News: 14 active duty soldiers killed themselves during the month of February

Amen, brother

In ancient greece and also in native american tribes , there were days long rituals , or a protocol , for helping soldiers to return to society . Our culture lacks this . Is it that collective amnesia again ? It may not help everyone , but we should be trying something .

I agree with you, something has to be done the Army's current "debriefing" is ineffective and what was once normal is now foreign and twisted. I am always twisted tight with anxiety and coiled paranoia each time I return back home to Fort Drum. You are filled with happiness that you are alive, depressed beyond belief at the loss of your brothers, guilty for being happy it was them and not you. It's truly sad but I can't be around my girlfriend or family for a couple weeks when I first return home. It's odd you feel almost more violent stateside then in the big rock garden. I have seen to many of my brothers destroy themselves with booze, ruin their marriages, go to town and act like the thugs some people think we are. The Military conditions you to be a weapon a living asset in their war and it takes a strong mind not to be wrapped by it.

I believe you . That is too much to ask , of any one . Whether you are injured physically or not , the shock of such environment must alter the sense of self . For such a thing to be healed , is no simple thing . Almost impossible to be the person you want to be , the person you were meant to be . And this the government has done to .... how many people ? And given them no anchor to help them . Even when they do come back , the crime rate will sky rocket . It makes me so angry , because , whose fault is it really ? And they will never be held accountable . Sickening .

kenny, don't be surprised about the amount of comments...i posted a story about this, but it fast disappeared into 'current ghostown'...without a vote, comment.

I have been able to follow your posts today, mostly on the how many people can live on the planet post. Well done ryan8566.

What it means is the stress of several tours to either Iraq or Afghanistan is taking a toll on our service personnel.

Four in January and three in February were not ever deployed. There is something else here that is causing this stress.

I'd have to read the story again, but had they been deployed? Also, the two guys in my platoon who attempted suicide were scared to death because they knew we were going to be shipped to Korea in the heart of the Korean War.

but how was the iraq war ever justified? never. it could not be...and once a certain amount of the military learned that they were sent in to give up their lives for totally phony reasons...well, that can't help, when they see their 'comrades in arms' getting killed, maimed for absolutely no reason? gotta be depressing.

ryan your right many soldiers feel betrayed by the previous Administration and this causes depression and resentment. Also time flows differently in the field and things don't stay frozen in time waiting for us to return. We offer return to a reality we no longer feel a part of.