Has suicide been deemed a less urgent issue than sexual harassment by the U.S. military?
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A little over three months ago, I wrote an article here at The Good Men Project discussing my attempted suicide earlier this year.
I illustrated how Sergeant First Class Anthony St. Sauver of the Minnesota National Guard responded to a comrade in dire need of rescue that April night in accordance with his Army National Guard training. Major General Richard Nash, the Adjutant General of the Minnesota National Guard responded, or in actuality failed to respond, by failing to recognize the heroic act of Sergeant First Class St. Sauver, despite pleas to the contrary that he be recognized for acts above and beyond his call of duty.
In contrast to that event, First Sergeant Katrina Moerk bravely confronted Soldiers in early 2014 on a Facebook page with reference to their sexually inappropriate comments toward women. Lieutenant General James McConville, the Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel awarded First Sergeant Moerk an Army Commendation Medal for her actions. First Sergeant Moerk was clear that she was not seeking recognition for her actions, but merely addressing inappropriate behavior as any senior non-commissioned officer should.
While not intended by any means to diminish First Sergeant Moerk‘s response to the acts of misogyny, the irony here is that one man saved a comrade’s life, and received not even the slightest trace of recognition for his selfless action.
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It is appears that the Adjutant General of the Minnesota National Guard has erroneously deemed suicide a less urgent issue than sexual harassment.
Confronting both issues are of vital importance to the mission and esprit-de-corps of our military, and I believe that Major General Nash is either out of touch with the realities of what psychological horrors precede an attempted suicide by a soldier or veteran, or negligently complicit in condoning those horrors that precede an attempted suicide, despite the fact that every member of the military serves with the understanding and belief their physical, emotional and mental wounds suffered during their time in uniform will be attended to sufficiently by the either the military’s healthcare system, or the Veterans Health Administration.
The Department of Defense (DoD) must recognize suicide and sexual assault/harassment often go hand in hand. A man who endures the psychological effects of sexual assault is roughly six times more likely to attempt suicide than a man who has been spared such ignominious harm. Moreover, this should be passed down the chain-of-command to the most plebeian service-person in every branch of the military.
Failure to adequately address military sexual trauma, and its pernicious twin suicide, destroys any sense of esprit-de-corps necessary for any military unit to function at its peak capacity when called upon to do so. Major General Nash’s failure to adequately recognize the depth of character it took Sergeant First Class Anthony St. Sauver to save a comrade’s life is acutely indicative of how far behind the military remains in its handling of these dire personnel matters.
What motivated my authorship of this article was not only the unmindful neglect of the Adjutant General of the Minnesota National Guard, but my intimate awareness of the Suicide Data Report released by the VA in 2012 which states an estimated 22 or more veterans per day lay down their working tools and give up their struggle with PTSD. Due to incomplete data collection the actual estimate more likely approaches 39 per day.
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As a former Sailor who was raped while serving on active duty, I staunchly remain a proponent of appropriately recognizing the bravery and dedication of those who live by their internal moral directive to intervene when a comrade stands on the precipice of ending the pain they can no longer tolerate, to those who seek to prevent the opportunity for such a tragedy to occur by preemptively taking a stand against such heinous acts.
It is time to adequately laud and reward members like Sergeant First Class Anthony St. Sauver, who step into the fray to end such tragedies. As the world’s preeminent military, it is morally incumbent on the Department of Defense and its subordinates to put an end to the opportunities for suicide to occur.
The continuity and effectiveness of our military depends upon it.
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Photo credit: Flickr/6QMhnh
I think there is a much wider problem here. As a society, we don’t see male suicide as a problem that needs solving at all, let alone as a matter of urgency. Men’s issues with regard to mental health have always been minimised and trivialised – I don’t think it is peculiar to the US military.
I say this as a man who came very close to taking his own life just over three years ago.
When you find the real enemy you are fighting was founded, supported, founded and protected by the very same government that sent you to some inglorious shithole with the happy lies of patriotism, freedom, liberty, democracy and anti-terrorism….it is a bit disheartening, then couple that with the end of the American Dream, and you seriously question everything you have ever been told…a large dose of F#ck it all seems appropriate .