Art La Flamme

I suspect that what I am about to say won’t be for everyone. Go ahead, skip this one. I won’t be offended.

Our army is on the warpath again, this time trying to affect the suicide rate in the Army. The rate is up these days, higher than it’s been, higher than it should be. Higher than that in the regular US population.

Why? Well, the Army says:

– Sixty percent had no deployment history. ?That?s causing us to go back and ask some questions about the enlistment history ? the behavioral health history ? of new, junior-level individuals,? he said.

– Relationships were a contributing factor in 75 percent of the cases. ?That doesn?t mean that that was the major contributing factor. It may have been an aggravating factor ? but it was a factor,? he said.

– Half of the cases involved some unit integration or reintegration issues. ?We all know how important that is,? he said. ?In [the continental United States], it?s important. It?s doubly important for a junior enlisted soldier forward-deployed.?

– Half the cases involved some substance abuse, with alcohol and prescription medication being the biggest problems. ?It?s most especially alcohol,? he said. (Link)

I don’t think these things can be considered without also looking at the war (see this), and the repeated trips our soldiers are making to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other far-flung battlefields.

It isn’t just relationship problems. It isn’t just financial issues. It isn’t the difficulties of adjusting to life in regular America after a year or more at war. It’s not the isolation, the silence, the “warriors are strong” mentality, or any of the other things that come up in these discussion (here).

It’s when all of these things stack up on top of each other.

See, I’m lucky. I have this kick-ass wife, who pays the bills, takes care of the kids, keeps the cars insured, emails me and calls me on Skype any time she sees that I am there. She not only keeps my life going when I over here, taking care of all of the administrivia things and keeping our family together and functioning, and keeping me at times from crawling into the deep, dark well of despair.

She knocks down stacks.

I also have a good friend as a roommate. When my day is bad, I don’t get to keep it to myself. When I have worries or concerns or angst over something, he’s there to draw it out. To force it to the surface. To make me deal with it, instead of pushing it further down into the belly of despair.

So, I am lucky. Very lucky. It helps, I suppose, that I’ve done this before — a half dozen times or so. And it helps that I painfully came to terms with my ow PTSD, and have learned to take it one day at a time. I have an idea of how things can go wrong with me, and know what to look for — the only issue is having the umpf to do something about it.

But that’s often not the case for our young Joe’s. Kids, late in their teens or early 20′s, away from home for the first time. Kids who are just getting their feet wet with car loan payments, with owning things beyond what was in their rooms when they grew up. Kids who are having their first serious relationships, maybe with their high school sweetheart, maybe with someone they met at the bar just before coming over here.

Kids who may not even be fully grown up. Kids still maturing. Stack a soured relationship onto a late car payment, maybe a sick parent, IED’s and snipers and car bombs, and a work load that leaves little free time and no actual down time, and poof! it can all come to a head.

Hopelessness. Isolation. Drowning in your own self. Being 10,000 miles from the real world, and unable to control or really influence anything.

So, yes. It’s a problem in the Army, and it won’t get any better any time soon. This Long War — and it is a long war, and it is a war — is going to put a strain on both our country and the men and women that serve her.

I am not, though, throwing my hands up in the air in frustration.

The Army has new training that has started, and I actually like it. After years and years of mandated annual training on the subject of suicide prevention, the Army is actually starting to get it right. I sat through it last week — well, not really. It’s video, and it’s discussion. And it talks about how pressure builds, about how things compound each other.

it talks about leadership. Real leadership. It talks about knowing your soldiers, about talking to them about everything. Knowing more than if they’re ready to go on mission tomorrow. It talks about all of the things the Army teaches as the fundamentals of leadership, and ties the need for leadership right back into the stresses of life and the need to put effort into caring for soldiers — as soldiers, and as people.

For once, I walked out of the training with a smirk. Hopeful.

I’ve met folks on their 4th and 5th deployments to this battlefield. I’ve met folks who have burned through marriages and relationships like they’re matches. I’ve met folks who have missed damn near every major event in the lives of their kids. And I’ve seen that look on the faces of too many, that look of stress. That look of running on all eight cylinders, with the foot on the gas and the pedal buried to the floor. The stress of giving it their all, all day, every day.

And what separates giving it your all, and falling over the edge and into the abyss is either having the skills and tools in your kit bag, to keep yourself safe, or having leaders around you who know enough to ask, and care enough to act. Every day, I pull from my bag of experiences, to try and find the tips and tricks necessary to take care of not just myself but also those I lead, and every day, I take comfort in know that there are countless others in the Army — in the military — doing the same.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 11:13 pm and is filed under Army, Blogging, Iraq, Military. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.