Fort Hood’s leaders have tried nearly everything to stop the suicides. There are support groups and hotlines, counseling sessions and Reiki healing therapies, and strict assessment guidelines for commanders.
But the soldiers keep killing themselves.
This past weekend, four more were dead at the Texas post, all of them decorated veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, three of them officers, two of them fathers of young children.
The first was last Friday, and all four appear to have shot themselves, according to preliminary reports.
Their deaths, which did not appear to be related, came within a few days of a visit from the Army’s vice chief of staff, who reiterated his urgent plea for hurting soldiers to seek help.
“Every one of these is tragic,” said Maj. Gen. William Grimsley, who commands Fort Hood, the nation’s largest Army post. “It’s personally and professionally frustrating as a leader.”
“It came out of nowhere,” said Spec. Dana Blomquist, 23, whose former squad leader, Sgt. Timothy Ryan Rinella, 29, was found dead Saturday in nearby Copperas Cove. “He always had a smile on his face. He cared for so much for his soldiers and people that weren’t even his soldiers. There are so many people who are feeling guilty, but he never really showed any of the normal signs of people needing help.”
The rate of suicide among the nation’s soldiers now eclipses that in the civilian world. The rate at Fort Hood, where 14 suicides already are confirmed this year and six other deaths are under investigation, is nearly four times that of the civilian population.
Grimsley said he saw no indication that the increase in suicides is related to November’s mass shooting, when an Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire inside the post and killed 13 people.
A thick Army report two months ago on the crisis points to several causes, including troops being so busy fighting two wars in 10 years that they don’t take time to focus on their mental health and a rise in crime and substance abuse.
The Army has concerns that the force is becoming “increasingly dependent on both legal and illegal drugs,” according to the report.
The skills that keep soldiers alive in war make them dysfunctional in civil society. So the suicides are no longer shocking.
But the quartet in one weekend rocked Fort Hood.
