Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Major General Dana Pittard blames soldiers for suicides?

Fort Bliss Major General Dana Pittard called soldiers who committed suicide "selfish" but did not seem to be thinking about the vast majority of them that did think of their comrades first. That's right! They finished their tour of duty with honor and courage beyond their own comfort because they were thinking of others! It was not until most were back in the US they ended their own lives. How is that selfish? Is it selfish to experience that level of emotional pain, flashbacks, nightmares and everything else that comes with PTSD, end up not getting what they need to heal after sacrificing their lives?

Did General Pittard ever once consider that? Or the fact these men and women put others first the day they signed up to serve in the Army? He may be frustrated they are still committing suicide in rising numbers and attempted suicides have gone up as well, but he needs to look at what they are DOING WRONG and stop blaming the soldiers!

The rates have gone up because they did not get what they needed to heal including enough dwell time without being sent back too soon and sent back on medication for PTSD caused by where they were already sent!
General's blog post reignites Army suicide debate
By Yochi J. Dreazen National Journal
Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard Muhannad Fala'ah/AP file photo


Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard commands Fort Bliss, one the nation’s largest Army bases, so his blunt comments about suicide has raised eyebrows throughout the military.

"The remarks may reflect Pittard’s own frustration and emotional exhaustion after a grim few months at Fort Bliss. A total of 14 soldiers from the post were killed in traffic accidents and training mishaps between October and December of last year, along with several suicides. Pittard himself had just come from a memorial service for a soldier who killed himself in front of his twin 6-year-old daughters."


“I have now come to the conclusion that suicide is an absolutely selfish act,” he wrote on his official blog recently. “I am personally fed up with soldiers who are choosing to take their own lives so that others can clean up their mess. Be an adult, act like an adult, and deal with your real-life problems like the rest of us.”

The posting was subsequently scrubbed from the Fort Bliss website, but the comments are adding new fuel to a contentious debate about whether the record numbers of troops who are taking their own lives are acting out of weakness and selfishness or because of legitimate cases of depression and other psychological traumas.

Pittard is expected to formally retract his comments later this week, but suicide-prevention experts believe that Pittard’s blog posting has already conveyed precisely the wrong message to emotionally-fragile troops.

“Soldiers who are thinking about suicide can’t do what the general says: They can’t suck it up, they can’t let it go, they can’t just move on,” said Barbara Van Dahlen, the founder of Give an Hour, an organization that matches troops with civilian mental-health providers. “They’re not acting out of selfishness; they’re acting because they believe they’ve become a burden to their loved ones and can only relieve that burden by taking their own lives.”
read more here

7 comments:

  1. Let me see if I have this right...

    Parents get him into West Point.

    Army send him to graduate school.

    Army assigns him to be a presidential aide.

    Army sends him to Harvard.

    Yeah, I can see why he is frustrated about the rate of "enlisted" suicide.

    He has lost his privileged mind and is so far detatched from the reality of the 19-24 year old enlisted soldier, it no wonder he has developed such non-empathy for the suicidal soldier.

    What is refreshing though, and dare I say a tad bit admirable, he had the courage to say what nearly every general officer feels but is afraid to say for fear of harming their chance at another star on their collar.

    Stigma is alive and well at Fort Bliss.

    Thanks for telling the truth Dana. Good Job.

    When your next soldier dies by suicide, try spending some time with the family and you might just learn how many failures preceded the death ... Failures by your subordinates, the officers and NCOs that you claim to lead.

    If I were the secede, I would have you a**.

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  2. I like the way you put it. I had to walk away from the computer after I posted it so that I wouldn't take my anger out on it. For a couple of hours WFT kept running through my brain until I calmed down a bit and looked up some of the "selfish" soldiers that I've posted about recently.

    http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2012/05/general-pittard-was-marine-clay-hunt.html


    This guy makes my blood boil but you are right and it must be the way a lot of generals feel or we wouldn't see failures like "resiliency" training still going on.

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  3. Gen. Dana Pittard is a highly focused and highly motivated individual. The problem with these attributes is derailment. The army is feeding recruits a steady stream of focus and motivation and shipping them off to do a job. Derailment happens when the recruits find out or are enlightend to a different reality than what they had been trained for. Basically the training cannot account for life experience. The General is still in the first mode and has not been enlightend.

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  4. Timmy,
    You're a lot nicer than I am. I can't even spell the words I was thinking about him.

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  5. Chaplain Kathie,
    Winston Churchill called depression "The black dog". It came and went during his reign as prime minister duriing WW2. Winston would realize when depression hit him and would wait for it to leave. I am doing the same however I do not and will never view the world as I used to. When I see comments like the General made I feel sorry for the man becuase he is the one who is missing the boat. My anger is bourne of the self righteuos zealots that eat this kind of crap, you know, the bullies and the sheeple. PS. Thanks for saying I am nice. I needed that.

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  6. Timmy, you are right again on both points. Pittard will be viewed as an uneducated fool especially from the Generals that did come out and talk about their own Combat PTSD. You are also right on the fact idiots will take what he said and use it against others.

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  7. Well I hope I helped you over that hurdle. Remember, don't get upset, don't knee jerk, just see it for what it is. Unfortunatly alot of it is fodder for the small of mind not that I am any smarter. I just see what I see contrary to the norm. Bin there, Killed him. Play on words. Sorry.

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