How many soldiers have to die at their own hand, despite their pleadings for help and warnings to others, before the military takes them seriously?
The New York Times Sunday did a Page One story on yet another apparent military suicide, in a story headlined “Several Warnings, Then a Soldier’s Lonely Death.” It is the story of Staff Sgt. David Senft, 27, who was found dead Nov. 15 with a single bullet wound to his head, sitting in an SUV parked at an American air base in Afghanistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/world/asia/02suicide.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
The Army characterized Senft’s death as resulting from “injuries sustained in a non-combat related incident,” according to The Times. The paper then went on to chronicle the tragedy of Senft’s case, and how the Army may have prevented his death.
First, the Army sent Senft to Afghanistan after he had tried to commit suicide twice at Fort Campbell, Ky. When he got to Afghanistan, Senft was having so many mental difficulties that the Army took away his weapon and made him get counseling. Senft killed himself with a weapon he stole from his roommate.
Senft’s father asks some pointed, and logical, questions about the Army and his son. Why did the Army deploy Senft to combat when he was suicidal? Why did the Army leave him there when he was obviously still having mental problems?
Senft had come from a troubled family life. And the horror of his his experience as crew chief for a Black Hawk helicopter during a tour in Iraq haunted him, according to The Times.
The Army told The Times that it is still investigating Senft’s death and how the Army handled his case. It’s too bad the military had not given his case that kind of scrutiny before he put a bullet in his brain.
