For the last few years, one of IAVA’s top priorities has been to stem the epidemic of suicide among service members and veterans. We see the epidemic reflected in the numbers the Army releases every month, but last month, the issue hit close to home—on March 31, IAVA Member Veteran Clay Hunt took his own life. Clay served two combat tours with the Marines and after his military service he became an international humanitarian and a tireless advocate for the next greatest generation of veterans. As IAVA mourns the loss of our friend, we are all the more committed to ensuring that we do everything we can as an organization and as a country to prevent more such tragedies.

Today, the Army released information about suspected and confirmed suicides in March and updated numbers from previous months. Among active duty service members, there were 7 suspected suicides with none confirmed in March. Among the non-activated reserve component, there were 11 suspected suicides with none confirmed. These numbers are almost the same as February’s numbers and still far too high.

While the Army and the other services track suicides, there is insufficient data on suicides among veterans. In a speech in January 2010, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki said that an average of eighteen veterans commit suicide each day, and only five of these eighteen are under VA care at the time. An article in the Army Times a few months later cited similar data from the VA and added that among veterans aged 18 to 29, those who sought help were less likely to commit suicide. Beyond this, very little is known about the current rate of suicide among veterans and no government agency is tracking and releasing data about suicides among the entire veteran population. To be able to fully address this issue, IAVA recommends in our 2011 Policy Agendathat the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention violent death database be expanded to all fifty states to better track the frequency of veteran suicides.

Clay’s untimely death reinforces for us that the suicide epidemic is an incredibly complex issue. Clay struggled with depression and PTSD, but according to his friends and family he faced these troubles head on. Many service members and veterans often do not seek help due to the associated stigma, but Clay defied that stigma and sought assistance. He sought treatment from the VA, moved closer to his family in Texas, and even advocated for veterans’ issues on Capitol Hill as part of IAVA’s Storm the Hill 2010. Clay did everything right, so it was a great shock when he took his life on March 31, 2011. If a veteran with Clay’s strength and self-awareness can do the unthinkable, then we must invest even more to ensure that others at risk get the help they need.

His passing is a huge loss to the IAVA family and to our entire nation. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time. Donations may be made in Clay's honor through Team Rubicon and Ride to Recovery.

To learn more about psychological and neurological injuries, please see the IAVA Issue Reports "Invisible Wounds: Psychological and Neurological Injuries Confront a New Generation of Veterans"and "Women Warriors: Supporting She 'Who Has Borne the Battle.”

TACOMA, Wash. -- Oregon National Guard soldiers returning from Iraq received poor treatment as they were processed through Madigan Army Medical Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, a military official said.

An investigation found failures, errors and deficiencies last May when the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team came home, Defense Undersecretary Clifford Stanley said in a letter Wednesday regarding the probe sought by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon.

National Guard members complained they were treated as second-rate soldiers, The News Tribune reported Friday. Slights included a slide in a training presentation that showed a trucker's cap with the words "Weekend Warrior" to represent reserve soldiers.

Such complaints triggered five separate investigations. Stanley declined to release all of those reports to Wyden, but pledged to answer specific questions.

"The training failures, benefits counseling errors, and systemic deficiencies that arose during the demobilization of the 41st IBCT were unacceptable," Stanley wrote. "We have learned many lessons as a result of these incidents, and the department is doing everything it can to ensure they do not happen again."

Wyden welcomed the letter as progress and is looking for more clear answers on whether reserve and National Guard soldiers are subjected to systemic discrimination in the military, said Tom Towslee, a spokesman for the senator.
"None of the information we received from the military suggests that they even looked into the problem," Towslee said. "You can't fix what you don't acknowledge."

The Army finished its investigations in October and has declined to disclose all of its findings. It has said the reports led to some improvements in how soldiers are processed through hospitals as they come home from deployments.
Memos obtained by The News Tribune through a Freedom of Information Act request shows the Army views the mistakes as part of a broader problem in how soldiers move through soldier readiness processing, or SRP, sites at hospitals when they return from combat.

"I am convinced many of the ... issues are systemic issues affecting SRP sites generally, which suffer from a lack of effective leadership, definitive training and guidance" involving the availability of treatment and benefits and other issues, wrote Maj. Gen. Philip Volpe, commander of the Western Regional Army Medical Command in an Oct. 5 memo.

Make no mistake, Mazin al-Nazeni hates Americans. Soldiers, diplomats, oilmen — the militant leader in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, considers all of them to be Enemy No. 1.

But U.S. diplomats in the southern port city say they're here to stay — even if it's at their peril.

It's a quandary for the Obama administration as the U.S. tries to move from invading power to normal diplomatic partner. But with the last American troops obligated to be gone by year's end, the protection of American diplomats will fall almost entirely to private contractors and Iraqi security forces.

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has raised fears that diplomats in Iraq won't be safe, and the dour pronouncements coming from al-Nazeni and others in his hard-line Sadrist movement are not encouraging.


"We want to leave Iraq to the Iraqis," he said in an interview last month. "We don't need diplomats. We don't need an ambassador. We don't need a consulate. We haven't seen the Americans do anything but make promises and falsehoods — nothing else."

And nine days ago, the movement's leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, made it even more explicit, in a statement read aloud to tens of thousands of supporters rallying in Baghdad:

"What if the U.S. forces and others stay in our beloved lands? What if their companies and embassy headquarters will continue to exist with the American flags hoisted on them? Will you be silent? Will you overlook this?"

The threat carries added weight because the Sadrists serve in the government of Nouri al-Maliki. Al-Maliki told The Associated Press in an interview this month that after the U.S. withdrawal, "all the regulations that govern diplomacy will be adopted." The militants have ramped up the rhetoric in apparent response to calls coming from Kurdish and other minorities for Americans troops to stay, and the Obama administration's wish to keep perhaps several thousand troops here beyond the deadline to preserve the country's fragile stability.