AP: Death Of Marine Came After Iraq - Suicide

[jannyk]

Another Useless Tragedy :cry:

http://wcco.com/local/local_story_027144228.html

"Two weeks ago, Schulze told a staff member at the VA hospital in St. Cloud, Minn., that he was thinking of killing himself and asked to be admitted, according to his father and stepmother, who accompanied him. They said he was told he couldn't be admitted that day. The next day, a counselor told him over the phone that he was No. 26 on the waiting list, his parents said.

Four days later, Schulze committed suicide in his New Prague, Minn., home. He was 25."

"Schulze's father and stepmother, Marianne Schulze, who live in rural Stewart, said their son would still be alive if the VA had acted on his pleas for admittance. They said they heard him tell VA staff in St. Cloud that he felt suicidal -- in person on Jan. 11 at the hospital, and over the phone on Jan. 12.

On the evening of Jan. 16, Schulze called family and friends to tell them that he was preparing to kill himself. They called the New Prague police, who smashed in the door and found him hanging from an electrical cord. Police attempted to resuscitate him, but it was too late."

[leftchick]

1. his death should be included in the official Iraq War US Death count

but it won't be. :(

[HuskiesHowls]

2. How many others are there?

How many are "accidents", auto or whatever, that have been planned to not look like suicide?

[frogcycle]

7. probably a lot more than we know...

the suicide rate for military personnel is almost double that for civilians, and rising. I know of four since Christmas in the war zone - they are included in the count. No telling how many like this though. I also read this morning of a 21-yr-old widow who shot herself 3 months after her husband died in Iraq.

when the DoD press release says "died of a non-combat related incident" there is a good chance that's what it was.

[sam sarrha]

3. over 50,000 head injuries and depression is the major symptom.. * fired all the VA counselors that

help soldiers find proper help thru the systems problems.. * will burn in hell

our soldiers were not given the helmet liners that help protect against head injuries..

[Wizard777]

4. Combat stress shrinks the hipocampus causing Short term memory loss.

It's teh vietnam "flashback" syndrome. They've figured out how that works. The Pentagon has conducted a study on Iraq Vets. They had found that the hipocamus in the thier brains had shrunk. The Hipocampus plays a big role in memory. Even the Husband of, the Antisheehan, Ma Pruitt has the disorder. He drives down the street of his hometown and catches himself looking for IED's on the side of the road. It's not so much that he's flashing back to Iraq. The short term memory loss has caused him to tempoarily forget he's home. The duration of the memory lapses are seconds. But it's still disturbing to the individual.

[butterfly77]

5. This is really bad...

how they try to hide the real information about the soldiers...

[Ilsa]

6. If only they could have done an emergency referral or some kind

to get him into treatment somewhere. This poor man and his family ahve suffered so much.