November 9, 2009
Updated list of Fort Hood posts
Army Chief of Staff General Casey is doing his bit for political correctness sake. As if it’s not perfectly obvious why that cowardly murderer shot people in the back.
State of the Union with John King.
King starts with the “wartime stress” excuse even though the murderer had not seen any combat.
Want war time stress?
What about the 1 in 3 female soldiers who are getting raped in Afghanistan and Iraq? Are any of them go on a shooting rampage? Being raped with nowhere to go and only a male doctor to be examined by is stressful. Getting called names, having a bumpersticker damaged or your car keyed is not.
News1News
Did the coward act alone?
GEN CASEY:
Well, John, obviously, as you know, there’s an ongoing investigation, and I can’t speak to the particulars of the investigation or to any motivation of Major Hasan’s. But I can tell you, I was at Ft. Hood with the secretary of the Army, John McHugh, on Friday, and it was at once a gut-wrenching and an uplifting experience. Gut-wrenching because the suspect is one of our own and it happened on one of our bases, and uplifting from the stories that I heard of our soldiers rushing to the aid of one another. But it’s a kick in the gut.
King mentions that people who knew the murderer weren’t stunned to learn the coward decided to shoot people in the back rather than fulfill his contract.
GEN CASEY:
And again, that will be all part of the investigation, and we are encouraging soldiers and leaders who may have information relevant to the information about the suspect to provide that information to the criminal investigation division and to the FBI. But again, that’s something — you know, there’s been a lot of speculation going on, and probably the curiosity is a good thing.
But we have to be careful. Because we can’t jump to conclusions now based on little snippets of information that come out. And frankly, I am worried — not worried, but I’m concerned that this increased speculation could cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers. And I’ve asked our Army leaders to be on the lookout for that.
It would be a shame — as great a tragedy as this was, it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well.
KING:
3,000 Muslim active Guard and reserves. Do you believe there is discrimination against them to some degree now?
GEN CASEY:
No, I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I worry that, again, the speculation could cause things that we don’t want to see happen.
Speculation? How long is he going to play this game?
Should somebody who was known to oppose the wars be counseling soldiers with PTSD?
GEN CASEY:
I think it’s a fair question. It’s one that we certainly as an Army want to know the answer to, and we will take a hard look at ourselves to make sure that we properly executed our responsibility to organize and train the Army. But again, way too soon to get in there and form any hard judgments about that.
Any record the cowardly murderer wanted out?
GEN CASEY:
Again, I can’t get into anything dealing with the motivations of the suspect. And that will all come out in the course of the investigation.
I can tell you that we have put a huge effort into the mental fitness of this force over the last several years. You know, since 2007, we have mounted a major stigma reduction campaign that has greatly reduced the stigma to coming forward, to get help for mental problems. We have a way to go. But what I’ll tell you, the stigma against mental health is not necessarily just for the Army. This is a societal problem that we all have to wrestle with.
What is the Army doing to provide mental health care?
GEN CASEY:
No, certainly not more studies. We have hired over — just in the last two years, over 900 more medical health providers. The tricare regions have hired over 2,800 providers. We’ve instituted a program with the Department of Defense called military family life consultants, where we get certified behavioral health specialists and resurge them towards the returning brigades. It is a challenge, across the country, in the number of mental health providers that are available, particularly in rural areas. And it’s something that we all need to work together.
Army: 408 psychiatrists for 545,000 people. And the murderer aimed at and killed other mental health workers.
GEN CASEY:
But I mean, psychiatrists aren’t the only providers here. There’s a range of different providers here in behavioral health specialists. And again, we continue to grow and build a number of providers for our soldiers and family members. And I think that we ought not forget about that. It’s not just about the soldiers, it’s about the family members and it’s about the children who are affected by this.
Female officer took the beast down – why not women in combat?
GEN CASEY:
Yes. And I don’t think there’s any question that women have played a much more active role in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. I mean, there is no front and rear lines in the type of combat that we’re fighting today. And frankly, if you look at the number of the victims, both killed and wounded, there were a good number of female soldiers who were part of that processing. They were headed off to combat.
What would you ask the coward?
GEN CASEY:
You know, someone asked me that the other day. And I said the same thing. I can’t go there right now. We have to let the investigation take its course.
Can’t go there because of the investigation or your own emotions?
GEN CASEY:
No, can’t go there because of the investigation. And anything I might say as the leader of the Army could hinder that investigation or prosecution down the road.
Prosecuted in the military or civilian system?
GEN CASEY:
That is something that is being actively worked between the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice.
Is the Army going to have to provide him a lawyer? Send him to Gitmo.
KING: 188,000 troops currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 750,000 members of the service have been deployed at least twice in the past eight years. Up to 11% of Afghanistan veterans and 20% of Iraq veterans experienced PTSD.
GEN CASEY:
Right now, there is no operational impact of this particular incident. That may change over time as we look at the specific impact on some of the units that we’re scheduled to deploy. But broadly, across the Army, this will not have an impact on our ability to provide trained and ready forces to Iraq and Afghanistan.
We need to continue to make progress toward that goal of one year out, two years back for the active force; one year out, four years back for the Guard and reserve. We have scientific studies that we’ve just completed that shows that after a year in combat, it takes you about two years to get stress levels back to normal garrison levels. And so we need to continue to make progress towards that goal.
Army suicide: 2004 = 67. 2005 = 87. 2008 = 140. 2009 = 117. 35% soldiers who have not yet deployed.
GEN CASEY:
What it tells you is that predicting human behavior remains very, very difficult. I mean, as you saw in your chart, since 2004, we’ve increased our suicides by an average of about 18 a year. Last year, we exceeded the civilian rate. Unfortunately, the progression will remain about the same this year. We’ll exceed the number of suicides last year.
We’ve had a very aggressive program to get after this, to include a suicide stand-down across the entire Army. One of the things as we looked at the challenges facing the Army was that we felt we were a little light on the preventative measures, in giving soldiers the skills that they need to prevent mental problems and suicides.
And so we instituted in October a program called comprehensive soldier fitness, which is a long-term development program designed to build resilience in our soldiers. And it’s already implemented across the force. Tomorrow, we’ll have 150 sergeants and a few family members up at University of Pennsylvania going through the first court to build master resilience trainers. And our goal is by next year to have one of these trainers in every battalion in the Army. So we’re looking at it both from the preventative side and from the assistance and treatment side.
How do you think you are doing?
GEN CASEY:
We have to go back and look at ourselves and ask ourselves the hard questions. Are we doing the right things? But, again, we’ll learn from this incident. It’s way too early to draw any kind of specific conclusions from it, but we’ll ask ourselves the hard questions about what we’re doing and about what impact — what changes we should make as a result of this incident at Ft. Hood.
KING:
What is the message you need to hear from the commander in chief at this moment?
GEN CASEY:
I think the message the commander in chief will come out with is the same message that he came out with in his Saturday radio address. That as horrific as this incident was and what it showed about the bad side of human nature, the reaction of our soldiers is something to be extremely proud of. And the full — and I think he’ll also let them know, let the people know that the full support of the United States is behind them.
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