Army Reports Record Number of Suicides -- CBS NewsUnit Leaders Are Now Being Trained to Better Spot Warning Signs, Encourage Soldiers to Get Professional Help.
(CBS) After returning from Iraq in 2006, Staff Sgt. Sarah Campbell Hester was looking forward to enjoying life, newly married to a soldier who had also just returned from war, reports CBS News correspondent Don Teague.
"He was just funny, he was the ultimate prankster, very solid with the unit," Hester said.
But secretly her husband was a man in crisis, unable to readjust to life after war.
"Iraq changed him, he came back kind of an angry man," Hester said.
One month after their wedding, Richard Hester, 34, committed suicide.
Read more ....
My Comment: This crisis will continue long after the fighting has stopped. My father was a Second World War vet who fought on the Russian front, and it seemed that he always carried the war with him until he passed away a few years ago.
7 comments:
hey, so sorry about your father´s post-war syndromes
(PS finally back commenting, needed to find me a google account after you stopped the other posting possibilities ^^)
cheers
Mark
Thank you Mark for your comment. I was wondering a few days ago on where you were.
I had to put some restrictions on the comments page. There was someone who was always commenting anonymously on 9/11 and Al Qaeda being a Pentagon/CIA/Right Wing etc. plot.
Once I do not mind .... even two/three/four times .... but when someone wants to make the same comment 20 times a day every day .... it gets tiring. Hence the restrictions.
haha yeah I noticed that guy, what a freak... good to be back
I actually would have done the google account thing earlier, but my first weeks in Cambridge were kind of time-intensive (not so much the studies, but the "getting to know the city & people" etc) ..
PS I keep refering your blog to lotsa people, so I hope your visitor number picks up :)
Cambridge .... I presume England. Lucky guy.
As to visitor counts .... thanks a million for the referrals. I average about 2,000 unique visitors a day, which to me is astounding since I only expected a few dozen when I started this blog a few years ago. As to who visits this blog .... you are in good company. I have registered IP addresses from Langley (CIA), numerous military bases (both in the U.S. and abroad), and numerous emails from Ambassadors, Generals, and reporters. I have even received a comment from Chris Muir (the cartoonist for Day by Day) .... now that made my day.
But what I find interesting .... is that in the past year I have noticed a large number of IP visitors from Washington .... in particular from Congress, the Pentagon, and yes .... someone from the White House every second day around lunch time.
Still .... getting a comment from Chris Muir made my day.
heh nice :) you really have a great blog going! Do you have a plan for how to develop your blog over time? e.g. will you go for a certain audience? change depth?
PS yup, England :) if you happen to be here by chance, make sure to let me know, I definitely owe you a beer (or in your case wine) for the fun I have reading your blog - plus it´s really beautiful here and worth a trip!
PPS I may start a "Biotech in Military applications" blog (as I am studying a biotech related field).. any idea if there is already a --good-- blog out there that does just that? (I stretch the word good, because I only stumbled across very small ones that are outdated)
Your question on the future of this blog is very timely, because a senior U.S. defense official asked me the same question a few weeks ago.
About a year ago I started to lay out a news website in the form of the Drudgereport, but focusing on wars and conflicts, defense and military issues, and international news and trends that indicate future conflicts. Unfortunately, my work schedule and other projects did not permit me to pursue this further .... until now.
I have just completed the template for this website, and the address is at http://www.j3bweb.com/wardefensenews/
The name of the site is War And Defense News, and it will be online in the middle of next month (I am off to wine country in California from December 3 - 13). When I come back, I will be updating and promoting the site. War News Updates will continue in its present form, complementing the War And Defense News Website.
With time .... for these websites to grow .... I will be asking for contributors and partners. The defense industry, wars and conflicts, political and international trends .... this is too much for one person to cover .... but I admit that I do enjoy it.
My brother is one of the top Biotech researchers in the world .... when I am in San Francisco I will be visiting him. I will ask him tomorrow if there are any good BioTech websites or blogs out there with a military bent. From what I know, there is none out there (Armchair Generalist covers some issues once in a while http://armchairgeneralist.typepad.com/my_weblog/ ), but otherwise the field is bare.
I will take up on your offer on a beer. Besides owning a winery, I am a Scotch collector. I have to go to London in a few months to pick up a special bottle of Scotch i.e. a Chivas Royal Salute 50th anniversary bottle. Sighhhh ..... I think I am becoming a typical Russian with an alcohol problem .... or in my case, an alcohol collector problem.
Hey great to hear you are adding another blog! What does your brother do, in Biotech?
Thanks for the link to the armchairgeneralist, will check it out now - oh and make sure to let me know a couple of days ahead when you are in London to pick up that Chivas Royal Salute 50th anniversary bottle :-)
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