Have we become an Ungrateful Nation with all of the Suicides taking place?

There is a growing problem here and we, as a Nation, cannot just stand around or sit on our laurels and accept this epidemic to spread. Twenty-two American Veterans committing suicide every day? Is the Administration going to wait until that number grows even larger? Obviously, our values have changed greatly and we seem to tolerate more and more violence. Have we become that much more complacent that we simply say, “Wow, that’s too bad?” So many of our Veterans are returning home and they suffer from PTSD. They self-medicate either by taking drugs or drinking alcohol. Sure, we have treatment centers for substance abuse. But how about these men and women, our brothers and sisters, who come home, after serving their Country and they suffer from grave emotional stress because of something they were involved in while In Service. You know, I was a Combat Marine in Vietnam. The Marine Corps trained me to survive, to adapt and over come under all kinds of adverse conditions and combat. They taught me about the elements in Vietnam, the heat, insects, the monsoons, those damn malaria carrying mosquitoes, the VC and NVA booby-traps, you name it, they taught me how to deal with it. But one thing that the Marine Corps did not teach me was how to deal with my Home Coming. They did not tell me about all the War Demonstrators back in the World and how to deal with them. All of the name calling and being spit on and treated like I was a Criminal. Well, here we go again. But this time, it has escalated into committing suicide. How many more of our Veterans are going to be just a statistic? I believe that our Military should take a more proactive approach in treating our Military personnel and making sure that everyone who comes home is not only physically fit but mentally fit as well. PTSD is everybody’s problem, not just the VA but everyone should be involved. Don’t get me wrong. I have been a Cop too long to know that if someone really wants to commit suicide they will. But there are warning signs and our Military should take a proactive role in trying to identify those who are really suffering from the haunts and horrors of their Service. I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. The present Administration is trying to come up with a solution to this terrible problem but it will take all of us to try and do what we can to make sure that our Veterans are treated and taken care of. We can’t stop all of these suicides, but we can try and prevent them from happening, through education and training.

Not to appear insensitive on the issue, but I think it's important to put the numbers into perspective if we are going to find a solution to the problem. It simply isn't enough to say #22aday or #towardszero to get the problem fixed, that only addresses the symptoms.

o 70% of veteran suicides happen within 3 weeks of a visit to the VA.
o 1 veteran suicide a day is active duty (365 a year).
o The 2010-2011 spike in younger veteran suicides (25-35) brought their numbers up to 3-4 a day (including active duty), 5 years after the Iraq surge.
o The #22aday ignore unreported numbers out of Texas and California, two states with significant veteran populations, especially among the homeless and mentally ill.

In a lot of these cases, local efforts to curb homelessness among vets would have made a difference. Access to reliable health care from a provider aware of an individual's medical history (bad reactions to medication, anti-depressants, self-medication) could have saved many too.

Many of them just got lonely and had no one in the foxhole with them anymore...

Sgt David G Duchesneau, I'm not sure I would describe it as ungrateful, but I do think we've been dulled - as a nation - to the 22 veteran suicides happening every day. Heck, I think we've been dulled to murder and lots of other violent crimes, and those suicides are part of that.

The fact that there does not seem to be a sense of urgency about veteran suicides, to me, at least, is symptomatic of a larger problem in our society -- our seeming indifference to violence and death in general ... as long as it doesn't affect us directly.