What a tragedy. And definitely thr military is not addressing the emotional needs of its soldiers. Because there is still the stigma of needing emotional support, of having mental health concerns. Our society still struggles with admitting that mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, lack of confidence are real. People say tough it out !or what are you nuts ?. You need to go to a shrink… ?
As a school counselor, I had support groups for children who had self esteem issues, insecurities - didn’t feel they fit in, or just felt sad about circumstances in their lives. I gave them opportunity to express their worries fears insecurities in a group they realized they were not alone . It wasn’t therapy but it was in a way helped to build confidence to teach skills on dealing with life’s disappointments . Military should provide the same - maybe make self esteem part of basic training program.
Gloria, perhaps the ones with “emotional needs” should not be allowed to join the United States Armed Forces. Then the military would not need to address the emotional needs of its soldiers. That would be my thought
But in a sense don’t we all have emotional needs? Moments of insecurity, worry, doubt - I don’t think anyone escapes emotions can change .. what could start as shy or not confident can increase to anxiety or need to escape..
Just another way to look at a complex societal problem
The other part of the story is the long term emotional struggles of those close to those lost to suicide. I've seen this absolutely wreck individuals and families.
While I understand your concern for these young men, I think we have to respect their choice, and support them. In my lifetime, I knew three people who committed suicide, and not because they were in the military. I definitely agree that the armed forces need to provide help for those struggling, but the worst thing about suicide is that in many cases, the person shows absolutely no signs at all that there is even a problem. It is the most frustrating kind of death because it leaves the Survivors with the biggest question of all. "WHY?"
Women - re-entering the work force after being stay at home moms,
Men -who had been let go from longtime jobs
Spouses -going thru divorce- spouse left them for another person
Teens -who were dealing with gender issues, children who were from divorced parents - thought they were the blame of parents ‘ divorce
You r correct they don’t appear to be suicidal
But they were exhausted hiding their feelings - lack of self worth.
To them suicide is the solution of escape from their reality
The expression was “ a permanent solution to a temporary situation”
Soo I needed to “wake them up”
Questions to someone thinking of suicide
Ya never ask why .. dumb question
Be specific!
1. Do you have a method?
2. Do you have a plan ?-( location, when, where )
3. * who will be the first to find your body? Best question ! Brings them back to reality -parent? Spouse? Child? Suicide is fantasy, in their mind - it will end the the negative feelings associated with particular set of circumstances
BUT The reality is they would no longer be here
No more family, friends, pets.. whoever was important to them will feel their loss
It’s complicated - depression loneliness, sense of failure
We all have experienced these emotions
Soo ask yourself : how did you deal with these issues/feelings… why did you NOT think of suicide ?
I am disappointed that you failed to stand in honor of these young people's decision to serve. What is even more disappointing is the excuse and lack of research.
You point out that that Mr Reilan;s investigation found that " During the first half of 2023, 102 soldiers from Valley’s 4,000-person brigade were hospitalized for suicidal ideation." That is 2.5% of the investigated population.
The CDC study, for which I provided a link, indicates "During 2015–2019, approximately 5.7 million adult females and 4.9 million adult males reported having serious thoughts about suicide in the past year; these numbers account for 4.5% of the adult female population and 4.1% of the adult male population in the United States" Please note the rate in the general population is 60% higher than what is indicated in the 'investigative journalist's" study.
While suicide at any level should not be dismissed it appears that the issue is more prevalent in the general population than in the military.
Perhaps the military should be more careful of the cracks people fall through, but the "journalist's" investigation is incomplete and has led you and probably others to a knee jerk reaction, that in this case, dishonors the young folk at the graduation ceremony.
I also note you mention the Armed Services Committee in the body of your writing on the subject and insinuate failure. Without doubt those familiar with your writing understand this to be a subtle dig at the D21 Representative.
As for the recruiters, perhaps they should mention this in interviews as well as point out the rate is substantially lower in the military than in the general population.
I am disappointed you took the investigation at face value without doing any research.
During the first half of 2023, 102 soldiers from Valley’s 4,000-person brigade were hospitalized for suicidal ideation." That is 2.5% of the investigated population.
The CDC study, for which I provided a link, indicates "During 2015–2019, approximately 5.7 million adult females and 4.9 million adult males reported having serious thoughts about suicide in the past year; these numbers account for 4.5% of the adult female population and 4.1% of the adult male population in the United States"
Maybe I’m not following this correctly, but isn’t the comparison you’re citing between people hospitalized and people with suicidal thoughts?
Army officials, in an interview with USA TODAY, pointed to increasing rates of suicide in U.S. society as whole that are reflected in their ranks. They also talked about new tactics they're using to reduce suicide.
The rate of suicide, measured by deaths per 100,000 soldiers, generally has been climbing since 2019 when the rate was 28.8 per 100,000. For active-duty soldiers in 2020, the rate was 36.2 per 100,000. It declined in 2021 to 36.1, and in 2022 it fell to 28.9. In 2023, it jumped to 36.6. In 2024, the rate is 31.8 through most of May, according to figures obtained by USA TODAY.
For all Americans, the rate of suicide has climbed 37% since 2000. In 2021, the last year of available data, the rate per 100,000 was 14.1.
Ideation is I believe the key word. With that said one is to many in both the investigation cited by Ken and the CDC study.
Also comparing a civilian speed of 2 some years with a 3 year military spread is hardly appropriate. What was the military prior to 3019. Does the increase have anything to current military policy ideology? Fair questions I believe.
Regardless, like society in general, we need to do a better job. That cannot be accomplished using a mishmash of data.
We certainly need to do better with our service people. My nephew had two of his buddies from the service commit suicide within the past three months. Our system of mental health support if deficient throughout our communities also. At a time when we need these services for all, financial support is cut off over and over again. 😢
Sadly death threats seem to be the new way to deal with information you don’t like. Trump has certainly changed the country in countless immeasurable ways.
Climate Change is the compound interest of failed policy and bad decisions haunting us. The effects can be mitigated but it is costly. It would have been less costly decades ago but people didn’t want to spend a little bit more in taxes. Now it will cost a lot more, tomorrow even more than that, and the expenses for our failure to take the problem seriously and spend a little bit decades ago compound at an escalating rate. We will pass those costs on to the next generations.
One set of the costs of climate change is the greater burden placed on our armed services and the plague of suicide among our troops is another cost younger generations are bearing.
Mike what are the compound interests of failed policies and bad decisions of yesterday that haunt us about Global Warming today?
You write “It would have been less costly decades ago but people didn’t want to spend a little bit more in taxes.” What should they have done “decades ago” that will elevated the high cost tomorrow?
And final you write one sentence standing all alone “One set of the costs of climate change is the greater burden placed on our armed services and the plague of suicide among our troops is another cost younger generations are bearing.” What is the greater burden placed on our armed services by Global Warming? The plague of suicide among our troops, what is the cost and how does it relate to cost of what now is referred to as “Climate Change”?
You must think you’re my doctoral dissertation advisor, but you’re not. If you haven’t been paying attention for the last 50 years or so since Richard Nixon established a task force to study the effects of a warming climate then I can’t satisfactorily answer your questions. I know that from experience with you. You never concede a point but only use one answer to generate 3 more questions. I’m not your automaton to dance at your whim.
How does your inability to answer my question hinges on my lack of attention to the fifty years since Nixon. You say Richard Nixon established a task force to study the effects of a warming climate. The following link says something different https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26042024/nixon-administration-climate-research-plan/ It appears it was not Richard Nixon that established a task force but Nixon’s science advisers that proposed a multimillion-dollar climate change research project.
I see you still have your crystal ball, that magical thing that allows you to know what other people think.
I suggest that in the future when I make a statement of fact that you accept it in good faith. While I will on occasion be mistaken, just as any reasonably well informed person may be once in a while, I don’t waste my time making up falsehoods to deceive you.
You may disagree with my opinions but stop wasting you energy trying to prove me wrong on fact, and instead try to understand my point of view.
Maybe you’ll learn something and grow as a person.
Mike the article you linked to I searched for “warming climate” guess what I did not find. I did not find any refence to climate. I would think that if Richard Nixon established a task force to study the effects of a warming climate over fifty Years ago as you claim then the words would be in the article that you reference. I could have missed them, maybe they used different words, do think you can find them?
Mike what were you thinking when you wrote “You must think you’re my doctoral dissertation advisor, but you’re not.”. “You” in your statement, that would be me you are referring to. Then you write “You must think” after that you tell me what I must think. How you claim not to know what I think, so which is it?
Mike did you ever think about a career at Burger King the place where you can “Have it Your Way”?
When the concept that CO2 was changing the atmosphere was considered in 1969 they didn’t use the same language for it as today. It was 50 years ago and the science wasn’t well developed, which is part of the reason why Nixon established the environmental quality council.
I never asserted that I know what is going through your mind. Clearly I do not. Most ordinary people understand the phrase “you must think” as speculation, but it’s as if you think words have only one meaning and context doesn’t matter.
As less than 1% of the American population serve in the military, I don’t know how many of the folks that read this column have served in the military, have family members who have served or are currently serving. I wonder if unless you serve(d) if one can truly understand the military culture and discern the differences between the services and their missions.
The military is and always has been about completing the mission. Some services do a better job of caring for the service members and are concerned about the overall health and welfare than others but this has been a change in the last 10 years or so especially after the multiple deployments of Iraq and Afghanistan. But even with that, the military has always had a stigma on mental health. One needs to “man up”, “just get over it”, and not seek mental health care. In fact, for a long time, if you sought out services, it could reflect on your personnel evaluation and you would be looking at possible discharge or failure to reenlist. And in the military, anything you said to a mental health counselor was not confidential. Your command could access those records. The only place you were guaranteed privacy was with a Chaplin or seeking outside services, which you, as an Active Duty member, would have to pay for on your own. So it is no wonder that a majority of service members wait until they are discharge or retire to talk about their mental health struggles. And then, to complicate the problem, there is no record of mental health problems in their medical records so when they try to get compensated for their PTSD, or depression it is denied because the service member never received care.
Mental health has been an ongoing struggle for many service members and all the services. And with the philosophy that the mission comes first, people get lost in the system. I wish the recruiters were more honest with the young recruits but they have quotas to fill and are looking at their job performance. My best advice to anyone looking to serve is to talk to people who have served or are currently serving and get the true picture of what your life will look like for the next 4 years or so. It can be a wonderful experience but as any profession, it is not for everyone.
Last year was the year when humans emitted the most carbon ever, we are going nowhere with this and the people who deny it do so for political and cultural reasons, not scientific reasons. Many are not qualified to have an opinion, but with two years of no snowmobiles out on the Washington county country side you'd think they'd get a clue.
They have a right to their own ignorance, I suppose, but do they have a right to threaten the lives of those whose knowledge differs???? That is the most serious part of all this, even more than their willful ignorance. We recently had a letter in our local paper that claimed, since there were really hot days in past decades and centuries, that climate change was a hoax. People lived to 100 in decades and centuries past, too -- just not very many of them; hence, life-expectancies in the 40s. And that letter was printed during an unprecedented heat wave in June in Pennsylvania. Growing up in Glens Falls, no one had or needed air conditioning. We were lucky if Lake George thawed by June, and it was certainly a risk of hypothermia to go swimming much before August! Now they must cancel the Winter Fest, and I fear I will live in a world in which we receive no snowfall at all.
I think you should have stood. The military, like any large employer, doesn’t really give a damn about their employees (soldiers). It’s about getting their “products “, assignments, out there. The military didn’t care about personnel as far back in history as you want to go. WWI soldiers….only a small fraction got pensions. Some were awarded bonuses in 1924 in the form of certificates that they could not redeem until 1945!! In 1932 jobless WWI veterans marched on Washington to plead for bonuses. And so it goes.
Standing or not standing doesn’t change a thing. I think it was important for these 18 year old kids. I think you should have stood.
Knowing what I know about sexual assaults in the military and the epidemic of suicide, I believe it would be hypocritical for me to cheer for that. I respect their decision, but I also fear for them.
The threats--to weathermen, journalists, judges, juries, teachers--is a strategy to create fear and to silence. It's Trump. it's Stefanik, it's Maga....It is not a majority of our people but it "works"--because fear and harassment work-- which is why we need to speak and resist. DeSantis told "his" government folk to not mention climate change, something Florida's earlier governor also demanded. Then the floods came, the heat waves, the inability to get insurance...and still no news about global warming, the crisis and the danger. The silencing of voices that speak what is true. And Trump literally told his billionaires that if they gave him a billion dollars he would remove all regulations for protection of air and water, would allow drilling everywhere, and would eliminate all of Biden's efforts to create renewable energies. A few of us often go to the bridge to Glens Falls with our earth flag and signs to protect our environment, Many people honk and wave in agreement. Some either curse us, yell "b.s" and "f.u" -and i say or think: don't you live on this earth, isn't it our home.?
I think any state an opening denies climate change should not be considered for federal funds after the next hurricane. There is an argument brought this on themselves.
Thanks, Ken, for highlighting the NYT Magazine article on military suicides and Austin Valley’s situation. Have not read it yet, but will do so soon.
Based on my clinical training and years of pastoral counseling, I am aware treatment of suicidal feelings cannot be responsibly treated with a “take two pills and call me in the morning” approach. It takes long term care, monitoring, support, and counseling, along with medicinal treatment, which even then is not always successful.
Can’t believe officer Valley was back in “action” in just one month!
Wanting to take your own life is a clear indication of a lack of mental health. And yeah, of course you can. However, suicide affects an entire community not just the individual, and most communities will make an effort to help that individual heal.
What a tragedy. And definitely thr military is not addressing the emotional needs of its soldiers. Because there is still the stigma of needing emotional support, of having mental health concerns. Our society still struggles with admitting that mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, lack of confidence are real. People say tough it out !or what are you nuts ?. You need to go to a shrink… ?
As a school counselor, I had support groups for children who had self esteem issues, insecurities - didn’t feel they fit in, or just felt sad about circumstances in their lives. I gave them opportunity to express their worries fears insecurities in a group they realized they were not alone . It wasn’t therapy but it was in a way helped to build confidence to teach skills on dealing with life’s disappointments . Military should provide the same - maybe make self esteem part of basic training program.
Just a thought …
Maybe not so much self esteem as resilience. Self esteem is important, but it should come naturally from meeting challenges and feeling connected…
Gloria, perhaps the ones with “emotional needs” should not be allowed to join the United States Armed Forces. Then the military would not need to address the emotional needs of its soldiers. That would be my thought
But in a sense don’t we all have emotional needs? Moments of insecurity, worry, doubt - I don’t think anyone escapes emotions can change .. what could start as shy or not confident can increase to anxiety or need to escape..
Just another way to look at a complex societal problem
Gloria, if a problem is complex would it not be better to reduce the complexity of the problem than adding to it?
Sometimes people don't leave with emotional needs or issues and the new environment they are in creates those
The other part of the story is the long term emotional struggles of those close to those lost to suicide. I've seen this absolutely wreck individuals and families.
While I understand your concern for these young men, I think we have to respect their choice, and support them. In my lifetime, I knew three people who committed suicide, and not because they were in the military. I definitely agree that the armed forces need to provide help for those struggling, but the worst thing about suicide is that in many cases, the person shows absolutely no signs at all that there is even a problem. It is the most frustrating kind of death because it leaves the Survivors with the biggest question of all. "WHY?"
That was not the case with Austin Valley.
I was a therapist - worked with teens and adults
Women - re-entering the work force after being stay at home moms,
Men -who had been let go from longtime jobs
Spouses -going thru divorce- spouse left them for another person
Teens -who were dealing with gender issues, children who were from divorced parents - thought they were the blame of parents ‘ divorce
You r correct they don’t appear to be suicidal
But they were exhausted hiding their feelings - lack of self worth.
To them suicide is the solution of escape from their reality
The expression was “ a permanent solution to a temporary situation”
Soo I needed to “wake them up”
Questions to someone thinking of suicide
Ya never ask why .. dumb question
Be specific!
1. Do you have a method?
2. Do you have a plan ?-( location, when, where )
3. * who will be the first to find your body? Best question ! Brings them back to reality -parent? Spouse? Child? Suicide is fantasy, in their mind - it will end the the negative feelings associated with particular set of circumstances
BUT The reality is they would no longer be here
No more family, friends, pets.. whoever was important to them will feel their loss
It’s complicated - depression loneliness, sense of failure
We all have experienced these emotions
Soo ask yourself : how did you deal with these issues/feelings… why did you NOT think of suicide ?
I am disappointed that you failed to stand in honor of these young people's decision to serve. What is even more disappointing is the excuse and lack of research.
From the CDC study ... Here is a link for you to it for your convenience --- https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/ss/ss7101a1.htm#Suicidal%20Thoughts
You point out that that Mr Reilan;s investigation found that " During the first half of 2023, 102 soldiers from Valley’s 4,000-person brigade were hospitalized for suicidal ideation." That is 2.5% of the investigated population.
The CDC study, for which I provided a link, indicates "During 2015–2019, approximately 5.7 million adult females and 4.9 million adult males reported having serious thoughts about suicide in the past year; these numbers account for 4.5% of the adult female population and 4.1% of the adult male population in the United States" Please note the rate in the general population is 60% higher than what is indicated in the 'investigative journalist's" study.
While suicide at any level should not be dismissed it appears that the issue is more prevalent in the general population than in the military.
Perhaps the military should be more careful of the cracks people fall through, but the "journalist's" investigation is incomplete and has led you and probably others to a knee jerk reaction, that in this case, dishonors the young folk at the graduation ceremony.
I also note you mention the Armed Services Committee in the body of your writing on the subject and insinuate failure. Without doubt those familiar with your writing understand this to be a subtle dig at the D21 Representative.
As for the recruiters, perhaps they should mention this in interviews as well as point out the rate is substantially lower in the military than in the general population.
I am disappointed you took the investigation at face value without doing any research.
During the first half of 2023, 102 soldiers from Valley’s 4,000-person brigade were hospitalized for suicidal ideation." That is 2.5% of the investigated population.
The CDC study, for which I provided a link, indicates "During 2015–2019, approximately 5.7 million adult females and 4.9 million adult males reported having serious thoughts about suicide in the past year; these numbers account for 4.5% of the adult female population and 4.1% of the adult male population in the United States"
Maybe I’m not following this correctly, but isn’t the comparison you’re citing between people hospitalized and people with suicidal thoughts?
Army officials, in an interview with USA TODAY, pointed to increasing rates of suicide in U.S. society as whole that are reflected in their ranks. They also talked about new tactics they're using to reduce suicide.
The rate of suicide, measured by deaths per 100,000 soldiers, generally has been climbing since 2019 when the rate was 28.8 per 100,000. For active-duty soldiers in 2020, the rate was 36.2 per 100,000. It declined in 2021 to 36.1, and in 2022 it fell to 28.9. In 2023, it jumped to 36.6. In 2024, the rate is 31.8 through most of May, according to figures obtained by USA TODAY.
For all Americans, the rate of suicide has climbed 37% since 2000. In 2021, the last year of available data, the rate per 100,000 was 14.1.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/06/11/military-suicide-defense-department-pentagon-study/73983842007/
Ideation is I believe the key word. With that said one is to many in both the investigation cited by Ken and the CDC study.
Also comparing a civilian speed of 2 some years with a 3 year military spread is hardly appropriate. What was the military prior to 3019. Does the increase have anything to current military policy ideology? Fair questions I believe.
Regardless, like society in general, we need to do a better job. That cannot be accomplished using a mishmash of data.
“Ideation is I believe the key word.”
Maybe for you it is. Hospitalized was the key word for me. What percentage in that second group was hospitalized for their ideations?
I think Kevin made a compelling criticism of your counter-argument to Ken’s commentary.
Of course you do.
My point is the so called investigation is incomplete and basically worthless because there is no context.
We certainly need to do better with our service people. My nephew had two of his buddies from the service commit suicide within the past three months. Our system of mental health support if deficient throughout our communities also. At a time when we need these services for all, financial support is cut off over and over again. 😢
Sadly death threats seem to be the new way to deal with information you don’t like. Trump has certainly changed the country in countless immeasurable ways.
Climate Change is the compound interest of failed policy and bad decisions haunting us. The effects can be mitigated but it is costly. It would have been less costly decades ago but people didn’t want to spend a little bit more in taxes. Now it will cost a lot more, tomorrow even more than that, and the expenses for our failure to take the problem seriously and spend a little bit decades ago compound at an escalating rate. We will pass those costs on to the next generations.
One set of the costs of climate change is the greater burden placed on our armed services and the plague of suicide among our troops is another cost younger generations are bearing.
Mike what are the compound interests of failed policies and bad decisions of yesterday that haunt us about Global Warming today?
You write “It would have been less costly decades ago but people didn’t want to spend a little bit more in taxes.” What should they have done “decades ago” that will elevated the high cost tomorrow?
And final you write one sentence standing all alone “One set of the costs of climate change is the greater burden placed on our armed services and the plague of suicide among our troops is another cost younger generations are bearing.” What is the greater burden placed on our armed services by Global Warming? The plague of suicide among our troops, what is the cost and how does it relate to cost of what now is referred to as “Climate Change”?
You must think you’re my doctoral dissertation advisor, but you’re not. If you haven’t been paying attention for the last 50 years or so since Richard Nixon established a task force to study the effects of a warming climate then I can’t satisfactorily answer your questions. I know that from experience with you. You never concede a point but only use one answer to generate 3 more questions. I’m not your automaton to dance at your whim.
Prove anything I said is wrong.
Mike
How does your inability to answer my question hinges on my lack of attention to the fifty years since Nixon. You say Richard Nixon established a task force to study the effects of a warming climate. The following link says something different https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26042024/nixon-administration-climate-research-plan/ It appears it was not Richard Nixon that established a task force but Nixon’s science advisers that proposed a multimillion-dollar climate change research project.
I see you still have your crystal ball, that magical thing that allows you to know what other people think.
Not only do I not claim to know what you think, I am not certain you think at all.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-announcing-the-creation-the-environmental-quality-council-and-the-citizens
I suggest that in the future when I make a statement of fact that you accept it in good faith. While I will on occasion be mistaken, just as any reasonably well informed person may be once in a while, I don’t waste my time making up falsehoods to deceive you.
You may disagree with my opinions but stop wasting you energy trying to prove me wrong on fact, and instead try to understand my point of view.
Maybe you’ll learn something and grow as a person.
Mike the article you linked to I searched for “warming climate” guess what I did not find. I did not find any refence to climate. I would think that if Richard Nixon established a task force to study the effects of a warming climate over fifty Years ago as you claim then the words would be in the article that you reference. I could have missed them, maybe they used different words, do think you can find them?
Mike what were you thinking when you wrote “You must think you’re my doctoral dissertation advisor, but you’re not.”. “You” in your statement, that would be me you are referring to. Then you write “You must think” after that you tell me what I must think. How you claim not to know what I think, so which is it?
Mike did you ever think about a career at Burger King the place where you can “Have it Your Way”?
When the concept that CO2 was changing the atmosphere was considered in 1969 they didn’t use the same language for it as today. It was 50 years ago and the science wasn’t well developed, which is part of the reason why Nixon established the environmental quality council.
Start reading here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_J._F._MacDonald
I never asserted that I know what is going through your mind. Clearly I do not. Most ordinary people understand the phrase “you must think” as speculation, but it’s as if you think words have only one meaning and context doesn’t matter.
How sad for Austin and his family.
We do all service members and veterans such a disservice by not attending to all their health needs.
When will we learn as a country that the billions we spend on defending this country, that our priority should be the men and women who serve
Exactly. Well said.
Thank you for writing about Austin Valley and for seeing the humanity in the young people on stage.
As less than 1% of the American population serve in the military, I don’t know how many of the folks that read this column have served in the military, have family members who have served or are currently serving. I wonder if unless you serve(d) if one can truly understand the military culture and discern the differences between the services and their missions.
The military is and always has been about completing the mission. Some services do a better job of caring for the service members and are concerned about the overall health and welfare than others but this has been a change in the last 10 years or so especially after the multiple deployments of Iraq and Afghanistan. But even with that, the military has always had a stigma on mental health. One needs to “man up”, “just get over it”, and not seek mental health care. In fact, for a long time, if you sought out services, it could reflect on your personnel evaluation and you would be looking at possible discharge or failure to reenlist. And in the military, anything you said to a mental health counselor was not confidential. Your command could access those records. The only place you were guaranteed privacy was with a Chaplin or seeking outside services, which you, as an Active Duty member, would have to pay for on your own. So it is no wonder that a majority of service members wait until they are discharge or retire to talk about their mental health struggles. And then, to complicate the problem, there is no record of mental health problems in their medical records so when they try to get compensated for their PTSD, or depression it is denied because the service member never received care.
Mental health has been an ongoing struggle for many service members and all the services. And with the philosophy that the mission comes first, people get lost in the system. I wish the recruiters were more honest with the young recruits but they have quotas to fill and are looking at their job performance. My best advice to anyone looking to serve is to talk to people who have served or are currently serving and get the true picture of what your life will look like for the next 4 years or so. It can be a wonderful experience but as any profession, it is not for everyone.
Last year was the year when humans emitted the most carbon ever, we are going nowhere with this and the people who deny it do so for political and cultural reasons, not scientific reasons. Many are not qualified to have an opinion, but with two years of no snowmobiles out on the Washington county country side you'd think they'd get a clue.
If only.
They have a right to their own ignorance, I suppose, but do they have a right to threaten the lives of those whose knowledge differs???? That is the most serious part of all this, even more than their willful ignorance. We recently had a letter in our local paper that claimed, since there were really hot days in past decades and centuries, that climate change was a hoax. People lived to 100 in decades and centuries past, too -- just not very many of them; hence, life-expectancies in the 40s. And that letter was printed during an unprecedented heat wave in June in Pennsylvania. Growing up in Glens Falls, no one had or needed air conditioning. We were lucky if Lake George thawed by June, and it was certainly a risk of hypothermia to go swimming much before August! Now they must cancel the Winter Fest, and I fear I will live in a world in which we receive no snowfall at all.
I think you should have stood. The military, like any large employer, doesn’t really give a damn about their employees (soldiers). It’s about getting their “products “, assignments, out there. The military didn’t care about personnel as far back in history as you want to go. WWI soldiers….only a small fraction got pensions. Some were awarded bonuses in 1924 in the form of certificates that they could not redeem until 1945!! In 1932 jobless WWI veterans marched on Washington to plead for bonuses. And so it goes.
Standing or not standing doesn’t change a thing. I think it was important for these 18 year old kids. I think you should have stood.
Knowing what I know about sexual assaults in the military and the epidemic of suicide, I believe it would be hypocritical for me to cheer for that. I respect their decision, but I also fear for them.
I understand your concern for these graduates but I feel you should have stood for them in respect for their choice.
The threats--to weathermen, journalists, judges, juries, teachers--is a strategy to create fear and to silence. It's Trump. it's Stefanik, it's Maga....It is not a majority of our people but it "works"--because fear and harassment work-- which is why we need to speak and resist. DeSantis told "his" government folk to not mention climate change, something Florida's earlier governor also demanded. Then the floods came, the heat waves, the inability to get insurance...and still no news about global warming, the crisis and the danger. The silencing of voices that speak what is true. And Trump literally told his billionaires that if they gave him a billion dollars he would remove all regulations for protection of air and water, would allow drilling everywhere, and would eliminate all of Biden's efforts to create renewable energies. A few of us often go to the bridge to Glens Falls with our earth flag and signs to protect our environment, Many people honk and wave in agreement. Some either curse us, yell "b.s" and "f.u" -and i say or think: don't you live on this earth, isn't it our home.?
I think any state an opening denies climate change should not be considered for federal funds after the next hurricane. There is an argument brought this on themselves.
Insurance costs in states that just ignore climate change are almost Punishment enough.
Thanks, Ken, for highlighting the NYT Magazine article on military suicides and Austin Valley’s situation. Have not read it yet, but will do so soon.
Based on my clinical training and years of pastoral counseling, I am aware treatment of suicidal feelings cannot be responsibly treated with a “take two pills and call me in the morning” approach. It takes long term care, monitoring, support, and counseling, along with medicinal treatment, which even then is not always successful.
Can’t believe officer Valley was back in “action” in just one month!
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I meant to include the link to the story. It is a little late, but here it is:
A Disaster of the U.S. Military’s Own Making
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/19/magazine/suicide-military-austin-valley.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Thanks! I pick up a hard copy of NYT on Sundays, but had not gotten into the magazine yet. :)
Hi Don, If I wanted to take my own life isn’t it mine to do so?
Wanting to take your own life is a clear indication of a lack of mental health. And yeah, of course you can. However, suicide affects an entire community not just the individual, and most communities will make an effort to help that individual heal.