The rate of suicide in the British Armed Services has been of considerable concern for a long time now. There are various reasons some of which do not make palatable reading.
In training establishments, bullying by instructors and other recruits has the effect of making other recruits kill themselves. One case I dealt with the recruit was on the ranges and told his instructor he wanted to kill himself, they took him off the ranges and put him on guard saying he was stuck in the army for ever and they would make sure his life was hell. He took his weapon when it was his turn to patrol, went rounf the back of the guardroom and blew his brains out, he was in fact being allowed to leave the army in two days.
Poor recruiting is also to blame, the army is so short of recruits the recruting offices are literally taking everyone that applies without considering the suitability of the candidate.
Too many tours on active duty. The British Army is stretched beyond belief. They are doing six months tours in Iraq, back for three months then six months in Afghanistan then they could be away to the Falklands for six months, not active service but time away from families.then back to Afghanistan etc. There is no relief in sight. Marriages are breaking up, men are losing contact with their children.That alone can make many suicidal.
PTSD, we have soldiers and former soldiers suffering from this from Northern Ireland in the severnties, the Falklands War and the Balkans as well as the two Iraq wars and Afghanistan.
Soldiers are not just asked to fight for their country not even just asked to die for it, they are asked to kill for it. Fine words saying that's what they are trained for but it's not that simple, I work with a man who was in Aden, he shot dead a young boy of about 8 or 9 deliberately.... because the boy had been given a hand granade with the pin and and told to walk towards the British soldiers, what would you have done in the few seconds you had to think? The soldiers don't just kill the 'baddie' soldiers they also kill civilians, not willingly or sometimes even knowingly but it's a hard thing to live with. Soldiers in the Balkans had to dig up the mass graves and dig out the bodys of women and children, one soldier I know came across a baby nailed to a tree. Hands up who's seen the photos from the Basra road in the first Gulf was, nice work eh? Trying living with doing that.
For me the political point is that we are over stretching our troops, asking too much of them and not caring for them when they get back. I don't know if this is the same for your troops.
From Tellner " mward has a point. The criminally negligent standard of care given to affected troops and the official denials of their problems do not exist in a vacuum. The circumstances of the war - no clear objective, no end in sight, a constantly changing mission and so on - are crucial parts of their situation. It is impossible to separate the parts when you are talking about the mental health of battle-weary warriors. "
This is certainly the case with our troops. At our next MMA show we are raising money for 3 Para Regt so they can buy their lads who lost legs decent replacements, we are proud to help but dear god these lads aren't charity cases the govenment who sent them out there should be providing for them. Elsewhere people are fund raising for a swimming pool for amputees to use as the local one is an hour away from the hospital and besides people using that one complained at the amputee soldiers using it. The government closed down the only military psychiatric hospital in the country and it certainly refuses to believe that Gulf War Syndrome could even possiblty exist.
Out in Afghanistan we've had stories coming back of soldiers without enough to eat and as with Iraq many stories of there not being enough equipment such as body armour. While the soldiers are away serving on the frontlines their families are living in substandard accomodation as is much of the single soldiers accomodation though there is some new building being down in that respect.
I think the soldiers are doing their best and getting little in return, many have doubts about their part in these wars but being loyal soldiers they put up and shut up but now too much is being asked of them.
