please watch this video

on sgt jacob blalock

no embed code so you have to go to the link to watch.

we know this

they've been telling us about it for a while. so now what are we going to actually DO about it?

Army official: Suicides in January 'terrifying'

From Barbara Starr and Mike Mount
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One week after the U.S. Army announced record suicide rates among its soldiers last year, the service is worried about a spike in possible suicides in the new year.

The Army said 24 soldiers are believed to have committed suicide in January alone -- six times as many as killed themselves in January 2008, according to statistics released Thursday.

The Army said it already has confirmed seven suicides, with 17 additional cases pending that it believes investigators will confirm as suicides for January.

If those prove true, more soldiers will have killed themselves than died in combat last month. According to Pentagon statistics, there were 16 U.S. combat deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq in January.

"This is terrifying," an Army official said. "We do not know what is going on."

Col. Kathy Platoni, chief clinical psychologist for the Army Reserve and National Guard, said that the long, cold months of winter could be a major contributor to the January spike......

i've written about this before

and i'll keep on writing about it until our veterans and enlisted men and women get the help they not only need, THEY DESERVE. instead of asking for MORE FUCKING MONEY FOR WAR, why the FUCK don't king george and his court ASK FOR MORE MONEY FOR THE SOLDIERS CARE? (current and veterans OF ALL time. war and not war. a vet is a vet).

when are we going to say ENOUGH? when when when

elizabeth whiteside is ONE name we know. how many DON'T we know about?

Soldier Suicides at Record Level
Increase Linked to Long Wars, Lack of Army Resources


By Dana Priest Washington Post Staff Writer

Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside, a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who was waiting for the Army to decide whether to court-martial her for endangering another soldier and turning a gun on herself last year in Iraq, attempted to kill herself Monday evening. In so doing, the 25-year-old Army reservist joined a record number of soldiers who have committed or tried to commit suicide after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. .........

"I'm very disappointed with the Army," Whiteside wrote in a note before swallowing dozens of antidepressants and other pills. "Hopefully this will help other soldiers." She was taken to the emergency room early Tuesday. Whiteside, who is now in stable physical condition, learned yesterday that the charges against her had been dismissed. ............



(links to my other postings on elizabeth whiteside)

please at the VERY LEAST

we must protect and help ALL of our men and women serving. there should never again be another Pvt. 1st Class Jason Scheuerman. it is our duty and responsiblity to care for ALL of our service people AND veterans too.

this is a wicked sad story. i am sorry for this loss (as well as every other one)

AP Special Report: Soldier Who Killed Himself in Iraq Had Been Ignored and Mistreated
SANFORD, N.C. -- Pvt. 1st Class Jason Scheuerman nailed a suicide note to his barracks closet in Iraq, stepped inside and shot himself.“Maybe finaly I can get some peace,” said the 20-year-old, misspelling “finally” but writing in a neat hand.His parents didn’t find out about the note for well over a year, and only then when it showed up in a government envelope in his father’s rural North Carolina mailbox.The one-page missive was among hundreds of pages of documents the soldier’s family obtained and shared with The Associated Press after battling a military bureaucracy they feel didn’t want to answer their questions, especially this: Why did Jason Scheuerman have to die?What the soldier’s father, Chris, would learn about his son’s final days would lead the retired Special Forces commando, who teaches at Fort Bragg, to take on the very institution he’s spent his life serving — and ultimately prompt an investigation by the Army Inspector General’s office.The documents, obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests filed by Chris Scheuerman, reveal a troubled soldier kept in Iraq despite repeated signs he was going to kill himself, including placing the muzzle of his weapon in his mouth multiple times................