This last pair of perspectives from my recent research on suicide in the military community sheds light on the hidden wounds of war:
Jon "Chief" Worrall served in the military for 28 years. He was a Navy chief petty officer until he mangled his leg in a motorcycle accident, then he returned to the military through the National Guard.
In 2003, Chief was an Army Guard sergeant and 49 years old when he got orders to join the Mountain Infantry and deploy to Iraq.
Chief fought in Iraq for 11 months until an improvised explosive device exploded next to his Humvee. "The impact of a bomb when you're in a vehicle -- it turns things to jelly," he said. "The bomb that hit me was six feet away."
Chief and the other three soldiers in the Humvee survived but they all suffered severe injuries. The Brentwood resident has endured 12 surgeries, most recently a reconstruction of one of his shoulders.
He has also suffered ongoing effects from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. A trip to pick up pizza in town can end up in the next county with no recollection of the take-out mission.
"Losing my noggin was not easy," he said, listing mental health issues including memory loss, dizzy spells and confusion. "You try to make yourself as good as possible -- then you move on."
"...Out on the road, we didn't know who's who. We were out on the road surrounded by cars. We didn't know who was there to help us and who was there to kill us."
Ken Norton is president of National Alliance on Mental Illness-New Hampshire and has adopted safe messaging as one of his suicide prevention missions.
"We don't have a solution for suicide," said the advocate who helped create the New Hampshire Suicide Prevention Council, noting a complex mix of factors are almost always at play.
Norton said the biggest danger in media coverage of suicide is the risk of glamorizing or normalizing suicide. He put a scare in my journalistic nerves when he shared how there were about 200 more U.S. suicides than "normal" in the weeks after Marilyn Monroe's death. I didn't want any part of that kind of media coverage of suicide.
There is no doubt that TBI is a signature injury of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. But Norton shares my concern that facets of the asymmetric warfare fought in those conflicts has put troops at high risk of PTSD as well.
"Unlike previous wars, there is no clear ID'd enemy," he said. "When they were inside the wire, they weren't particularly safe, either."
Norton said serving in Baghdad must have been particularly unnerving: "They're in the middle of a civilian community and they don't know who the threat is."
And America's technological advantage was not always a strength. "In many ways, instant communication can be a curse," he said. "Earlier, communications took days, mostly by mail. Now people talk on Skype or Facebook just hours off a mission. Home life can seem close by, but they're really not a part of it."
"...Cell phones and Facebook can get word out fast," Norton said. "Family members know when someone in the unit has been harmed."
In states such as New Hampshire, where 10 percent of the adult population has served in the military, he said there needs to be a broad approach to mental health services for veterans. "Public and private agencies need to get involved in supporting military members," Norton said. "Veterans need to be able to access community resources."
The Veterans Crisis Line is a key resource for those who have served in the military, he said. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline (800-273-8255) is composed of 150 call centers nationwide. By pressing 1, calls are sent to a facility in New York with staff trained to work with veterans and their family members.
"The Veterans Crisis Line has saved a lot of lives," Norton said.
He stressed that 90 percent of people who attempt suicide do not die by suicide.
"They really didn't want to die. They just wanted the pain they were living with to stop," Norton said. "The reality is most people really don't want to die. If people were just as concerned about the effects of suicide as heart attacks, we could save more lives."
VETERANS CRISIS HOTLINE
800-273-TALK (8255)
Press 1 for veterans
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