery and is now serving in Afghanistan.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Iraq, Afghan Vets at Risk for Suicides
By Kimberly Hefling
The Associated Press
Wednesday 31 October 2007
Washington - Mary Gallagher did not get a knock at the door from a military chaplain with news of her Marine husband's death in a faraway place. Instead, the Iraq war veteran committed suicide eight months after returning home.
She is left wondering why.
It's a question shared by hundreds of families of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have taken their own lives in a homecoming suicide pattern of a magnitude that is just starting to emerge.
Preliminary Veterans Affairs Department research obtained by The Associated Press reveals for the first time that there were at least 283 suicides among veterans who left the military between the start of the war in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001 and the end of 2005.
The numbers, while not dramatically different from society as a whole, provide the first quantitative look at the toll on today's combat veterans and are reminiscent of the increased suicide risk among returning soldiers in the Vietnam era.
Today's homefront suicide tally is running at least double the number of troop suicides in the war zones as thousands of men and women return with disabling injuries and mental health disorders that put them at higher risk.
A total of 147 troops have killed themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan since the start of the wars, according to the Defense Manpower Data Center, which tracks casualties for the Pentagon.
Add the number of returning veterans and the finding is that at least 430 of the 1.5 million troops who have fought in the two wars have killed themselves over the past six years. And that doesn't include people like Gallagher's husband who committed suicide after their combat tours and while still in the military - a number the Pentagon says it doesn't track.
That compares with at least 4,227 U.S. military deaths overall since the wars started - 3,840 in Iraq and 387 in and around Afghanistan.
In response, the VA is ramping up suicide prevention programs.
Research suggests that combat trauma increases the risk of suicide, according to the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Difficulty dealing with failed relationships, financial and legal troubles, and substance abuse also are risk factors among troops, said Cynthia O. Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
Families see the effects first hand.
"None of them come back without being touched a little," said Gallagher, a mother of three whose husband, Marine Gunnery Sgt. James Gallagher, took his own life in 2006 inside their home at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
He was proud of his Iraq service, but she wonders whether he was bothered by the death of his captain in Iraq or an incident in which he helped rescue a soldier who was in a fire and later died. Shortly before his death, her husband was distraught over an assignment change he saw as an insult, she said.
"His death contradicts the very person he was. It's very confusing and difficult to understand," said Gallagher of Lynbrook, N.Y.
The family of another Iraq veteran who committed suicide, Jeffrey Lucey, 23, of Belchertown, Mass., filed suit against the former VA secretary, alleging that bad care at the VA was to blame.
And the family of Joshua Omvig, a 22-year-old Iraq war veteran from Davenport, Iowa, who also committed suicide, successfully pushed Congress to pass a bill that President Bush is expected to sign that requires the VA to improve suicide prevention care.
Suicides in Iraq have occurred since the early days of the war, but awareness was heightened when the Army said its suicide rate in 2006 rose to 17.3 per 100,000 troops - the highest in 26 years of record-keeping.
That compares with 9.3 per 100,000 for all military services combined in 2006 and 11.1 per 100,000 for the general U.S. population in 2004, the latest year statistics were available. The Army has said the civilian rate for the same age and gender mix as in the Army is 19 to 20 per 100,000 people.
Just looking at the VA's early numbers, Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's deputy chief patient care service officer for mental health, said there does not appear to be an epidemic of suicides among those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan who left the military.
Katz said post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and problem drinking increase a person's suicide risk by two or three times, but the rate of suicide among those with those conditions "is still very, very low."
Katz acknowledged, however, that it is too early to know the long-term ramifications for those who served in the wars and said the VA "is very intensely involved in increasing suicide prevention."
"We're not doing it because there's an epidemic in returning veterans, though each death of a returning veteran is a tragedy and it's important to prevent it," Katz said.
The VA and Defense Department have hired more counselors and made other improvements in mental health care, including creation of a veterans suicide prevention hotline.
At the VA's national suicide hotline center based in Canandaigua, N.Y., counselors have taken more than 9,000 calls since July. Some callers are just looking for someone to talk to. Others are concerned family members. Callers who choose to give their names can opt to be met at a local VA center by a suicide prevention counselor; more than 120 callers have been rescued by emergency personnel - some after swallowing pills or with a gun nearby, according to the center.
"It's sad, but I think in the other way it's very exciting because already we've seen really sort of people being able to change their lives around because of the access to resources they've been able to get," said Jan Kemp, who oversees the call center.
Penny Coleman, whose ex-husband committed suicide after returning from Vietnam, said she doesn't buy what she calls the "we didn't expect this" mentality about suicide.
"If you'd chosen to pay attention after Vietnam you would have and should have anticipated it would happen again," said Coleman, who published a book on the subject last year.
One government study of Army veterans from Vietnam found they were more likely to die from suicide than other veterans in the first five years after leaving the military, although the study found that the likelihood dissipated over time. There is still heated debate, however, over the total number of suicides by Vietnam veterans; the extent to which it continues even today is unknown.
One major hurdle in stopping suicide is getting people to ask for help. From 20 percent to 50 percent of active duty troops and reservists who returned from war reported psychological problems, relationship problems, depression and symptoms of stress reactions, but most report that they have not sought help, according to a report from a military mental health task force.
"It's only when it becomes painful will someone seek counseling," said Chris Ayres, manager of the combat stress recovery program at the Wounded Warrior Project, a private veterans' assistance group based in Jacksonville, Fla. "That's usually how it happens. Nobody just walks in, because it's the hardest thing for a male, a Marine, a type-A personality figure to just go in there and say, 'Hey, I need some help.'"
While not suicidal, Ayres, 37, a former Marine captain from the Houston area who had the back of his right leg blown off in Iraq, has experienced episodes related to his post-traumatic stress disorder and said he worried about being stigmatized if he got help.
He's since learned to manage through counseling, and he's encouraging other veterans to get help.
Ayres is among 28,000 Americans injured in the war, more than 3,000 seriously.
In a study published earlier this year, researchers at Portland State University found that veterans were twice as likely to commit suicide as male nonveterans. High gun ownership rates, along with debilitating injuries and mental health disorders, were all risk factors that seemed to put the veterans at greater risk, said Mark Kaplan, one of the researchers.
While veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan were not included in the study, Kaplan said that given the nature of the injuries of the recent wars and the strain of long and repeated deployments, the newer generation of veterans could be at risk for suicide.
Kaplan said primary care physicians should ask patients whether they are veterans, and if the answer is yes, inquire about their mental health.
"This is war unlike other wars and we don't know the long-term implications and the hidden injuries of war," Kaplan said.
Dr. Dan Blazer, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center who served this year on the military's mental health task force, said improvements in care will likely help some veterans, but he's concerned about this generation. He said he treats World War II veterans still struggling mentally with their military experience.
"There's still going to be individuals that just totally slip through all of these safety nets that we construct to try to help things in the aftermath," Blazer said.
Suicide, Blazer said, "is a cost of war. It's a big one."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Net: Veterans Affairs Department: http://www.va.gov/
Suicide Prevention Network USA: http://www.spanusa.org/
Wounded Warrior Project: http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/
The toll free Veterans Affairs Department suicide hotline number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
--submitted by Patti Woodard
The Associated Press
Wednesday 31 October 2007
Washington - Mary Gallagher did not get a knock at the door from a military chaplain with news of her Marine husband's death in a faraway place. Instead, the Iraq war veteran committed suicide eight months after returning home.
She is left wondering why.
It's a question shared by hundreds of families of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have taken their own lives in a homecoming suicide pattern of a magnitude that is just starting to emerge.
Preliminary Veterans Affairs Department research obtained by The Associated Press reveals for the first time that there were at least 283 suicides among veterans who left the military between the start of the war in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001 and the end of 2005.
The numbers, while not dramatically different from society as a whole, provide the first quantitative look at the toll on today's combat veterans and are reminiscent of the increased suicide risk among returning soldiers in the Vietnam era.
Today's homefront suicide tally is running at least double the number of troop suicides in the war zones as thousands of men and women return with disabling injuries and mental health disorders that put them at higher risk.
A total of 147 troops have killed themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan since the start of the wars, according to the Defense Manpower Data Center, which tracks casualties for the Pentagon.
Add the number of returning veterans and the finding is that at least 430 of the 1.5 million troops who have fought in the two wars have killed themselves over the past six years. And that doesn't include people like Gallagher's husband who committed suicide after their combat tours and while still in the military - a number the Pentagon says it doesn't track.
That compares with at least 4,227 U.S. military deaths overall since the wars started - 3,840 in Iraq and 387 in and around Afghanistan.
In response, the VA is ramping up suicide prevention programs.
Research suggests that combat trauma increases the risk of suicide, according to the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Difficulty dealing with failed relationships, financial and legal troubles, and substance abuse also are risk factors among troops, said Cynthia O. Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
Families see the effects first hand.
"None of them come back without being touched a little," said Gallagher, a mother of three whose husband, Marine Gunnery Sgt. James Gallagher, took his own life in 2006 inside their home at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
He was proud of his Iraq service, but she wonders whether he was bothered by the death of his captain in Iraq or an incident in which he helped rescue a soldier who was in a fire and later died. Shortly before his death, her husband was distraught over an assignment change he saw as an insult, she said.
"His death contradicts the very person he was. It's very confusing and difficult to understand," said Gallagher of Lynbrook, N.Y.
The family of another Iraq veteran who committed suicide, Jeffrey Lucey, 23, of Belchertown, Mass., filed suit against the former VA secretary, alleging that bad care at the VA was to blame.
And the family of Joshua Omvig, a 22-year-old Iraq war veteran from Davenport, Iowa, who also committed suicide, successfully pushed Congress to pass a bill that President Bush is expected to sign that requires the VA to improve suicide prevention care.
Suicides in Iraq have occurred since the early days of the war, but awareness was heightened when the Army said its suicide rate in 2006 rose to 17.3 per 100,000 troops - the highest in 26 years of record-keeping.
That compares with 9.3 per 100,000 for all military services combined in 2006 and 11.1 per 100,000 for the general U.S. population in 2004, the latest year statistics were available. The Army has said the civilian rate for the same age and gender mix as in the Army is 19 to 20 per 100,000 people.
Just looking at the VA's early numbers, Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's deputy chief patient care service officer for mental health, said there does not appear to be an epidemic of suicides among those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan who left the military.
Katz said post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and problem drinking increase a person's suicide risk by two or three times, but the rate of suicide among those with those conditions "is still very, very low."
Katz acknowledged, however, that it is too early to know the long-term ramifications for those who served in the wars and said the VA "is very intensely involved in increasing suicide prevention."
"We're not doing it because there's an epidemic in returning veterans, though each death of a returning veteran is a tragedy and it's important to prevent it," Katz said.
The VA and Defense Department have hired more counselors and made other improvements in mental health care, including creation of a veterans suicide prevention hotline.
At the VA's national suicide hotline center based in Canandaigua, N.Y., counselors have taken more than 9,000 calls since July. Some callers are just looking for someone to talk to. Others are concerned family members. Callers who choose to give their names can opt to be met at a local VA center by a suicide prevention counselor; more than 120 callers have been rescued by emergency personnel - some after swallowing pills or with a gun nearby, according to the center.
"It's sad, but I think in the other way it's very exciting because already we've seen really sort of people being able to change their lives around because of the access to resources they've been able to get," said Jan Kemp, who oversees the call center.
Penny Coleman, whose ex-husband committed suicide after returning from Vietnam, said she doesn't buy what she calls the "we didn't expect this" mentality about suicide.
"If you'd chosen to pay attention after Vietnam you would have and should have anticipated it would happen again," said Coleman, who published a book on the subject last year.
One government study of Army veterans from Vietnam found they were more likely to die from suicide than other veterans in the first five years after leaving the military, although the study found that the likelihood dissipated over time. There is still heated debate, however, over the total number of suicides by Vietnam veterans; the extent to which it continues even today is unknown.
One major hurdle in stopping suicide is getting people to ask for help. From 20 percent to 50 percent of active duty troops and reservists who returned from war reported psychological problems, relationship problems, depression and symptoms of stress reactions, but most report that they have not sought help, according to a report from a military mental health task force.
"It's only when it becomes painful will someone seek counseling," said Chris Ayres, manager of the combat stress recovery program at the Wounded Warrior Project, a private veterans' assistance group based in Jacksonville, Fla. "That's usually how it happens. Nobody just walks in, because it's the hardest thing for a male, a Marine, a type-A personality figure to just go in there and say, 'Hey, I need some help.'"
While not suicidal, Ayres, 37, a former Marine captain from the Houston area who had the back of his right leg blown off in Iraq, has experienced episodes related to his post-traumatic stress disorder and said he worried about being stigmatized if he got help.
He's since learned to manage through counseling, and he's encouraging other veterans to get help.
Ayres is among 28,000 Americans injured in the war, more than 3,000 seriously.
In a study published earlier this year, researchers at Portland State University found that veterans were twice as likely to commit suicide as male nonveterans. High gun ownership rates, along with debilitating injuries and mental health disorders, were all risk factors that seemed to put the veterans at greater risk, said Mark Kaplan, one of the researchers.
While veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan were not included in the study, Kaplan said that given the nature of the injuries of the recent wars and the strain of long and repeated deployments, the newer generation of veterans could be at risk for suicide.
Kaplan said primary care physicians should ask patients whether they are veterans, and if the answer is yes, inquire about their mental health.
"This is war unlike other wars and we don't know the long-term implications and the hidden injuries of war," Kaplan said.
Dr. Dan Blazer, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center who served this year on the military's mental health task force, said improvements in care will likely help some veterans, but he's concerned about this generation. He said he treats World War II veterans still struggling mentally with their military experience.
"There's still going to be individuals that just totally slip through all of these safety nets that we construct to try to help things in the aftermath," Blazer said.
Suicide, Blazer said, "is a cost of war. It's a big one."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Net: Veterans Affairs Department: http://www.va.gov/
Suicide Prevention Network USA: http://www.spanusa.org/
Wounded Warrior Project: http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/
The toll free Veterans Affairs Department suicide hotline number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
--submitted by Patti Woodard
Monday, October 29, 2007
UK security firm sued over US soldier's death in Iraq
7.15pm BST / 3.15pm ET
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Monday October 29, 2007
Guardian UnlimitedA British private security firm hired to protect the oil installations of post-invasion Iraq is being sued for causing the death of an American soldier.
The case against the Erinys security firm, which reportedly has close ties to the former Iraqi exile, Ahmed Chalabi, is believed to be the first brought against a private security contractor operating in Iraq by a member of the US military.
It comes at a time of rising unease about the actions of private security firms in Iraq after 17 Iraqi civilians were shot dead in Baghdad by Blackwater guards travelling with a convoy of US diplomats.
The suit against Erinys, filed last week in Houston, was brought by the father of Specialist Christopher Monroe, who was struck by an Erinys convoy on October 25 2005. He was on guard duty in southern Iraq when he was struck and killed by a speeding Erinys vehicle, the suit alleges.
"The family just didn't have the answers that they were seeking," said Tobias Cole, a lawyer for the family. "For example, why did their son die on a non-combat mission? There was no reason to have extreme driving, no reason to drive without headlights, no reason to drive at speed through a parked convoy."
Monroe, 19, was the third generation of his family to serve in the US military and was an eager recruit. He enlisted before finishing secondary school at the age of 17.
The lawsuit alleges the four vehicles in the Erinys convoy were driving at an estimated speed of up to 80mph on a dark road using only their parking lights. The Erinys vehicles were not under fire, and they were not carrying high-profile passengers. Monroe's right leg was sheared off by the force of the collision, and he was thrown 40ft into the air.
Erinys employees, who were driving in a four-vehicle convoy, had passed through two US checkpoints moments before Monroe was hit, and they had been warned that more US troops were ahead, the suit said.
But it accuses the Erinys team of ignoring the warnings, and driving so fast that they failed to see Monroe or the five-tonne truck he was guarding.
"Although extreme driving manoeuvres may be appropriate for private security contractors at certain times, driving recklessly at a high rate of speed with no headlights through a parked US convoy after being specifically warned is not," the law suit said. At the time of Monroe's death, Erinys had been providing security to the US Army Corps of Engineeer.
The company denies any wrongdoing and says it was cleared of wrongdoing by a US military investigation. "It was a very tragic accident for which Erinys and its employees have been thoroughly exonerated," a spokesman for the firm told the Guardian today.
The Monroe family's law suit comes at a time when the Bush administration is under growing pressure at home to rein in private security firms and the lucrative business of guarding US diplomats and troops. The Iraqi government last week revoked the legal immunity under which Blackwater and the other firms had operated.
In Afghanistan, meanwhile, the authorities stepped up their crackdown on private security contractors today, raiding the premises of a British-based firm, Olympus, in Kabul. It was the eighth private security firm to be raided and closed in a month, but the first foreign firm.
Erinys was the subject of a great deal of attention in the summer of 2003, when the firm was awarded an $80m (£39m), 18-month contract to provide security for Iraq's oil refineries and pipelines. The firm created a new entity called Erinys Iraq.
Erinys has also been caught up in controversy closer to home. Shortly before his murder, the former Russian security services agent, Alexander Litvinenko, visited the London offices of Erinys where traces of polonium 210 were found.
The first recruits of the 14,000-strong oil protection force raised by Erinys Iraq were members of the Iraqi Free Forces, the US-trained militia that was headed by Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi exile who was America's protege in the run-up to the invasion.
Members of Mr Chalabi's inner circle were among the founding partners of Erinys Iraq. Erinys now has about 1,000 employees in Iraq, the spokesman said. Most are UK nationals.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Monday October 29, 2007
Guardian UnlimitedA British private security firm hired to protect the oil installations of post-invasion Iraq is being sued for causing the death of an American soldier.
The case against the Erinys security firm, which reportedly has close ties to the former Iraqi exile, Ahmed Chalabi, is believed to be the first brought against a private security contractor operating in Iraq by a member of the US military.
It comes at a time of rising unease about the actions of private security firms in Iraq after 17 Iraqi civilians were shot dead in Baghdad by Blackwater guards travelling with a convoy of US diplomats.
The suit against Erinys, filed last week in Houston, was brought by the father of Specialist Christopher Monroe, who was struck by an Erinys convoy on October 25 2005. He was on guard duty in southern Iraq when he was struck and killed by a speeding Erinys vehicle, the suit alleges.
"The family just didn't have the answers that they were seeking," said Tobias Cole, a lawyer for the family. "For example, why did their son die on a non-combat mission? There was no reason to have extreme driving, no reason to drive without headlights, no reason to drive at speed through a parked convoy."
Monroe, 19, was the third generation of his family to serve in the US military and was an eager recruit. He enlisted before finishing secondary school at the age of 17.
The lawsuit alleges the four vehicles in the Erinys convoy were driving at an estimated speed of up to 80mph on a dark road using only their parking lights. The Erinys vehicles were not under fire, and they were not carrying high-profile passengers. Monroe's right leg was sheared off by the force of the collision, and he was thrown 40ft into the air.
Erinys employees, who were driving in a four-vehicle convoy, had passed through two US checkpoints moments before Monroe was hit, and they had been warned that more US troops were ahead, the suit said.
But it accuses the Erinys team of ignoring the warnings, and driving so fast that they failed to see Monroe or the five-tonne truck he was guarding.
"Although extreme driving manoeuvres may be appropriate for private security contractors at certain times, driving recklessly at a high rate of speed with no headlights through a parked US convoy after being specifically warned is not," the law suit said. At the time of Monroe's death, Erinys had been providing security to the US Army Corps of Engineeer.
The company denies any wrongdoing and says it was cleared of wrongdoing by a US military investigation. "It was a very tragic accident for which Erinys and its employees have been thoroughly exonerated," a spokesman for the firm told the Guardian today.
The Monroe family's law suit comes at a time when the Bush administration is under growing pressure at home to rein in private security firms and the lucrative business of guarding US diplomats and troops. The Iraqi government last week revoked the legal immunity under which Blackwater and the other firms had operated.
In Afghanistan, meanwhile, the authorities stepped up their crackdown on private security contractors today, raiding the premises of a British-based firm, Olympus, in Kabul. It was the eighth private security firm to be raided and closed in a month, but the first foreign firm.
Erinys was the subject of a great deal of attention in the summer of 2003, when the firm was awarded an $80m (£39m), 18-month contract to provide security for Iraq's oil refineries and pipelines. The firm created a new entity called Erinys Iraq.
Erinys has also been caught up in controversy closer to home. Shortly before his murder, the former Russian security services agent, Alexander Litvinenko, visited the London offices of Erinys where traces of polonium 210 were found.
The first recruits of the 14,000-strong oil protection force raised by Erinys Iraq were members of the Iraqi Free Forces, the US-trained militia that was headed by Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi exile who was America's protege in the run-up to the invasion.
Members of Mr Chalabi's inner circle were among the founding partners of Erinys Iraq. Erinys now has about 1,000 employees in Iraq, the spokesman said. Most are UK nationals.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
MoD criticised at 'friendly fire' inquest
Last Updated: 12:12am BST 27/10/2007
A coroner criticised the Ministry of Defence yesterday for withholding information on the shooting of a soldier killed by "friendly fire" in Iraq.
Andrew Walker, the Oxfordshire assistant deputy coroner, said the family of Cpl John Cosby had to "fight every step of the way" for documents surrounding his death in Basra last year.
Cpl Cosby, 28, of the Devon and Dorset Light Infantry, was shot in the head as his platoon raided a house. The inquest at Oxford Old Assizes has heard it was believed the fatal shot was fired by Cpl Dean Newark, of the Royal Anglian Regiment, who was returning fire from an Iraqi insurgent.
Mr Walker told the inquest: "Cpl Cosby lost his life during a terrorist attack all the more tragic as he fell under fire from British soldiers.
"I have no doubt that his loss will be keenly felt by his family. If this were not enough to bear they have had to fight every step of the way to have sight of documents to help them understand what had happened.
"I would have thought that it would not be necessary yet again to draw attention to the fact that at the heart of this inquest, and every inquest, there is a grieving family who simply want to understand what happened."
Mr Walker described the Army's investigation into Cpl Cosby's death as "heavily flawed". A bullet fragment from his body armour was lost during the investigation, which was carried out by a sergeant who admitted that he was not properly qualified.
Cpl Cosby's clothes were burned in Iraq and investigators were unable to interview witnesses as they were given no armed protection to go into Basra.
Mr Walker made no criticism of Cpl Newark who, he said, fired in self-defence and had followed the Army's rules of engagement for such an operation. He recorded a narrative verdict.
• The US army has agreed to pay $650,000 (£318,000) compensation to three British military police injured when their Land Rover has hit by an American lorry in Iraq in 2003. It is the first time that allied troops have claimed compensation for injuries sustained in a "non-combat situation".
reprinted with permission
A coroner criticised the Ministry of Defence yesterday for withholding information on the shooting of a soldier killed by "friendly fire" in Iraq.
Andrew Walker, the Oxfordshire assistant deputy coroner, said the family of Cpl John Cosby had to "fight every step of the way" for documents surrounding his death in Basra last year.
Cpl Cosby, 28, of the Devon and Dorset Light Infantry, was shot in the head as his platoon raided a house. The inquest at Oxford Old Assizes has heard it was believed the fatal shot was fired by Cpl Dean Newark, of the Royal Anglian Regiment, who was returning fire from an Iraqi insurgent.
Mr Walker told the inquest: "Cpl Cosby lost his life during a terrorist attack all the more tragic as he fell under fire from British soldiers.
"I have no doubt that his loss will be keenly felt by his family. If this were not enough to bear they have had to fight every step of the way to have sight of documents to help them understand what had happened.
"I would have thought that it would not be necessary yet again to draw attention to the fact that at the heart of this inquest, and every inquest, there is a grieving family who simply want to understand what happened."
Mr Walker described the Army's investigation into Cpl Cosby's death as "heavily flawed". A bullet fragment from his body armour was lost during the investigation, which was carried out by a sergeant who admitted that he was not properly qualified.
Cpl Cosby's clothes were burned in Iraq and investigators were unable to interview witnesses as they were given no armed protection to go into Basra.
Mr Walker made no criticism of Cpl Newark who, he said, fired in self-defence and had followed the Army's rules of engagement for such an operation. He recorded a narrative verdict.
• The US army has agreed to pay $650,000 (£318,000) compensation to three British military police injured when their Land Rover has hit by an American lorry in Iraq in 2003. It is the first time that allied troops have claimed compensation for injuries sustained in a "non-combat situation".
reprinted with permission
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Soldier's father sues British company over wreck in Iraq
10/26/2007
By KELLEY SHANNON / Associated Press
The family of an American soldier killed in Iraq when a private security vehicle collided with his 5-ton truck is suing the security company in U.S. federal court claiming gross negligence.
The British private company, Erinys, has made more than $150 million in Iraq and has contracts to protect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to the lawsuit filed by the father of Army Spc. Christopher T. Monroe.
Monroe, 19, of Kendallville, Ind., died in October 2005 in Basra, Iraq, after his unit recovered a disabled vehicle and stopped to help an Iraqi citizen who'd been in a car accident, the lawsuit states.
Monroe's father, Perry Monroe II of Texas, filed the lawsuit in federal district court in Houston on Wednesday.
A representative of Erinys did not immediately return calls to The Associated Press for comment Friday.
Private security companies operating in Iraq have come under increased scrutiny since a deadly shooting Sept. 16 involving Blackwater USA guards. Congress is taking steps toward putting all armed contractors operating in combat zones under military control.
The Texas federal court lawsuit states that Erinys was on a non-combat trip when the wreck in question happened.
Though an Erinys team had been warned that Monroe's Army convoy was ahead and was told to proceed with caution, the team was traveling fast in the dark with headlights off when the collision occurred, the lawsuit contends.
An armored Suburban struck Monroe and his truck, tearing off Monroe's right leg and throwing him 30 to 40 feet in the air, causing fatal injuries, the suit states.
"Christopher fought valiantly for his life for almost two hours and after receiving emergency care from his fellow soldiers, he died on a Medavac helicopter en route to Shalib Airbase," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit contends the Erinys team's actions were negligent and that the company's employees "failed to exercise ordinary care," which led to Monroe's death.
Erinys "had actual, subjective awareness of the risk involved, but nevertheless proceeded with conscious indifference to the rights, safety and welfare of others," court documents state.
Christopher Monroe followed his grandfather and father into military service when he enlisted at the age of 17, having been moved by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the lawsuit states. He completed basic training between his junior and senior year of high school and finished high school as an Army reservist.
In 2005, he volunteered to join an understaffed unit that was being deployed to Iraq, since he was too young to join his original unit when it deployed to Cuba while he was still in high school. The vehicle collision occurred about four months after Monroe arrived in Iraq.
He left behind his mother, father and two younger brothers.
By KELLEY SHANNON / Associated Press
The family of an American soldier killed in Iraq when a private security vehicle collided with his 5-ton truck is suing the security company in U.S. federal court claiming gross negligence.
The British private company, Erinys, has made more than $150 million in Iraq and has contracts to protect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to the lawsuit filed by the father of Army Spc. Christopher T. Monroe.
Monroe, 19, of Kendallville, Ind., died in October 2005 in Basra, Iraq, after his unit recovered a disabled vehicle and stopped to help an Iraqi citizen who'd been in a car accident, the lawsuit states.
Monroe's father, Perry Monroe II of Texas, filed the lawsuit in federal district court in Houston on Wednesday.
A representative of Erinys did not immediately return calls to The Associated Press for comment Friday.
Private security companies operating in Iraq have come under increased scrutiny since a deadly shooting Sept. 16 involving Blackwater USA guards. Congress is taking steps toward putting all armed contractors operating in combat zones under military control.
The Texas federal court lawsuit states that Erinys was on a non-combat trip when the wreck in question happened.
Though an Erinys team had been warned that Monroe's Army convoy was ahead and was told to proceed with caution, the team was traveling fast in the dark with headlights off when the collision occurred, the lawsuit contends.
An armored Suburban struck Monroe and his truck, tearing off Monroe's right leg and throwing him 30 to 40 feet in the air, causing fatal injuries, the suit states.
"Christopher fought valiantly for his life for almost two hours and after receiving emergency care from his fellow soldiers, he died on a Medavac helicopter en route to Shalib Airbase," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit contends the Erinys team's actions were negligent and that the company's employees "failed to exercise ordinary care," which led to Monroe's death.
Erinys "had actual, subjective awareness of the risk involved, but nevertheless proceeded with conscious indifference to the rights, safety and welfare of others," court documents state.
Christopher Monroe followed his grandfather and father into military service when he enlisted at the age of 17, having been moved by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the lawsuit states. He completed basic training between his junior and senior year of high school and finished high school as an Army reservist.
In 2005, he volunteered to join an understaffed unit that was being deployed to Iraq, since he was too young to join his original unit when it deployed to Cuba while he was still in high school. The vehicle collision occurred about four months after Monroe arrived in Iraq.
He left behind his mother, father and two younger brothers.
Friday, October 26, 2007
British security co. sued over death of U.S. soldier
By Luke Baker
LONDON (Reuters) - A British private security company is being sued in the United States over the death of a U.S. soldier hit by one of its convoys in Iraq, according to court documents.
The case, believed to be the first of its kind, comes six weeks after Iraq accused the U.S. security company Blackwater of using excessive force in an incident where 17 Iraqis were shot dead in Baghdad.
The case against Erinys, filed in a court in Houston, Texas, on Wednesday and also in London, was brought by the Perry Monroe, father of Christopher Monroe, a U.S. soldier who was struck by an Erinys vehicle while on duty in southern Iraq in October 2005.
The lawsuit accuses the Erinys convoy of ignoring warnings and traveling at excessive speed after dark without lights fully on, leading to an accident in which Monroe was hit, suffering severe injuries that led to his death.
"Even though warned that the remainder of the U.S. convoy was ahead, the Erinys PSD team employee with reckless disregard accelerated to a high rate of speed and struck Christopher with his armored Suburban, tearing off his right leg.
"Mr. Monroe has been compelled to file this lawsuit to require the Erinys PSD team to account for its action that led to the death of his 19-year-old son," reads the suit, which also seeks unspecified damages.
Erinys, which provided security to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the time of the incident, denied any wrongdoing.
"This was nothing but a very, very tragic accident," its chairman Jonathan Garratt told Reuters in London on Friday.
"There was a full and very thorough investigation by the U.S. military into the case at the time, and both Erinys and its employees were fully exonerated."
The case is the latest to shine a critical light on the work of the two dozen or so private security companies operating in Iraq, some of which have earned hundreds of millions of dollars from contracts awarded by the U.S. government.
While Blackwater, which the Iraqi government wants to ban from Iraq, has received the most high-profile criticism, other companies have also been accused of using excessive force or of having little regard for Iraqi civilians.
The case filed in Houston is the first time that a private security company has been accused of negligence in the case of the death of a U.S. soldier, lawyers said.
Asked why the suit was being brought now, Tobias Cole, the lawyer who filed it, denied it had been motivated by the Blackwater incident.
"There's not necessarily some strategic timing to this lawsuit," he said. "The family wanted answers and under Texas law you only have a certain amount of time to seek those answers."
Garratt said he believed the case had been filed within one day of the expiry of the statute of limitations.
LONDON (Reuters) - A British private security company is being sued in the United States over the death of a U.S. soldier hit by one of its convoys in Iraq, according to court documents.
The case, believed to be the first of its kind, comes six weeks after Iraq accused the U.S. security company Blackwater of using excessive force in an incident where 17 Iraqis were shot dead in Baghdad.
The case against Erinys, filed in a court in Houston, Texas, on Wednesday and also in London, was brought by the Perry Monroe, father of Christopher Monroe, a U.S. soldier who was struck by an Erinys vehicle while on duty in southern Iraq in October 2005.
The lawsuit accuses the Erinys convoy of ignoring warnings and traveling at excessive speed after dark without lights fully on, leading to an accident in which Monroe was hit, suffering severe injuries that led to his death.
"Even though warned that the remainder of the U.S. convoy was ahead, the Erinys PSD team employee with reckless disregard accelerated to a high rate of speed and struck Christopher with his armored Suburban, tearing off his right leg.
"Mr. Monroe has been compelled to file this lawsuit to require the Erinys PSD team to account for its action that led to the death of his 19-year-old son," reads the suit, which also seeks unspecified damages.
Erinys, which provided security to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the time of the incident, denied any wrongdoing.
"This was nothing but a very, very tragic accident," its chairman Jonathan Garratt told Reuters in London on Friday.
"There was a full and very thorough investigation by the U.S. military into the case at the time, and both Erinys and its employees were fully exonerated."
The case is the latest to shine a critical light on the work of the two dozen or so private security companies operating in Iraq, some of which have earned hundreds of millions of dollars from contracts awarded by the U.S. government.
While Blackwater, which the Iraqi government wants to ban from Iraq, has received the most high-profile criticism, other companies have also been accused of using excessive force or of having little regard for Iraqi civilians.
The case filed in Houston is the first time that a private security company has been accused of negligence in the case of the death of a U.S. soldier, lawyers said.
Asked why the suit was being brought now, Tobias Cole, the lawyer who filed it, denied it had been motivated by the Blackwater incident.
"There's not necessarily some strategic timing to this lawsuit," he said. "The family wanted answers and under Texas law you only have a certain amount of time to seek those answers."
Garratt said he believed the case had been filed within one day of the expiry of the statute of limitations.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Linkage Between War Profiteering and Non-combat Deaths
From CLG News:
Suicide Is Not Painless By Frank Rich 21 Oct 2007 The $26,788 [Charles D. Riechers, who 'committed suicide' in October] received for two months in a non-job doesn’t rise even to a rounding error in the Iraq-Afghanistan money pit.
So far some $6 billion worth of contracts are being investigated for waste and fraud, however slowly, by the Pentagon and the Justice Department. That doesn’t include the unaccounted-for piles of cash, some $9 billion in Iraqi funds, that vanished during L. Paul Bremer’s short but disastrous reign in the Green Zone...
There will be a long hangover of shame. Its essence was summed up by Col. Ted Westhusing, an Army scholar of military ethics who was an innocent witness to corruption, not a participant, when he died at age 44 of a gunshot wound to the head while working for Gen. David Petraeus training Iraqi security forces in Baghdad in 2005...
Colonel Westhusing’s death was ruled a suicide, though some believe he was murdered by contractors fearing a whistle-blower, according to T. Christian Miller, the Los Angeles Times reporter who documents the case in his book "Blood Money." [A must read]
Suicide Is Not Painless By Frank Rich 21 Oct 2007 The $26,788 [Charles D. Riechers, who 'committed suicide' in October] received for two months in a non-job doesn’t rise even to a rounding error in the Iraq-Afghanistan money pit.
So far some $6 billion worth of contracts are being investigated for waste and fraud, however slowly, by the Pentagon and the Justice Department. That doesn’t include the unaccounted-for piles of cash, some $9 billion in Iraqi funds, that vanished during L. Paul Bremer’s short but disastrous reign in the Green Zone...
There will be a long hangover of shame. Its essence was summed up by Col. Ted Westhusing, an Army scholar of military ethics who was an innocent witness to corruption, not a participant, when he died at age 44 of a gunshot wound to the head while working for Gen. David Petraeus training Iraqi security forces in Baghdad in 2005...
Colonel Westhusing’s death was ruled a suicide, though some believe he was murdered by contractors fearing a whistle-blower, according to T. Christian Miller, the Los Angeles Times reporter who documents the case in his book "Blood Money." [A must read]
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Report Confirms 'E&P' Claims of Upsurge in 'Noncombat' Deaths Among U.S. Troops By E&P
Staff Published: October 16, 2007 11:00 PM ET
NEW YORK For several weeks, E&P has documented what appears to be a surge in non-combat deaths among U.S. troops in Iraq. These fatalities come from vehicle accidents, illness, suicides and friendly fire.
The military always states that they are under investigation and it is local newspapers that usually first get word, often from families, about what might have really happened.
Now today comes confirmation of these concerns. A team of U.S. army safety experts are in Iraq studying this trend, which has coincided with extended 15-month deployments for troops, a senior military official said this week.
Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, operations director of the Joint Staff, said commanders in Iraq were concerned enough about the spike in non-combat deaths that it has asked for an assessment by the army team, according to an Agence France Press report.
According to Pentagon figures, 29 soldiers died in August for non-hostile reasons, and another 23 died of non-combat causes in September.
Shockingly, this compares with seven in August last year and 11 in September 2006.
The military has official confirmed more than 125 suicides in Iraq with many others under investigation. "We don't yet know what may have caused an increase in the non-battle casualties," Ham said." That's why the commanders in Iraq have asked for the Army Safety Center to come analyze that and to map out the way ahead, to maintain focus on safety for all the troops on the ground," he added.
Ham said morale remains high, but added, "I think there is a general consensus, and several leaders have said this, that for the army 15 months is a long hard tour. It's hard on the soldiers, it's hard on the families."
NEW YORK For several weeks, E&P has documented what appears to be a surge in non-combat deaths among U.S. troops in Iraq. These fatalities come from vehicle accidents, illness, suicides and friendly fire.
The military always states that they are under investigation and it is local newspapers that usually first get word, often from families, about what might have really happened.
Now today comes confirmation of these concerns. A team of U.S. army safety experts are in Iraq studying this trend, which has coincided with extended 15-month deployments for troops, a senior military official said this week.
Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, operations director of the Joint Staff, said commanders in Iraq were concerned enough about the spike in non-combat deaths that it has asked for an assessment by the army team, according to an Agence France Press report.
According to Pentagon figures, 29 soldiers died in August for non-hostile reasons, and another 23 died of non-combat causes in September.
Shockingly, this compares with seven in August last year and 11 in September 2006.
The military has official confirmed more than 125 suicides in Iraq with many others under investigation. "We don't yet know what may have caused an increase in the non-battle casualties," Ham said." That's why the commanders in Iraq have asked for the Army Safety Center to come analyze that and to map out the way ahead, to maintain focus on safety for all the troops on the ground," he added.
Ham said morale remains high, but added, "I think there is a general consensus, and several leaders have said this, that for the army 15 months is a long hard tour. It's hard on the soldiers, it's hard on the families."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)