U.S. ARMY - Pre-Existing Risks and Suicides

"New study links pre-existing risks to rise in Army suicides" PBS Newshour 3/4/2014

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (Newshour):  As American involvement, including multiple deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, winds down, a recent and disturbing trend is drawing new attention: an increase in the rate of Army suicides.  And new research shows soldiers may be at greater risk even before they enlist.

Jeffrey Brown has more.

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour):  The work was published in a series of papers in “James Marks Psychiatry” and done by independent researchers funded, in part, by the Army.

Among the key findings: One in 10 soldiers qualified for a diagnosis of what’s known as intermittent explosive disorder.  That rate is six times higher than in the civilian population.  Soldiers also came into the Army with a higher rate of behavioral disorders such as substance abuse or ADHD than civilians.

Dr. Ronald Kessler of Harvard Medical School is one of the principal investigators.  He joins us now.

MILITARY - Staff Sgt Bales Sentenced to Life Without Parole

"Staff Sgt. Bales Sentenced to Life in Prison for Murdering 16 Afghan Civilians" PBS Newshour 8/23/2013

Excerpt

MARGARET WARNER (Newshour):  We turn to two Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales.  He was sentenced to life in prison without parole today for murdering 16 civilians in a solo nighttime rampage in Afghanistan last March.  Most of his victims were women and children.

Today's sentence was the toughest the six-member military jury could impose.  The 40-year-old staff sergeant pleaded guilty in June, which spared him the death penalty.

Adam Ashton has been covering this trial for The News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington, and joins us now.

Adam Ashton, welcome.

What was this jury weighing in trying to decide what sentence to impose?  Well, first of all, what were their options?

ADAM ASHTON, The News Tribune:  They only had two options.

Murder has a mandatory minimum life sentence under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, so Bales only had a choice -- option today of life with parole or life without parole.

MILITARY - How Will the U.S. Army Handle 'Chelsea' Manning?

"How Will the Military Handle Bradley Manning's Request to Be 'Chelsea'?" PBS Newshour 8/23/2013

Excerpt

RAY SUAREZ (Newshour):  Just days after Bradley Manning was handed 35 years in prison over the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history, the Army private is bringing another issue to the fore.  The soldier, who long struggled with gender identity, announced on Thursday the preference to live as a woman named Chelsea.

In a statement read on NBC's Today Show, Manning said:  "As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me.  I am Chelsea Manning.  I am a female.  Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible."

The announcement has raised legal questions over whether the Army provides that therapy.  The soldier will serve time at Leavenworth maximum security prison in Kansas.  The prison has 515 beds and no female prisoners.  Manning's attorney says he plans to fight for his client once again.

DAVID COOMBS, attorney for Bradley Manning:  A Fort Leavenworth spokesperson said, we don't have certain treatment; that's not what we give.

I'm going to change that.

RAY SUAREZ:  Manning's request has put a spotlight on an issue that's often overlooked and how the military handles it.

Estimates vary, but one analysis from the Williams Institute at UCLA.  Suggested as many as 700,000 Americans may be transgender, though many fewer may have taken hormones or surgery.  Currently, most insurance plans will not cover treatments or surgeries involved with sex changes.  There was an earlier gender reassignment involving a veteran.  It first came to public attention after World War II.

Christine Jorgensen, an American soldier who served as a man, returned from military service and became Christine.  In Manning's case, the focus now lies on how the Army will proceed with the soldier's request and what that means for the private's future in prison.

MILITARY - Army Charges in Wake of Suicide Death

"Army Charges 8 in Wake of Death of a Fellow G.I." by KIRK SEMPLE, New York Times 12/21/2011

Excerpt

One night in October, an Army private named Danny Chen apparently angered his fellow soldiers by forgetting to turn off the water heater after taking a shower at his outpost in Afghanistan, his family said.

In the relatives’ account, the soldiers pulled Private Chen out of bed and dragged him across the floor; they forced him to crawl on the ground while they pelted him with rocks and taunted him with ethnic slurs. Finally, the family said, they ordered him to do pull-ups with a mouthful of water — while forbidding him from spitting it out.

It was the culmination of what the family called a campaign of hazing against Private Chen, 19, who was born in Chinatown in Manhattan, the son of Chinese immigrants. Hours later, he was found dead in a guard tower, from what a military statement on Wednesday called “an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound” to the head.

On Wednesday, the American military announced that the Army had charged eight soldiers in Private Chen’s battalion in connection with the death.

It was an extraordinary development in a case that has stirred intense reactions in the Asian population in New York and elsewhere and provoked debate over what some experts say is the somewhat ambivalent relationship between the Asian population and the United States military.

The authorities have not publicized much information about the circumstances of the death. Family members said they had gleaned bits of information about the hazing in private briefings with American military officials. But the array of charges announced — the most serious of which were manslaughter and negligent homicide — suggested that military prosecutors believed that the soldiers’ actions drove Private Chen to commit suicide.

Private Chen’s relatives and friends said they welcomed the announcement of the charges, as did Asian-American advocacy groups, which have been pressing the Army to conduct a transparent investigation into the death and to improve the treatment of Asians in the armed forces.

As if the war in Afghanistan wasn't dangerous enough, or troops have to worry about their own.

POLITICS - Another View From the Home Front

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 08:01:36 -0800, in sdnet.politics :

"Army short 4000 armor kits for its Humvees" from Brian David Smith, San Diego, California

The U.S. Army says it is short 4000 armor kits for its Humvees. This simply says again, that George Bush is woefully unprepared to fight in Iraq.

This is a repeat of the same old story. From the beginning of Bush's war in Iraq, the Humvees lacked steel plating to protect soldiers from the enemy.

American soldiers were reduced to jerry-rigged with plywood and sandbags to protect themselves. The soldiers called the Humvees "cardboard coffins."

Further, the soldiers were lacking radio equipment, body armor, GPS gear, computers, and night vision goggles.

Also there has been problems with maintenance and replacement parts for critical equipment like Abrams tanks, Bradley personnel carriers and Black Hawk helicopters.

Now Bush wants to escalate the war by sending 21,500 additional troops into Iraq. This is insanity.

Bush is sending American soldiers on a suicide mission. Bush is setting them up as clay pigeons for target practice. Bush is sending the guys off to be murdered.

Clearly, Bush has lost all perspective and is grabbing at straws. Before he murders additional soldiers, Bush must be stopped. Bush's senseless war must be stopped.

Sadly, Congress is spineless and won't stop Bush. Therefore, they are complicit in murdering the troops as well. It is MURDER! It is cold blooded MURDER!