I read a story this morning about a veteran who killed himself after his call to the VA for help went to voicemail. Besides the obvious reason for getting pissed off, I’ve been asking myself a lot lately, “what are you going to do about it?” I’m done bitching and whining, it’s time for action.
The DOD has no idea why soldiers are killing themselves more now than ever before. I know most of us think it’s because of the wars, but nope, there is no correlation between combat and suicide. They are also not spending any money figuring out the cause by the way.
The point is this: We need to band together as a veteran community and start taking care of ourselves; it’s obvious no one else is going to. There are a lot of great organizations out there like Warrior360 and 22kill that are veteran run and really doing a lot of good, but I want to take it a step further:
I want YOU to get involved.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Identify a buddy, tag them in this post, or if you don’t have facebook, comment below. This is a public declaration that they are your buddy.
- If you don’t have a buddy in mind, then please comment that you need a buddy and state your location and date of service. We will find you one.
- You will talk to your buddy at a minimum once a week. You will ask difficult questions about their finances, relationships, and mental state
- You and your buddy will answer honestly
- If your buddy goes into a dark place, you are the first line of defense to get him help
- You will take this role seriously
None of this is new to any of you, we’ve all done it before. We are making a formal buddy assignment.
It’s time for us to band together, set up our security perimeter and watch out for each other…no one else is going to do it for us.
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My work has an organization in which several of us are available and on call to assist anyone struggling with reintegration. Before they get fired or disciplined we are given an opportunity to work with them. It doesn’t override discipline but it can help with retention. Our main job is to get them to the help that is already out there. It started about 10 years too late but it made a difference.
Will you couple this with a 401(c) to organize and establish lines of communication and give it some structure?
Scott, sorry I didn’t see this sooner, your comment dropped into the spam folder.
I haven’t thought about doing that, but if you want to get involved, i’m down.
Made a VA Hotline text while talking to a vet with another phone. 45 minutes later got an automated return voicemail back telling me to call a number. Called the number didn’t get to talk to anyone. Called the hotline and that failed to yield results either. Started going thru business cards and finally got him to a real person who helped get him into a hospital. Took 6 hours. You never give up.
We aren’t “buddies” and he has since shut me out but I still pray and stand ready if he needs while I watch from a distance.
Stay strong and know it will get better. You have much to offer though the mission has changed for now…