"From 2000 to 2006, 1,066 male veterans in Oregon took their lives."

[laststeamtrain]

A terrible, telling statistic
Posted by Mike Francis, The Oregonian January 16, 2009 08:52AM
Categories: Veterans issues

Like everybody who cares about the well-being of veterans, I'm aware of the stumbling blocks they face when they come home -- heck, even before they return home. They may have episodes of anger, of paranoia, of depression. They may become substance abusers. They may break up relationships. And they may become suicidal. Sadly, I know people who have dealt with all these postwar symptoms.

But it's worse than I realized. I spent a little time yesterday with Oregon Dept. of Veterans Affairs director Jim Willis, who shocked me with the numbers of suicides among Oregon veterans. From 2000 to 2006, 1,066 male veterans in Oregon took their lives.

That's just a number: 1,066. It masks more than a thousand private tragedies, when an overwhelmed man killed himself, leaving a circle of grieving friends and families, most of whom will ask themselves for years if there was anything they could have done. (Female vets have killed themselves too, but in much smaller numbers.)

Here's an even more astounding fact that Willis dropped on me: There have been as many Iraq-Afghanistan veteran suicides in Oregon as Oregonians have been killed in theater. Think of that: Think of all the faces, all the flags at half-staff, all the public sorrow we've had for servicepersons who were killed in war, the Davises, Weisenburgs, Johnsons, Bradach-Nalls, Lindseys, Hills, Waltons, Millers, Joneses, Lees, Pates, Fennertys and others. Now we find there has been an equal amount of grief for other veterans of the same wars, but it was less public and perhaps more searing. It's a horrible toll that we haven't been talking about enough.

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http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonatwar/2009/01/a_terrible_telling_statistic.html

[Captain Hilts]

1. Most veterans were never in combat. Huge % of entire generations of men are vets.

It's an important issue and we can't let them fall through the cracks.

But the label 'veteran' encompasses a huge % of men of certain ages.

But men, as a whole, commit suicide more than women, for example.

[Libertyfirst]

2. I wish I hadn't read this. It hurts almost more than I can bear. I am

going to go ballistic whenever the pain lets up. And there is not a damn thing I can do.