'Live free and die'? The sad state of U.S. life expectancy

[Marathoner]

6.4% of adult Americans are military vets.

10% of homeless people in the United States are veterans of the armed forces. 

In 2020, 121 military veterans committed suicide in the United States every day. 

Consider that.  

[Marathoner]

45 minutes ago, bropro said:

The last time I checked with VA sources, 22 veterans take their lives every day in the U.S. That is a staggering and sad statistic.

Gary

It's sobering, brother. I think many of us vets know one or more of our fellows who ended their lives. 

I told the story of Frank elsewhere, a Vietnam vet whom I befriended when I enlisted in the Army before the Gulf War. Frank promised to buy me dinner after I graduated from Basic Training. The VA had been supplying Frank with morphine ever since he rotated back stateside and was discharged. He was exposed to Agent Orange like so many in Vietnam were. Morphine was the VA's answer.

When I was on leave after Basic Training, I looked for Frank but couldn't find him. I found out that Frank had passed away... but here's what I didn't share before: Frank took his own life.

My mother's older brother was a veteran of Korea and Vietnam (he joined my father on leave in Bangkok back in the day). Over a decade after the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam and eight years after he retired from the Army, my uncle suddenly took his own life. My aunt never saw it coming... no one did. It was a shock.

I know of a soldier who took his own life when he was one week away from leaving the Gulf War and returning stateside. He did it three feet away from where my brother in the Lord was standing. 

Then, there are those homeless vets who come to us here at the transitional housing shelter. Some will inexplicably decide to leave... and some have ended their own lives.

The truth is hard indeed. I understand why many prefer fairy tales to the truth. 

[bropro]

1 hour ago, Marathoner said:

It's sobering, brother. I think many of us vets know one or more of our fellows who ended their lives. 

I told the story of Frank elsewhere, a Vietnam vet whom I befriended when I enlisted in the Army before the Gulf War. Frank promised to buy me dinner after I graduated from Basic Training. The VA had been supplying Frank with morphine ever since he rotated back stateside and was discharged. He was exposed to Agent Orange like so many in Vietnam were. Morphine was the VA's answer.

When I was on leave after Basic Training, I looked for Frank but couldn't find him. I found out that Frank had passed away... but here's what I didn't share before: Frank took his own life.

My mother's older brother was a veteran of Korea and Vietnam (he joined my father on leave in Bangkok back in the day). Over a decade after the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam and eight years after he retired from the Army, my uncle suddenly took his own life. My aunt never saw it coming... no one did. It was a shock.

I know of a soldier who took his own life when he was one week away from leaving the Gulf War and returning stateside. He did it three feet away from where my brother in the Lord was standing. 

Then, there are those homeless vets who come to us here at the transitional housing shelter. Some will inexplicably decide to leave... and some have ended their own lives.

The truth is hard indeed. I understand why many prefer fairy tales to the truth. 

I served in  the Corp from ’67-69 and became friends with a guy from Wisconsin named Allan. We went through three phases of required training together before heading to Vietnam. We wound up in the same unit, but several weeks later Allan became an FO and left the section we were in together. He was still in the same company so we would run into each other from time to time. After being there a little more than a year, I rotated back to the states but he took an extension for 6 more months. Anyway, as happens quite often with veterans coming back to the world, we did not stay in contact. Back in the early to mid-nineties I looked him up and gave him a call and we talked for some time. Then a few years later I contacted another comrade of mine that also knew Alan who told me that he had taken his life. My heart sunk and for about a week I went into a deep depression.

Then while going to group meetings for PTSD at the VA several years ago, it was brought up that one of those in the group had taken his life during that week. I left that meeting and went into another deep depression and did not go back for a couple of years. It is really hard to hear these things. I heard it said that if you are a Christian, then you should never become depressed. Well, I am a Christian and I did go through depression, but it is by His grace that I come out of it every time. And by His grace I have not become one of those statistics.

From many of the posts that I have read about what you do, I’m sure you see this quite often. And I’m sure these experiences leave you with a heavy heart. Thank you for what you do.

Gary

[bropro]

2 hours ago, farouk said:

@bropro Perhaps it's something to do with the utter disconnect that politicians show when on the one hand they expect military personnel to live through unknown pressures for the years of their military service and then when they get to we civilian clothes again the same politicians expect the veterans to observe a whole range of illogical political correctness that bears no relation to those pressures that the veterans were expected to live through.

This has regularly occurred to me.

(But what do I know?)

I don't think it has anything much to do with the politicians. It has to do with the unnatural things that a person has to do in combat situations. Growing up we are taught to respect human life and that it is wrong to kill. Then we are put in situations where we have to do the total opposite of what we have been taught. Again, it is not the politicians, but rather the traumatic experiences that have left an indelible stamp in our minds and souls that drives people to the point of taking their own life. 

Gary

[Marathoner]

I've dealt with depression for most of my life, @bropro.  It started long before I joined the Army. I was 11 years old when my battle with depression began. The Army was how I escaped my parents' house. It was a blessing at the time.

I've also heard it said that we who are in Christ should never struggle with depression, but we know that's not a true saying. Elijah struggled with depression. So did Jonah. Many of us do, and it doesn't mean that we lack faith in the Lord. Hardly.

On the contrary, the Lord knows all things, and He knows how hard this life can be for us all. I don't know what you've experienced, my friend, but He surely does. 

I was speechless when I heard what my uncle had done. Brothers share their burdens with me as they are led to do and on account of what I've been through and seen, I'm able bear those burdens with them. The Lord provides for us all. 

The Spirit of the Lord taught me how to cope with, and thus live with, depression. The depression comes and I endure. I endure, and I pour myself into serving others. In His kindness, the Lord has provided a way for me to overcome what has claimed the lives of so many. 

There's something else. I almost died from granulomatous disease in my mid-40's, and that ordeal has strengthened me. The Lord displayed His power in me, returning me to health and restoring this body and mind, so I know that I'm only alive because of Him. Depression lost its power over me years ago. 

[farouk]

1 hour ago, bropro said:

I served in  the Corp from ’67-69 and became friends with a guy from Wisconsin named Allan. We went through three phases of required training together before heading to Vietnam. We wound up in the same unit, but several weeks later Allan became an FO and left the section we were in together. He was still in the same company so we would run into each other from time to time. After being there a little more than a year, I rotated back to the states but he took an extension for 6 more months. Anyway, as happens quite often with veterans coming back to the world, we did not stay in contact. Back in the early to mid-nineties I looked him up and gave him a call and we talked for some time. Then a few years later I contacted another comrade of mine that also knew Alan who told me that he had taken his life. My heart sunk and for about a week I went into a deep depression.

Then while going to group meetings for PTSD at the VA several years ago, it was brought up that one of those in the group had taken his life during that week. I left that meeting and went into another deep depression and did not go back for a couple of years. It is really hard to hear these things. I heard it said that if you are a Christian, then you should never become depressed. Well, I am a Christian and I did go through depression, but it is by His grace that I come out of it every time. And by His grace I have not become one of those statistics.

From many of the posts that I have read about what you do, I’m sure you see this quite often. And I’m sure these experiences leave you with a heavy heart. Thank you for what you do.

Gary

Hi @bropro In a totally different context (and I'm not American, either) several years ago I had major heart surgery, and when I came round from the anaesthetic after the op I could tell from the faces of the medical staff that they weren't sure if I was going to make it.

But I did, by God's grace, although it took a number of years really to get a measure of my strength back.

My family doc - a really nice lady - asked me if I was depressed: she said many men do become depressed after such surgery.

My blessed experience was that no, I was not. In fact, by God's grace, it even helped me concentrate on spiritual priorities.

But I know also that some ppl coming through similar or even vastly different experiences (military combat situations, etc.), do become depressed.

I have to confess that Philippians, which you recently quoted from, was an Epistle I enjoyed meditating on when I was in hospital.

[Marathoner]

Everyone has a different experience with such things, so there are no hard and fast rules. I believe that, with our Lord Jesus Christ being truth, it's best for us endeavor to embrace truth here on this earth. 

It would be a mistake to assume I believe that what we endure in this life is a horrible thing. It surely seems horrible to us at the time but in the sight of God, our suffering is precious. We can't see.

I've said it before and it bears repeating again: I'm thankful for what I've seen, heard, and experienced. These things prepared me for those works which God ordained. The Lord equips each of us for those works in the same way.