This is part of why I detest the previous adminstration

[pecunium]

I like to say "they broke my Army" when discussing Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush.

This like this are part of the reason why.

A broader investigation of Fort Carson soldiers returning from Iraq found regular use of drugs and alcohol to "self-medicate," a growing number of waivers allowing troubled personalities into the ranks, and an unwillingness to use programs meant to help soldiers cope because of the stigma attached.

The findings represent the conclusion of an exhaustive investigation following a cluster of 11 homicides and two attempted murders committed or alleged to have been committed by 14 soldiers between 2005 and 2008 that led to the formation of an Army task force and a call for inquiry by then-Sen. Ken Salazar.

Using focus groups and a survey that together gathered information from more than 3,000 soldiers, the report goes well beyond the accused soldiers to offer a portrait of the impact of seven years of war on the Army and its soldiers. ...


The report also found that the Army's programs to detect behavioral problems and deal with them early regularly failed. Only 20 percent of the unit's soldiers who tested positive for drug use were enrolled in the mandatory Army Substance Referral Program after 30 days; only 60 percent were enrolled after 180 days.

The pervasive substance abuse among some troops, mental illness already present in recruits and the failure of Army leaders to get soldiers the help they need likely contributed to the violence, said Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army's surgeon general.

"Those three in combination are a really toxic mix," Schoomaker said.

The investigation also highlighted the impact on an Army recruitment program under strain after years of war. Hard-pressed to fill recruitment goals, the Army began issuing a higher number of "moral waivers" between 2004 and 2007 to individuals with criminal records or drug problems, the report found.

Soldiers who entered the Army with those waivers were two to three times more likely to test positive for illicit drugs and significantly more likely to be removed from the ranks for disciplinary problems.

Three of the soldiers accused of homicide wouldn't have made it into the Army without waivers, according to the report.

This is the sort of thing which took the better part of 15 years to get past the hump of after Viet-nam.

We keep being told that morale is high, that the programs for mental health are working, that the Army is being proactive on the subject. I have my doubts. They are born of personal experience. I didn't want to see a shrink when I got back. I probably should have.

I was probably better able than most to buffalo the shrink, but I think he was predisposed to believe I was "ok." I was self-medicating. Self-medication isn't, ipso facto evil. The trick is to avoid developing habit of dependence. I don't know that physician-directed medication has a better record of avoiding that; absent outside help to deal with the underlying problems. I had friends, and a support network. Not everyone has that.

I love the Army. I like soldiers.

They both deserve a lot better than they are getting.

Comments

[davidkevin.livejournal.com]

As I said to someone else earlier today about this story, it makes me want to wish there is a Hell so that Bush and Cheney would someday burn in it.

Of course the demon which animates Cheney's heart-attack-killed-long-ago dead body is probably already from there anyway.

[davidkevin.livejournal.com]

P. S.: I didn't realize you had gone through something similar yourself, Terry. I am truly sorry.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It wasn't that bad (heh... we all say that). I had friends, I had escapes. I was stateside; which was part of the problem.

I don't think I was at risk of killing anyone, or diving into the bottle.

Seeing the elephant is a strange thing. I seem to be ok now.

Thanks.

[davidkevin.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I'm glad you had them.

I've spent the last couple of hours looking for this in my journal, just found it. It wasn't just the Army, unfortunately, it's been the Marine Corps, too. From March 2007:

"Wes was a Marine, to be exact, a member of the United States Marine Corps. As an eighteen year old he got wet on the beaches of Iwo Jima, Saipan and several other unfriendly islands during WWII, and came home, much to his surprise, without a wound, well not a wound anyone could see, but one he would carry up to the present.

"The other day, prior to the media frenzy over the death of Anna Nicole Smith, I dropped by to visit and as I entered the room I saw that he was crying...big tears rolling down his face. I asked him what was wrong, a question that I immediately knew was kinda dumb, I mean the guy is dying. He pointed to the t.v. which was looping video of young Marines in some city in Iraq kicking in doors and tearing up civilian homes. Women and children, frightened into silence stood by as these young Marines tore their homes apart and arrested their men. In a barely audible voice he said, 'What have they done to my Corps? (http://agonist.org/yarddog/20070306/what_have_they_done_to_my_corps) What have they done?'"

I confess that it bothers me that those responsible for this man's distress, for ginmar's, for yours, will never spend a single day in penance of any kind for what they've done.

For what it's worth, while not meaning to sound cloying or sycophantic, I want to say again that I'm glad I knew you all those years ago, and I'm glad to know you again now.

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

This makes me furious and sad. I grew up in a Canadian military town--the first time a twelve-year-old me asked a friend, "What's up with your dad?" and she said, "Somalia," will always stay with me, and it's part of the reason PTSD is one of my major areas of interest in pursuing clinical psychology.

The people coming back deserve so much more than this. The people joining the army deserve better than policies that will let them in no matter how much damage it will do them. I really hope they get that.

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

The notion that it is the duty of politicians to ensure their armed forces are never put in harm's way (however defined) except as an absolute last resort (Churchill - 'jaw jaw is always better than war war') and then to ensure they have the very best care when they return from that last resort appears to have fallen out of fashion.

Not that it ever really was in fashion.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I think your last sentence pretty much says it. I've edited some military histories that touch on this: in the U.S., at least, it seems that WWII was the only war in which we treated veterans at all well.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

THe Army is fine, which is why Ft. Campbell had had 13 suicides by the end of May this year (two of them after every last soldier spent April going through suicide prevention training), with the post commander suspending all normal operations at the end of May so they could try again to get a grip in things.

As they are now saying about Rumsfeld, "You don't go into retirement with the reputation you want, you go into retirement with the reputation you have." May he not be given the chance to live as long as Macnamara so he can try and dig himself out.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Like so? (http://news.yahoo.com/comics/uclickcomics/20090707/cx_po_uc/po20090707)

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

"Only 20 percent of the unit's soldiers who tested positive for drug use were enrolled in the mandatory Army Substance Referral Program after 30 days; only 60 percent were enrolled after 180 days."

Just to make sure I understand, of the 20% of the unit attending the chem dep program only 60% of that 20% were still in the treatment program after 180 days, right? (How long's the program? It seems to me that most "civilian" programs are 30 days--due to insurance guidlines, but I could be wrong.)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It varies: It's more like AA than anything else.

There is also a lot unsaid in that. Policy is only self-declared users are elgible for treatment. If the command catches you, it's supposed to be the boot. So it's a weekly meeting/training.

And if you are in it... any use of a prohibited substance (which may include alcohol) is supposed to be immediate discharge.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Actually, the first part of my question was if I was understanding the math correctly. On first read I noticed I'd sort'a just "slid" over the numbers, went back and re-read, and then wanted to see if I'd gotten it correctly.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I've never been in the program, so I don't know what the measures are. A better question to have answered is, "what percentage attended to the end of the required time".

Which isn't asnwered.

How effective the program is, that's another question.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

*slow, angry hiss* Every time I read about how badly all of the Armed Forces are broken, I get just a touch angrier. Not just because a fair number of my old Army buddies are still in, trying to get their 30 years in. It's also because my little brother Eric just got back from his fourth tour in Iraq to find his wife left him with the kids, and now he's got to go to Afghanistan. Explain to me again why we can't draft all of the little MBAs who thought the war was such a great idea so long as they didn't have to serve once they graduated?

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

What scares me the most is that the good officers were driven out.
Selective promotion of officers is one of the foundation mechanisms in the career military. At each level there's a fraction, typically 60% to 80%, who are promoted, so eventually, the higher ranking officers are mostly pretty good (or better!).
So many officers resigned in the last eight years that promotions are 100% at several levels, guaranteeing that the structural damage to our military will last for the next two generations. . .

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

And consider this: there's been no real expansion of the force. So there hasn't been the increase in posts bringing fast promotion for the talented.

Historically, one of the rewards of combat for a career officer was the opportunity for earlier promotion, through both casualties and general expansion of the army?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

That chance.... is slightly strange. Because when the shooting stops, the promotions wither, and the ranks are thinned.

Custer, when he died, was a Colonel. The brevet he got to Major General was revoked. In 1865 he was reverted to Captain. Because of his war record (which includes his saving the day at Gettysburg; an action which was parallel to his actions at Little Bighorn), he was given a promotion to Lt. Colonel.

In the ten years subsequent he wasn't promoted. The list of those senior (many by virtue of higher, or older brevets) was too great. There was a custom for those who had been breveted to refer to each other by the highest rank they'd been given.

Which is why he is thouhgt of as, "Gen. Custer".