Category: suicide

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“Red Dawn,” Hits Ukraine After Russian Armor Tagged With “Wolverines.”

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Military news…

‘Red Dawn’ hits Ukraine after destroyed Russian armor gets tagged with ‘Wolverines’

WOLVERINES!!!

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4 airmen awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for evacuating more than 150 civilians from Kabul

“The conditions that day were like none I had ever seen.”

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The Army’s suicide rate is the worst it’s been in nearly a century

That’s according to a new report from the Defense Suicide Prevention Office.

(Over 22 each day take their own lives in the military.)

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Signs of Massacre in Bucha Spark Calls For War-Crime Probes

Ukrainian officials said they have asked the International Criminal Court to visit the mass graves found in Bucha so investigators can gather evidence of possible Russian war crimes.

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Top US general says more bases in Europe could be needed amid ‘turning point’ in Continent’s history
Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers heightened American military “presence is always a good deterrent” against enemy aggression, telling them that he favored rotating more units in and out of Europe to a permanent boost of U.S. force strength on the Continent.
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Russia aims to create ‘land bridge’ to Crimea in new planned offensive, NATO chief says
Russian forces are regrouping for a new offensive in Ukraine aimed at gaining enough ground to connect the occupied Crimean Peninsula with separatist-controlled territory in the eastern Donbas region, NATO’s official said Tuesday.
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Pentagon: Russian troops have left Kyiv and Chernihiv but have not yet moved to eastern Ukraine
The roughly 40 Russian fast-response ground units — each made up of about 800-1,000 troops — that once surrounded the northern Ukrainian cities have returned to neighboring Belarus, a senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday.

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Jersey Shore town pulls together for 94-year-old veteran who lost home to fire

A World War II veteran lost everything in a sudden tragedy. A community came to his aid. An example of compassion in times of strife.

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Update…

My upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life, will be ready for the publisher by the end of this month. Then I will share a countdown daily on this site, so keep coming back to check it out. Better yet…go to the top of this page and click on Subscribe. When you do all future posts will come directly to your inbox.

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Checking in on you. How are you doing? Is everything going OK, or are you struggling?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 14,260 veterans on this site who have your back.

Here is what I am asking you to do…please share this site with as many other veterans as you can. It has helped so many.

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If you are battling mentally, but you are losing, GET HELP!!

Here is a toll free number that you can call 24/7. There are highly qualified counselors there to help you, and they will not hang up until they know you are OK.

1-800-273-8255…texting 838255.

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

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There Are Over 22 Military Suicides in the Military Everyday. Has to stop.

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Military news…

Russia Says Some Troops Are Returning to Their Bases, But Other Large-Scale Military Drills Continue.

Some Russian troops deployed from military districts bordering Ukraine were being loaded onto trains and trucks and sent back to their garrisons, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, signaling that Russia could be stepping away from an invasive posture.

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Veterans Groups Asking Congress to Prevent Afghan Evacuees from Being Kicked Out of US

Some Afghans evacuated by the U.S. military last year could lose their legal status in the U.S. in six months and veterans groups are pushing Congress to find a permanent solution and guarantee their allies’ safety.

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Pentagon Orders US Soldiers Out of Ukraine as War Fears Mount

U.S. Army National Guard troops on a training mission in Ukraine were repositioned in Europe amid escalating signals of a possible Russian invasion, the Pentagon said Saturday.

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Biden Approves Pentagon Plan to Help Americans Fleeing Ukraine if Russia Invades

The White House approved a Pentagon plan to send 1,700 paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division to Poland to bolster that ally and assist with safeguarding Americans directed to leave Ukraine, U.S. officials said.

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Number of Veterans Living in Homeless Shelters Declined During Pandemic, Report Finds

Fewer veterans lived in homeless shelters or transitional housing last year, but officials say the pandemic’s real impacts on the homeless in America won’t be known until a new batch of surveys of those living on the streets.

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Americans Were Promised an ‘Orderly and Safe’ Withdrawal From Afghanistan. US Troops Say it Was Anything But

Several Marines provided investigators with visceral accounts of the chaos at Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport in the hours leading up to a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and as many as 170 Afghans.

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Here is the last chapter of my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life

Let’s Start a Ripple Effect

Have you ever thrown a pebble into a lake? Did you notice the circles that form and slowly spread out away from where the pebble went into the water? This is called the ripple effect.

Well, this can happen in your own life.

Every time you offer your hand to pick someone up; every time you share your strength and ability to persevere and every time you fight for your own recovery and help someone else with theirs, the ripple grows.

I have seen it so many times in my many years of going around the block.

A close friend of mine, who was a veteran, was given only six months to live. He used those six months to give hundreds of other people hope. He was never negative. He never blamed God for his demise. He used his impending death as a tool to help others to feel comfort in their own battles. His ripple effect reached out to all of his close friends, and through those friends it spread to many other who needed a friend.

How about you? Do you have some buddies or friends in the military that are hurting? Do they seem too quiet, or distant? They often do not seek help because of the mental attitude of the military. It is the “tough it out,” attitude. This is the time for you need to sit with them to get them to talk. You don’t have to be forceful, just be a friend, and they will open up.

Since 1999 there have been over 128,000 suicides in the military, and the veterans who are out on the private sector. We all need to do what we can to help stop this epidemic.

Twenty-two veterans end their lives every day. This is not acceptable. This needs to stop.

Hopefully you have come up with some strategies from reading this book. Use them to help those hurting around you. 

Ripple effects can begin with you. You have faced many trials in your life. What did you do when you did? Was it a poor me pity party, or did you use it to help others?  

Through your one ailment, disappointment, or failure, you can spread hope to others around you. The ripple effect will grow and continue to grow far further than you will ever know.

IWILL

Check in on all of your friends and neighbors. I may have said this many times in this book, but just checking in with them cheers them up. By doing this you will brighten their day and they will in turn want to reach out to someone else.

I hope this book has been beneficial for you. Thank you for your service. As Lt. Lynn Buck Compton said when he wrote an autograph for me in his book, “All my best to an American hero.” That would be you.

Think about this

Isn’t it sad how we think about reaching out to someone, but often never do it?

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There will be more excerpts coming so come back aften. Better yet… go to the top of this page and click on “Subscribe.” When you do all future posts will come directly to your in box.

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Checking in on you…How are you doing? Are you struggling with memories?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 13,880 fellow veterans here who have your back.

If you are battling mentally, because of your love for others, but it isn’t working, GET HELP!!

Here is a toll free number that you can call 24/7. There are highly qualified counselors there to help you, and they will no hang up until they know you are OK.

1-800-273-8255…texting 838255.

I will start repeating some of the more popular chapters for you to see, so keep coming back. Better yet…go to the top of this page and click on “Subscribe.” When you do all future posts will go directly to your inbox.

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+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know.

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The Loss of a Buddy During Your Time in the Military is Hard at Best

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My last post caused quite a stir. Talking about suicide is not an easy thing to do, but when 22 veterans take their own lives EACH day then we need to reach out.

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Military news…

It’s a bad day for one Missouri bar after a video went viral over the weekend of a bartender berating a group of six service members who tried to get drinks with their military identification card. The bartender, identified as Josh Weitkamp, refused to serve them, appeared to bend and throw away one of the service members’ military IDs, told them they “don’t even look old enough to know about f—ing 9/11” and then denied that they were in the military at all, which is funny because at least a few have been to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hazing is always terrible, especially when it involves being tied up to a target. Hazing is always terrible, especially when it involves being tied up to a target on a live-fire range while fighter planes drop ordnance near you for 20 minutes. But that’s what one French Air Force pilot said his fellow aviators put him through in March 2019. The pilot recently filed a criminal complaint because he felt the French military was not taking the matter seriously enough.

‘Wait, they just now started doing this?’ is a perfectly reasonable reaction that the 18th Airborne Corps wants anyone found guilty of sexual assault or harassment to be immediately separated from the Army. But it’s true: the new policy marks a major departure from how such crimes are handled elsewhere in the service, and it’s a direct result of soldier feedback to their leadership.

Remember that scene from The Matrix where Neo orders up a big honkin’ arsenal of virtual guns? Well that’s what the deck of the USS Monterey looked like last week. After the Navy ship stopped a small boat in the North Arabian Sea that was chock full of Type 56 assault rifles, PKM machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket propelled grenades and kaboodles of other kinds of firepower. In fact, the cache was so large it took the crew 36 hours to unload all of it.

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One of the many things that sticks out in my mind about my time in the military was the loss of lives during peacetime.

In my book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life, I wrote about two buddies I lost while in Korea. Neither one of them were in combat.

The first one was a buddy that I signed up with to get into the military. We went through basic together. We went through MOS training together, and was sent to Korea together.

When we got there, he was sent to another part of Korea. Things went Ok for a few months until I was notified that he had died from some kind of crud he caught there.

I couldn’t believe it. He died from an illness? I found out it happens a lot in foreign countries. I still think about him to this day.

The second incident was right in my own company at Camp Red Cloud, outside of Uijeongbu, Korea.

A close buddy had been drinking heavily, and went out into the village to be with a girl. He was coming back to the Camp, and he was staggering very badly. He could hardly walk.

As he was walking he fell into a “honey bucket.” A honey bucket is where the locals keep their human waste for fertilizer. It is about seven feet across. My buddy actually suffocated.

We had no idea it had happened until our morning formation the next morning. I noticed a gap where he was suppose to be in the ranks. I didn’t think much about it. However, the company commander came out and announced that he had died the night before.

We all were in shock. He was a good guy that everyone liked.

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These and many other stories like them will be in the book that will come out this fall. Be sure to follow this site to see the latest on the book.

Better yet, subscribe now by clicking on the subscribe button at the top of this page. You won’t have to come back here to find out more. It will be sent straight to your inbox each time I post.

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How are you doing? Did you lose a buddy while in the military? It is hard at best to even think about it.

FEAR NOT!!

There are more than 11,800 fellow veterans subscribed to this site who have your back.

BUT! If you heart is broken, and you need further assistance, GET HELP!

Here is a toll free number you can call 24/7.

There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until they know you are OK. AND IT IS FREE!

Never face another day that causes you to hurt.

1-800-273-8255 Option # 1

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

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+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know about it.