[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 16 (Thursday, January 31, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S528-S529]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             ARMY SUICIDES

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to talk about a 
subject that is very important to all of us. I listened to the Senator 
from Texas lamenting the fact that the war in Iraq has not been on the 
front pages of the paper recently.
  Well, I am here today to say: Actually, it has been. In fact, on the 
front page of the Washington Post today, an article, ``Soldier Suicides 
at Record Levels. Increase Linked to Long Wars, Lack of Army 
Resources.''
  We are hearing several news outlets today reporting on the front 
pages of papers and in headlines that suicides among our Active-Duty 
soldiers are at the highest rates since the Army began keeping records 
back in 1980.
  According to those reports, 121 soldiers took their own lives last 
year. That is nearly 20 percent more than in 2006. The number of 
attempted suicides and self-inflicted injuries has dramatically 
increased since the start of this Iraq war. Those findings are tragic.
  I know all our hearts go out to those families, their friends, and to 
the fellow soldiers of each one of those service men and women. Our 
great servicemembers who face deployment after deployment without the 
rest, recovery, and treatment they need are at the breaking point.
  Many of them have seen their best friends killed, they have seen 
other untold horrors. Yet we still are expecting them to head back to 
the battlefield to perform unaffected by what they have seen or gone 
through.
  While military suicide is back in the press today, those of us who 
travel across our States, who go home and talk to servicemembers and 
veterans who are struggling with mental health care, we know this is an 
issue, we know it all too well. We know that for family members who 
live through this tragedy, the pain stays long after those headlines 
fade.
  We owe it to our servicemembers and their families to be outraged 
when these numbers are going up and up and up and not down. We owe it 
to them to demand action. On Monday, in his State of the Union Address, 
the President called on us, Congress, to improve the system of care for 
our wounded warriors and help them build lives of hope and promise and 
dignity.
  Well, Congress has given the military hundreds of millions of dollars 
to improve its mental health care system. We have worked hard and 
pushed through legislation to require the military and the VA to 
destigmatize mental health treatment, to help increase the awareness of 
the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and do further reach on 
traumatic brain injury.
  But it takes more than money being thrown at the problem, it takes 
leadership and it takes a change in the culture of war. The President 
can make all the platitudes he wants, but as Commander in Chief, he 
needs to lead by example and show he understands what these never-
ending deployments are doing to our troops and to our veterans.
  While the Department of Defense has taken some action, today's report 
makes me deeply concerned that progress has not been made and that 
these programs have not been implemented throughout the system. Some of 
our soldiers are telling us all they get is a 1-800 number to call if 
they need help.
  Well, many soldiers need a real person to talk to. They need 
psychiatrists and they need psychologists who understand the horrors of 
war and the stresses these troops feel after serving their third or 
their fourth or even their fifth tour of duty in an urban theater.
  Too many of our troops today say they cannot even get the military to 
understand when they are crying out for help. As I said, the Washington 
Post reported this morning on the military suicides, with an update on 
Lieutenant Whiteside. The Post wrote about this case the first time in 
December. She is the 25-year-old medic, an Army medic who attempted 
suicide in theater. Then she was charged by her superiors with 
endangering another soldier.
  Now, I met with her father before the Senate Veterans' Affairs 
Committee when we were hearing the nomination of General Peake. 
Lieutenant Whiteside had experienced a mental breakdown from stress 
serving in Iraq and she suffered from ``demonstrably severe 
depression,'' according to her doctors.
  But the story revealed that medical opinion was brushed aside in her 
case and her superiors in the field said: ``Mental illness is an 
excuse.''
  Well, this past Monday, she was awaiting the Army's decision whether 
she was going to be court-martialed or not, and she swallowed dozens of 
pills in another suicide attempt. The Post reported today she left a 
note that explained: ``I am very disappointed in the Army.''
  According to this article, Lieutenant Whiteside is now in stable 
physical condition and the charges have finally been dismissed.

  But, unfortunately, she is not the only soldier who has struggled to 
get the Defense Department to understand the real trauma of military 
service. Her story and the statistics that are being reported today are 
a reflection of something many of my colleagues and I have said over 
and over: A prolonged war has stretched our military thin and is taking 
a tragic toll on the brave men and women who serve in our all-volunteer 
Army and military. They deserve more.
  Some members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have raised concerns that 
prolonged and repeated deployments are placing the overall health of 
our servicemembers at risk. David Rudd, who is the chairman of the 
Department of Psychology at Texas Tech University and a former Army 
psychologist, was quoted in this article this morning as saying the 
Army suicide rates pose:

       Real questions about whether you can have an Army this size 
     with multiple deployments.

  Over the past weeks, both the President and White House officials 
have hinted that a reduction of troops in Iraq is likely only 
temporary. As a result, I continue to be very concerned about the 
readiness of our military and our ability to sustain these wars in Iraq 
and Afghanistan.
  I think we need to ask the question: With the reality of today's 
reports and the knowledge that extended troop deployments are 
stretching our military readiness, I want to know, what is the 
Pentagon's plan to address and decrease the number of Army suicides and 
suicide attempts?
  This afternoon, I wrote a letter to Secretary Gates, and I asked him 
that question. I want to hear his response. We need to know that the 
change in culture is more than a talking point; we need to know and be 
assured our senior leaders in the military are ensuring that their 
words and programs are being executed out in the field.

[[Page S529]]

  Our troops are heroes who are sacrificing for this Nation. It is time 
for this Government to wake up and provide them with the care they 
need.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I wish to express my appreciation to one of 
the best soldiers we have ever had in the Senate, the Senator from 
Washington, Mrs. Murray. No one looks out for the troops more than she 
does. Her statement today is certainly reflective of a problem we have 
with suicide, which I know something about.

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