Thank A Vet claims 22 vets commit suicide a day

[WokMaster1]

Saw the info when a friend shared it on Facebook. I was shocked & went to their page to find out more & it has a link to a supposedly VA study but the link does not work. Someone told them about the broken link & they said to go to their webpage www.thankavet.us to pledge.

Anyone know if this VA report is accurate? 22 vets commit suicide everyday?

[Linh]

Saw the info when a friend shared it on Facebook. I was shocked & went to their page to find out more & it has a link to a supposedly VA study but the link does not work. Someone told them about the broken link & they said to go to their webpage www.thankavet.us to pledge.

Anyone know if this VA report is accurate? 22 vets commit suicide everyday?

What VA report? You haven't provided any.

I do know that the suicide death was higher than combat death last year.

While we're at this. Does Dorner count as a suicide?

[WokMaster1]

Sorry. But was there a VA report?

[firefly4322]

the report actually says that its between 18-22 per day over the past 12 years and that its declined slightly with no reference to what is "declined slightly"

Whichever, its absolutely phenomenal to loose 18-22 people a day to suicide...

VA report.

http://www.va.gov/opa/docs/Response-and-ExecSum-Suicide-Data-Report-2012-final.pdf

[Hadesomega]

Must be why the Army is having us do all these suicide prevention classes every couple months...

[Mickael81]

That's, 6,400 veterans a year.....

[flipdiver]

1 or 22 a day, numbers don't matter. Its still a very sad situation.

[steelrain82]

Its up from 18 a day in 2010 with only 16 states reporting. The new study is 22-24 states reporting veteran suicides

[18Dmedic]

Im not sure about vets out of the service. But It's mandatory counseling that needs to be better implemented. I know after the Ft. Hood incident, they made some counseling requirements but I don't feel it's enough.

We also need better counseling for transitioning members returning to civilian life. I hate to see news of vets dying. We all need it but those guys need it most.

There have been instances where I felt like strangling a civilian. They live in their little bubbles and ignore anything beyond their sphere of influence. They're happy to be in their little world...which was provided for them by the blood and sacrifice of men better then themselves.

[paul0660]

which was provided for them by the blood and sacrifice of men better then themselves.

Some were better.

[Stevod]

Try finding the website for Soldier's Project. It's based in Sacramento and is making an effort to deal w/ potential suicides among vets. (Yeah, it says "soldiers" but they'll try to help anybody the can.

I have an old friend who does volunteer work with them, and he sent me a county-by-county map of CA w/ projected/possible suicides. Shocking numbers. If I can find it, I'll pass it along.

[shooterfpga]

Must be why the Army is having us do all these suicide prevention classes every couple months...

you must mean every week. and then they rotate it with eo, drinking and driving, sexual harrassment, etc ,etc. same old boring classes.

[bodger]

I have read that more Vietnam vets have committed suicide than were killed in action during the war. Considering the millions who served during Vietnam, I don't know if roughly 53,000 suicides is a higher percentage than the regular population or not.

[hnoppenberger]

Im going to chime in on the vietnam stats. I was raised by a vietnam vet (67-68) One time (and he never talked much about it) he told me at an air base after most of the cong assaults were stopped (tet) they had so many friendly KIA's that they had no where to put em, and not enough planes to get em out of country. hundreds and hundreds of dead americans everywhere for weeks, victor charlie just got bulldozed into pits pretty quick.
American KIA's during tet (couple months) are about as much men we have lost in the entire war on terror.

And everytime (about once a month) he came back to the airbase at danang, the graves registration was always full to capacity during his entire tour. US aircraft went down all the time as well- jets, choppers, bombers- crazy amounts of casualties. Also makes mention of the traps and improvised anti personnel devices that gave everyone nightmares. Everyone lost alot of friends in nam, I don't think people give it enough credit how full scale it was.
Couple that with the outright bull**** on the civilian side of things at the time, I have an obvious soft spot for the vets of that era over others. The combat vets that I have talked to from nam are fuked mentally from it in much different and worse way than buddies of mine from the middle east. It took the old man over 30 years before he could tell me about vietnam, but I am very glad he did.

If you know someone that is having a hard time, please try to help them.

No one gave a **** after nam, there was no wounded warrior project, no VA mental health aid. How many vets had cancer from bathing in agent orange that no one gave a **** about, or laughed at for "losing it over there"? Lets all be glad it might be better for the heros of today.

[bodger]

^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm still appealing my service connected disability claim. "Delay, Deny, and Hope They Die".

Thanks for your post. And thanks to your dad for his service.