Why women veterans are 250% more likely than civilian women to commit suicide

If this is not an urgent crisis, I don't know what is.

I am 57 now, and when I was in high school, in the late 1970's, I became more and more aware of the Vietnam War, which had just ended, and something called Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) is the manageable form of PTSD, with the "D" standing for "Disorder," which means normal functions are disrupted.

In the early days after the war, Vet Centers started to pop up. I actually started to study veterans, male and female, and military incarceration during this time, still in high school.

I would talk with, interview and discuss "coming home" issues with these very kind, generous souls, who appreciated my interest.

Once in College, I started a club called "Vietnam and Veterans: Awareness Group." My first meeting focused on PTS, the "syndrome." I showed a short film on the subject and then took Q & A, using veteran audience members as expert witnesses. Although I never got a lot of people in the group, it was fascinating and frightening to see what had happened to our veterans after they came home.

The dirty little secret was that the Vet Centers had very little for female vets.

I became acutely aware of and interested in the female vet after reading an article about the rate of suicide among veterans vs. non-veterans, and then the rate of female veteran suicides compared with their male counterparts. It was staggering. This article triggered me.

When I spoke with female vets they all pretty much had the same story, and almost all of them were nurses from the Vietnam War. They would go to the Vet Center, and instead of getting counseling for themselves, the male vets went to them for solace. The guys just wanted to tell the ladies about THEIR problems, just like they did in Vietnam when sick or wounded. So, the women stopped going, and many killed themselves.

Few adjustments were made. And today, there apparently is still a HUGE gap in treatment.

Women in the military, especially in Combat Support and Combat Service Support units attached to combat arms operations, still have a tough row to hoe. They are outsiders a lot of the time, even though successfully integrated into medical, Military Police, logistics, transportation etc., they are still not part of the Boys Club.

One suggestion I have made over the years is for there to be segregated female units, combat arms and all. There is a "culture" in the military, and then there are subcultures, among them are male and female subcultures.

If you plan for success you need to look honestly at your resources and how best they can be employed. I think it's time to stop trying to fit Barbie into G.I Joe's uniform. Let her design her own uniforms, equipment, weapons and SOP. Women can fight, and women are good soldiers, sailors, Air Force and Marines, Coast Guard. Let them EXCEL - together. We do this in competitive sports from the age of 12-13, for a REASON: Men and women are DIFFERENT. And that's OK. If we forget that, in important areas, we create crises that cannot be solved in a PC environment.

Sexual assault, rape, discrimination are all realities when men and women are put together in stressful situations. Men are attracted to women and vice-versa. It is only natural that some will focus on the opposite sex rather than their jobs at times. That's not only inefficient, it's DANGEROUS.

This is a root cause I believe of stress in female military personnel, currently serving and in veterans. Dealing with the opposite sex is just one more distraction for some from their duty.

Can we as a society stop playing PC games with women's lives and let them serve, at least in combat arms, in segregated units that honor and appreciate their culture.

As for the suicide rates, perhaps a refocusing on women's issues and stressors can be made and then acted upon unemotionally and without concern for political correctness.

How about we focus on the person, and not the societal perception of the military?