(CNN) -- Two years ago, my son, Army Spc. Chancellor Keesling, died by suicide in Iraq. He was 25 and on his second deployment.
Shortly after his death, my wife, Jannett, and I learned of a long-standing policy in which presidential letters of condolence are withheld from families of American service members who die by suicide.
We wrote to President Barack Obama on August 3, 2009, asking him to reverse this policy, and since then we have tried to keep up a steady drumbeat for change. There has been a fair amount of media attention, including from CNN, and recently U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, co-chair of the Senate Military Family Caucus, and a bipartisan group of Senate colleagues sent a letter to the president on behalf of this issue, echoing a bipartisan request from House members.
We learned in late 2009 that the White House would be reviewing the policy, when then-White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told then-CNN reporter Elaine Quijano that the White House had inherited this policy and was reviewing it. Yet as of this writing, we and the hundreds of other families whose children have died by suicide while at war wait for a result.
I wonder: What is the White House reviewing and why it is taking so long?
An action by the president would send a powerful message throughout the military ranks to take mental health issues more seriously. Suicide among those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan has become an epidemic. Last year a Pentagon report found that every 36 hours, a soldier commits suicide.
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
3 comments:
I agree that suicide leaves a terrible burden for ones left behind. I also agree that in many cases soldiers committing suicide have been affected (mentally) by the hardships of war. However, I do not know that I agree that families should be using their energy to demand a letter of condolence from the President. In many cases soldiers have killed fellow soldiers in their efforts to take their own lives. I would rather see this energy used to help rehabilitate soldiers with mental illness. I completely agree that a powerful message needs to be sent in order to make people more aware, I'm just not sure I agree with how this is presented. A loss is a loss in the eyes of a loved one.
"In many cases soldiers have killed fellow soldiers in their efforts to take their own lives."
Please provide one example of this.
Every suicide is a tragedy, but, sorry, the job of the soldier is to train for war, and if he is to go to war, to defeat the enemy.
Suicide is abandoning the mission just as much as going AWOL or turning tail and running under fire. Though tragic, it is not an act to be rewarded in combat except in very extreme circumstances (i.e. captured and soldier would otherwise forced to reveal information, etc.).
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