Saturday, June 19, 2010

ABC Seems To Believe Removing A Firing Pin Is A Giant Achievement

While hundreds of thousands of americans are turned into self loathing nazis.

A Victory as Army Mounts Anti-Suicide Campaign

"Army Spc. Joseph Sanders was despondent over the breakup of his marriage and feeling alone in the oppressive heat of an Iraqi summer when he turned his rifle on himself and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened. His buddy, Spc. Albert Godding, had disabled the rifle by removing the firing pin after Sanders told him he was thinking of killing himself.
It was a singular but welcome victory in the Army's battle against suicides, which last year claimed the lives of 163 soldiers on active duty and 82 Guard and Reserve soldiers not on active duty.
Congress ordered the Defense Department in 2008 to study ways to address the problem, and the Army started its own task force last year after an alarming spike in suicides in January and February.
The Army also launched a campaign to teach soldiers how to spot suicide warning signs and what to do about them. Godding credits that training for making him aware of the danger Sanders was in.
"I just reacted like a battle drill," Godding said. "Like muscle memory, you know?"

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Cost of the War in Iraq
(JavaScript Error)
To see more details, click here.