FORT SILL, Okla_Suicide is
hitting military service members and their families harder than ever but the Lawton-Fort
Sill community is swinging back at it. About 70 golfers teed off for a good
cause Monday at the Fort Sill Golf Course on Post. They were hitting the links
to help raise money for suicide prevention within the military and they hoped
to raise at least $4,000, every dime of which will go towards keeping our
heroes here with us.
Each year the
statistics become more troublesome. In 2010, there were 364 active duty member
suicides and as devastating as those numbers are, Fort Sill Chapter President
of Stop Soldier Suicide Chris Grates said veteran statistics are far worse. That
same year, there were 6,400 suicides within the veteran community.
Golfers took to
the course not with the intention of lowering their golf score but lowering the
number of service members who take their own lives. Grates calls it an
epidemic.
"In the
first 155 days of 2012, 154 service members, that's active duty service members
took their own life."
In July of this
year alone, there were 38 active duty suicides. That doubled the numbers from June.
"It's a
trend that's on the rise. It's showing no signs of tapering down."
In fact, Grates
said it could get worse.
"We're
finished with Iraq, as we draw down from Afghanistan, people are going to be
coming back, their going to be separating from the Army and they're going to
lose one of the major outlets they have which is the comradery within their
unit."
Often times
these untimely deaths are blamed on debt but Grates said each case is unique
and it's hard to put a finger on the cause.
"It seems
a common trend is people that are married or separated or divorced. Revenge can
be a factor, where they feel slighted by somebody. They don't really have an
answer anymore, their only way out."
Grates was at
the golf course today for all of his comrades who chose suicide and for one of
his uncles comrades.
"My uncle
who was a Medivac pilot in Vietnam,
his co-pilot, Captain John Harachmak killed himself shortly after returning
from Vietnam
in 1969. Both of them were awarded silver stars for their heroic actions saving
other soldiers lives."
His uncle's
experience helped him relay a message of hope to struggling soldiers.
"It's nice
to be able to take our combined experiences from our deployments and everything
that we've done and be able to relate to soldiers on a personal level."
If you or someone you know is active or retired military and is
struggling with thoughts of suicide, log onto stopsoldiersuicide.org.
