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Mike Walsh,
Since 2008, more than 60,000 U.S. veterans have taken their own lives. When soldiers return home from war, many may feel that the worst is over: they made it back alive, and are now free to live lives free of the risks of combat.
U.S. Department of Defense/Senior Airman Donald Hudson. Veterans pay their respects at a Veterans Day ceremony in 2017. 6,139 veterans killed themselves that year. Nov. 10, 2017. Yokota Air Base, Japan.
The reality, however, is much more alarming: more U.S. veterans have committed suicide between 2008 and 2017 than died during the entire Vietnam War, according to the defense news site Military.com. These alarming rates were shared earlier this fall in a report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The U.S. suffered around 58,000 fatalities over the course of the Vietnam War, which lasted from 1955 to 1975. These deaths made it one of the most culturally affecting wars of the post-WWII era. That conflict has now taken a back-seat to the on-going crisis of U.S. veteran suicides, which has now claimed the lives of more than 60,000 U.S. veterans.
This confounding statistic is a stark reminder that a focus on mental health for those returning from combat may be far more critical than treatment from physical injuries.
While the total number of veterans declined by 18 percent over the decade after 2008, the fact remains that more than 6,000 veterans committed suicide each year during that same time frame.
The VA’s 2019 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report also revealed that in more than half of veteran suicides, a firearm was preferred as the last exit. Guns were the suicide method for 70.7 percent of male veterans in 2017, compared to 43.2 percent of female veterans that same year.
According to Stars and Stripes, 6,139 veterans killed themselves in 2017, an increase of two percent over veteran suicides the previous year, and a total increase of six percent since 2008.
The report also found that there is a frightening number of suicides among former National Guard and Reserve members. These veterans never saw active service, as the military describes it, and thus have no access to VA services. Within this group, there were 919 suicides in 2017, a rate of 2.5 suicides per day.
In total, around 12.4 percent of all military suicides in 2017 came from this group. It was also the first year that the suicide rate for veterans reached 1.5 times the rates for non-veteran adults.
VA Secretary Robert Wilkie stated that the department is simply incapable of addressing the issue, that it needs help from the private sector to properly tackle it.
‘VA is working to prevent suicide among all veterans, whether they are enrolled in VA health care or not,’ he said. ‘That’s why the department has adopted a comprehensive public health approach to suicide prevention, using strategies that cut across various sectors to reach veterans where they live.’
‘We cannot do this alone,’ added Dr Richard Stone, the executive heading the Veterans Health Administration. ‘We call on our community partners to join us in this effort.’
The fact that the VA, which is exclusively focused on the physical and mental health of U.S. veterans, is struggling to fulfil its mandate should be alarming to every single citizen. One would think taxpayer money, most of which is allocated to the military budget, would help.
Psychologist and leader of the National Center for Veterans Studies, Craig Bryan, explained that organizing these statistics into informative datasets could make budget allocations more effective, which would be a great start.
‘The benefit of separating subgroups is that it can help us identify higher-risk subgroups of the whole, which may be able to help us determine where and how to best focus resources,’ he said.
According to Dr Stone, the only current, viable approach is a concerted effort on behalf of every single institution that can help to do whatever they can. ‘We will only be successful at preventing suicide if we break this work into actionable, manageable steps.
After learning about the veterans’ suicide crisis that has claimed more U.S. soldiers’ lives than the Vietnam War, take a look at 22 portraits of U.S. veterans after a decade of war in the Middle East. Then, learn about the Vietnam veteran who died covered in ant bites at a Veterans Affairs hospital.
Be sure to check out a photo history of the Vietnam War and photographs of Syria after 5 years of civil war.
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Soldiers are injected with vaccines that contain nano-technology implants that continue to program the individual for absolute control. Returning home, they are too sick and controlled by the implants to reveal to the public what is really happening. Infecting their wives – sex is used as a weapon of war – they are no longer the same individuals, often creating a living hell for their families. Soldiers are not heroes, but victims.
Unfortunately, when they kill themselves, because their state of mind is one of war, fear, anger, hopelessness, powerlessness, etc., most become stuck in the lower 4th dimension where dark forces who have been manipulating them and Humanity for centuries exist. They need help to free themselves to the higher dimensions were love exists.
Please, send love to these men of despair and tell them to accept the help from their Spirit Guides and Higher Selves so they can go Home where the dark energies of war can be removed from their auras.
But it is also very, very important that the families make the following statements, daily:
“I send all negative entities into the Light now. Into the Light” to protect yourselves. And then, send love and healing to the soldier Children are especially susceptible to manipulation and should be protected by encouraging them to remain close to their own Spirit guides, Higher Selves and trust themselves. And when children tell you something you can no longer see, hear, fell or understand, listen to them, do not tell them they are wrong, crazy, etc. – listen and comfort. We have spent many years in dimension so we are programmed but often children still remember that they are (and we are) from a dimension of unconditional love. Help them to help you to remember. But remember, love without wisdom is dangerous so always trust what you are feeling, what you know. Above all else guilt from having made mistakes will keep you stuck to feelings that no longer serve your needs. You learned from you mistakes. Free yourself and go on.