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Losing the last greatest battle: Why military-related suicide isn’t going away

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The suicide of Specialist Matthew Brown

According to The News Tribune, “A soldier with the 7th Infantry Division was found dead Thursday inside his Joint Base Lewis-McChord residence, the Army said. ‘It is with a heavy heart we send our condolences to the family and friends of Spc. Brown,’ said Maj. Gen. Willard Burleson III, the 7th Infantry Division commanding general.”

In his straightforward and well-researched book, “The Last and Greatest Battle: Finding the Will, Commitment, and Strategy to End Military Suicides,” author John Bateson identifies Joint Base Lewis McChord as a “problem base” in regard to the scourge of military service-related suicide, the signature tragedy of our now 17-plus years of ongoing war. A war that relies on a volunteer system of recruitment and the nation’s combined state National Guard. JBLM—or Fort Lewis as many of us who have been stationed there know it—is named after famed Pacific Northwest scout and explorer, Meriwether Lewis.

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Comments

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Here’s a sample of the comments on this post.

  • Mason

    Sir, you certainly live by your credo. Those you serve, are surely taken care of as if by family. Excellent article, to say I read it, and did not get angry would be a lie. However, it is the truth behind what so many are unaware of, or make no effort to understand. Thank you for taking the time to bring this to us.

  • Greg W

    Alan,
    Copy/Paste the article and send it to everyone you know, especially if you know someone in the Media.
    Getting the Truth out is the key.
    Thank you, Brother.

  • Alan t

    Greg,
    I just want you to know i read every word of your article.
    I just have no idea what to say or do for that matter

  • Max H

    Articles like these are a huge part of the reason I spend my hard-earned dollars on Newsrep, so thank you for your work here Greg. We need to make sure these people are not mere abstractions, but show that they are real people, with real families.
    I stand by my previous comment on a recent article on the same topic with one, albeit minor, clarification. When I said “these damn fools” on that article, I mean not only the official politicians, but all of these bureaucrats. They care for nothing but the “party” line and their own power. This is why you find so many piss-poor “leaders” at the higher levels in any organization: they have to toe that line, but appear to be innovative and address situations of some magnitude at the same time. Boat-rockers need not apply.
    I’d relish in sharing my own stories, but, in true Army fashion, I’d rather not have it be used by someone (eventually) to cite. There are some things I tell no one…