In honoring our Veterans this November 11, 2009, let us not forget the tragedy that happened at Fort Hood, Texas. It was a multiple tragedy, given that this is the largest, and supposedly best US Army base in the world. It's base hospital is comparable to the best right here in Houston. It is the size of a small city. Some of the best military doctors work there.
So why does a Major who has been a good psychiatrist to many soldiers in Iraq & Afghanistan and at Ft. Hood, go on a killing spree at the best Army base the US has? From what my local newspaper reported, his immediate superior, a Col. Lee, told a reporter that he knows the shooter had wanted to be discharged, had made statements he was against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, many times. MANY TIMES. The only natural conclusion is that Col. Lee thought that redeployment would "toughen the major up," even though the Major himself was obviously waving red flags about his mental state.
This Col. Lee indirectly set up what the Major ultimately wound up doing: killing, wounding others, in order to remove himself from military participation. What really astounds me is that during the 6 mos. prior to this tragedy, this Col. Lee heard the major's requests, and NEVER ONCE considered a psychological evaluation for him, and I doubt he ever went to his OWN immediate supervisor on how to handle the major. In my opinion, this Col. Lee ought to be horse-whipped and thrown out of the military for gross negligence and exceptionally poor judgment in handling what should have been a straightforward process- get psyche eval, then decide what to do.
Ever since Pres. Obama was made aware of suicide rates among Army recruiters (!), he ordered to find out how widespread suicide is among all the military branches. It's alarming: military suicide rates are now above civilian rates- 20.2 per 100,000 soldiers in the military as of Feb. 4, 2009; 19.5 per 100,000 civilians. A very important point- some analysts believe the rate to be much higher for the soldiers, because some deaths were drug-related, and may have been classified erroneously.
The US military is notoriously late in adapting to issues important to the public- such as recruiting black Americans, gays, women. But through it all, mental health was kept under the rug. Getting help for depression is a career buster, even just talking about it to a friend could mean ouster from the military. There are also a plethora of men in positions of authority who think like the above Col. Lee- if you can't take it, you're a pansy, so suck it up and be a man. I'm former Army, and I've seen what I'm talking about. This train of thought runs rampant, and is why so many of the Reservists and Guards are committing suicides. If superiors won't believe in mental health, then nothing will ever change, no matter what Pres. Obama tries to do.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/suic-f04.shtml
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I can't refrain from commenting on my own blog, so here are my final thoughts on this subject:
ReplyDeleteI DO NOT condone the actions of this Major.
I am deeply moved at the deaths of innocent soldiers going about their business.
I grieve with the ones who lost their loved ones. The memorial service to them is ingrained in my heart now.
But focusing on the victims/survivors does not teach us how to prevent something like this from happening again. Nor does being predisposing his heritage make him a terrorist.
Even now, the last thing investigators have considered is that he may have been mentally disturbed, even suicidal(surely this act was supposed to end with his death) and that many professionals overlooked this as a minor issue in the scheme of things.