The Army’s biggest failure: Losing the war on suicides
Facing an enemy it can’t seem to defeat, the Army continues to lose more soldiers to suicide than to combat in Afghanistan.
So far this year, the Army has reported 212 suspected suicides — 132 active-duty soldiers and 80 National Guard or Army Reserve soldiers who were not on active duty when they died.
During the same time period, January through August, the Army lost 171 soldiers in Afghanistan. In FY2011 there were more than 1,000 known suicide attempts.
Army leaders don’t know why the service is seeing a spike in 2012, Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno told Army Times.
Army plans uniform changes, asks for soldier input
It may be the end of the road for the bemoaned blue Army Service Uniform.
The brass on Sept. 17 launched an online survey to find out what soldiers think about the ASU — the good, the bad and the ugly.
Soldiers have through mid-October to let their voices be heard. The survey is at www.armytimes.com/links/asu-survey and Army Knowledge Online.
Ousting the blue uniform is not the stated goal, officials say. Rather, the survey is a tool to ensure the ASU is the best it can be, and there are dozens of items addressed — everything from design, material and fit to the placement of unit insignia and tabs is on the table.
How Obama and Romney compare on 7 issues essential to military voters
Obama: “Let’s stop playing politics with our military. Let’s get serious and reduce our deficit and keep our military strong. Let’s take some of the money that we’re saving because we’re not fighting in Iraq and because we’re winding down in Afghanistan — use half that money to pay down our deficit; let’s use half of it to do some nation-building here in the United States of America.” — July 23, before the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Reno, Nev.
Romney: “We have two courses we can follow: One is to follow in the pathway of Europe, to shrink our military smaller and smaller to pay for our social needs. The other is to commit to preserve America as the strongest military in the world, second to none, with no comparable power anywhere in the world.” — May 28, at the Veterans |Museum and Memorial Center in San Diego.
3 Comments
Well I liked that the armed services backed Ron Paul, I was proud of that. But Ron Paul wasnt exactly republican. Mitt Romney sees Iran as a possibility to go to war. Well folks, we probably could keep nukes out of the hands of iran, but the people backing iran already have nukes, so lets face it, Obama is the way 2 go. No one can come close to the power that america and its allys hold, otherwise they would have tried something by now. Im related to patrick henry, and despise thomas jefferson, loathe really, but as JFK said domestic policy can only defeat us foreign policy can kill us.
Something I just read. Yes I worry about nukes, and obviously so does china and russia. This article says they are already harshley sanctioning them, but something new that I havent read, Russia and China backing the united states for once. Ron Paul looks like general patton, just saying. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Sep-13/187712-russia-china-back-iran-rebuke.ashx#axzz27XXpFYbm
Bring back the WWII dark khaki dress uniform!
When your average American citizen sees a sailor, they can immediately identify and understand who, and what, that person is. When they see a Marine in dress uniform, they immediately know what the uniform represents. But the ASU is vague and unknown. I mean, drawing back to the pants worn in the Civil War?? Really?
The Khaki uniform worn in WWII is almost universally associated with an Army soldier. It has history. It has pride. It is what we need to revive. Modernize the fabric, a few minor changes to the cut, etc.