suicide
Mmm, crow–yum.
A fellow Marine called me to the carpet about my last blog entry. Specifically, she confronted me--professionally and privately--about several assertions I made about the effectiveness of the #22KILL campaign in accomplishing its goal of raising awareness about veteran suicide. More than that, though, she pointed out that I'd denigrated a group that was trying to do its best to address a problem in order to promote my own work. Ouch. That stung. Mostly because it was true and I hadn't thought about it that way. Truth is, addressing veteran suicide is a daunting task that requires passionate people [...]
A Veteran’s Duty
In 2012, more US service members killed themselves than were killed in combat--349 suicides vs 310 KIA. While numbers don’t tell the whole story, they do identify the fact that mortal danger for US service members is not limited to Afghanistan. The statistics on military suicide are sobering and deserve attention--but that’s not the focus of this post. I want to focus instead on the millions of veterans who might be embarking on the same path that those 349 took last year. I’m no expert on suicide, but I imagine the thought process that brings a person to the decision [...]
Grandma’s Last Gift
Grandma at Lena and my wedding in 2005. About a month ago I had the opportunity to give a presentation to a group of Vietnam veterans. They asked several questions at the end of my talk that would be good subjects for blog posts. This is one of them. “Have you ever thought about suicide?” The gentleman who’d asked it hadn’t seemed overly interested in my presentation--spent most of it staring at his plate of half-eaten food. I had the impression it was a subject he was acquainted with. “Yes” I answered. And then I wondered why. I’d [...]
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