Military commanders take on stigma regarding suicides

[unhappycamper]

Military commanders take on stigma regarding suicides
By Richard Mauer | Anchorage Daily News
Posted on Sunday, February 7, 2010

No bugler played taps for Staff Sgt. Anthony S. Schmachtenberger.

There was no gun salute, no fallen soldier display of boots, rifle and helmet -- the traditional Army honors for a lost comrade. When a memorial service was held in the Fort Richardson, Alaska chapel for Schmachtenberger last August, there was only a photograph of the soldier in uniform, propped on an easel.

Schmachtenberger was one of three Fort Richardson soldiers to kill themselves in 2009, the local manifestation of a growing epidemic of suicides among America's battle-stressed military.

But the failure of the commanders of his own artillery battalion to give him final military honors may have been symptomatic of another aspect of the epidemic: the stigma put on soldiers who show signs of mental stress.

~snip~

"When you do a memorial service in a different way (for a suicide victim), I think that you're adding to the stigmatization of a soldier who has a behavioral health problem. You don't mean to, but what you're doing is, you're making it look like it's his fault," Troy said. "We should be memorializing his service to the nation, his service in combat. He's a volunteer, a member of a free nation who came and joined our ranks to defend this country and that's what we should be memorializing, not passing judgment on the manner of his death."


Rest of article at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/nation/story/83932.html

[TexasObserver]

1. Recommend

[Soylent Brice]

2. K&R

[peace13]

3. Very sad.

Thank you for your service Anthony. RIP.

[Solly Mack]

4. k/r