'Stop-Loss' Leads to Yet Another Soldier Suicide

"I'm not going back to Iraq," Army Sgt. Benjamin Miller, 24, told friends back home in Minnesota. And, indeed, he is not. Three days ago, he was buried, having committed suicide while home on leave. He had been scheduled to get out of the service in January but was "stop-lossed."

For several years, I have covered the suicides of U.S. military personnel in Iraq or when they returned home. Now it has become an epidemic.

In most cases, the news only emerges because a local reporter gets on the case. It happened again this week, with the reporter this time Elizabeth Mohr of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

"It just came out of left field," Miller's sister, Kate Nalipinski, told Mohr. "Ben was so happy-go-lucky that something like this was so out of character for him."

Mohr observed, "Family members say he seemed frustrated and detached. He spoke of cleaning up the carnage of suicide bombings and the unmistakable smell of death."

Miller had enlisted in 2005 and served a 12-month tour in Iraq. The military sent him there again in 2007. And kept him there for 2008, after a stop-loss ruling. By March, Miller's personality began to change. "It started to weigh on his mind that he wasn't supposed to be there," Nalipinski said.

Later he came home for an 18-day leave. An excerpt from the Mohr article follows.

"He had lost about 30 or 35 pounds," Jerry Miller said. "He didn't look the same. He couldn't eat. He said, 'It's just so hard out there, Dad. It smells like death.' "

On June 18, Ben Miller went to a baseball game with friends. Later that night, "he just snapped," said his girlfriend, Megan Henk.

Miller got a taxi and headed to Nalipinski's home in Roseville, where he was staying. He had a gun hidden in the house. Miller's younger brother called Nalipinski to warn her something was wrong.

When Miller arrived, he was hysterical, Nalipinski said. He wouldn't look at her or speak to her.
He grabbed a bullet from his room and ran out of the house.

Nalipinski called the police, but officers arrived too late....Nalipinski said her brother might have been too proud to ask for help or tell anyone what he was going through.

"I think he was afraid because he wouldn't want his soldiers to know that he was losing it. Because if he was losing it, how should they feel?" Nalipinski said.
*
Greg Mitchell's new book includes several chapters on soldier/vet suicides. It is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. He is editor of Editor & Publisher.

Comments

[wadenelson1]

Jesus, if any other young soldiers are reading this, DONT SHOOT YOURSELF. Just go AWOL. Life will go on even after your court martial. And twenty years from now you'll realize it was the EXACT RIGHT DECISION to make no matter how much it SEEMED cost you. You and your LIFE is valuable to ALL of us. Enormously valuable.

[MissingAmerica]

These are the most tragic of all, those choosing to die at home rather than in Iraq. How can Bush possibly feel this war is justified when our troops are asked to do so much for so little, and with a cause that is clear only to Bush and his sickos -- oil rights! God bless this young man, and peace and love to his family. They raised a good son of whom they can be very proud. The same cannot be said for George H.W. Bush and Barbara. They should be totally ashamed of this self-serving brat they raised to become a self-serving tyrant.

[OlongapoEd]

B. isn't dying. None of his friends are dying. His cronies are doing quite well. That is obviously all he needs to justify his war.

[Ohioan4truth]

This war, if you could call it that, has not been a burden on the average American as all others we have fought since the great task has been laid on the shoulders of a few. Multiple tours and inadequate compensation paid to our soldiers for their service. Criminal attitude of the Militarys' action toward the injured servicemen upon their return. All this adds up to why Mr. Bush should be held accountable for his inability to comprehend the situation he created. All because his 'Daddy's' face was a mosaic in the floor of the Bagdad Hilton and the one million dollar bounty Saddam had on GHW Bush's head! Buck Fush!

[rachaelis4]

So very,very sad. I can't imagine what this young man's family is feeling--Heartbreaking.
I have a brother-in-law who was set to retire (so he thought) 2 years ago after serving 20 years in the Army.
He's now on his FOURTH tour (and 22 years in the Army) in Iraq-- And was told that he will be told when he can retire!?
I hate hearing about how these soldiers are suffering with very real anxiety and depression and they're sent out again and again. Even if they don't speak aloud about their fears, doesn't common sense dictate that being sent there 3,4and 5 times is too much? The military can be so damn callous that it's appalling.

[trinity]

I hear the conservatives on a military site I frequent basically say "well they knew what they were getting into when they signed up". Of course I disagree...my contract and military ID specifically stated when my enlistment expired. I understand maybe stop-lossing once in the case of national emergency (ex: 9/11). But the Army is using it as a forced retention tool because they cannot reach their recruitment/normal retention goals. Soldiers in WW2 never spent this much time in the combat zone...then again we had a draft. Nowadays, they use stop loss and force members of other branches such as the Navy to serve in Army rolls. Many of my fellow shipmates were being sent to mini Army school to learn to be a soldier and then sent to Iraq. To say the least, I got out after 14 years and most of my friends who could retire, did ASAP.

[phughez]

We're getting less coverage on the Iraq War these days, but we're only allowed to see a sanitized version of things any way. The soldier's hellish experience and the satin gloved culture of neo-con ideologues in and around Washington have been functioning in two completely different universes.

[artzilla]

It is truly a sad thing. Most unnecessary. I don't understand the reasoning to this stupid stop loss crap. If Bush is so damned worried about the number of military men and women, why not just reinstate the draft? It appears we are going to be in, not only Iraq and Afghanistan for a long long time to come but if they have their way we will also be at war with Iran very soon. In my humble opinion it seems as though they really care not for our young men and women dieing, but only in the Money that can be made on their Blood. It's a Corporate war. It has a lot to do with Oil. And also having another base in the Middle East. It's about Control. They want to run the world. Democracy by defeat. Do you really think the people of Iraq want us there? No they don't!!! My son is a 3 time Iraq war vet. He was in the Marines. I am a Viet Nam Era vet. If anyone should have a say about what is Truly going on it should be the Vets themselves. As they have seen this shit first hand.
Has anyone seen the movie..."Stop Loss?" does anyone want to get involved and do something about this nonsense?
Check out this websight....http://ivaw.org/
Or http://www.vvaw.org/

[Liberoservative]

We ARE involved... we are voting for Obama and just about any other Democrat we can find who is running for office who is running on Obama's platform.... I am active duty and I have seen the damage first hand....

[mamacat]

I think that suicides are an inevitable consequence of warfare, so, one more reason why wars of choice should definitely be avoided.

I will always remember the suicides at one of the bases I was at during the Vietnam War. We heard about them through the grapevine. There was absolutely nothing reported, in the press, about any of the ones that I remember, but they happened. There was no stop-loss program back then. Whatever the reasons, whatever the causes, they happened. We like to think of war in terms of John (the draft dodger) Wayne movies, but the experience has no more relationship to one of his movies than to the man on the moon.
I cannot prove it, but I believe that it tends to be the very best among us who suffer the most from their war-time experiences. Bless them all.

[levibatgirl]

How very sad. This could have been anyone's son stuck in bush's occupation without planning but just making it up as we go along. Deployment over and over for our young people until they break.

And mccain says it 'isn't important' when we get our troops home.

[tel8034]

Statistics on these suicides as well as the numbers of service men and women who were maimed in battle should ALSO be publicized, in addition to the satistics we receive about the front-line casualties in Iraq.

We know of the 4000 + American deaths in Iraq, but we are kept in the dark on the number of armed forces who have come home maimed, or who have committed suicide because of PTSD or because they prefer to die rather than return for yet another tour of duty.

Once ALL of these astounding facts are known, the SMALL percentage of Americans who STILL believe in this war, should finally once and for all, realize how devastating and unnecessary this war has been, and the actual toll that it has taken on the enlisted men and women and their families.

It breaks my heart to think that McCain wants this insanity to continue for another 100 years ---- WHEN WILL WE WAKE UP FROM THIS NIGHTMARE? HOW MANY MORE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN MUST WE LOSE BEFORE SOMEONE COMES TO THEIR SENSES AND STOPS THIS UNNECESSARY WAR ...... WIN, LOSE OR DRAW?

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Miller family in this their time of grief ......... This story brought tears to my eyes.

[TekBoss]

Can we PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE end this stop-loss crap and get these soldiers the help they ALL (whteher they think they do or not) need?

PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

And if we need more soldiers then stop pussy footing around and start the draft back up. What is more important? America and Americans, or the survival of a political party?

[marinade]

This makes me angry. I want to scream.

THIS is exactly why the Bush administration must be held accountable, on FISA, on EVERYTHING!

[jfor]

Suicide is a tragedy that has touched millions of Americans. All the things that divide us as a nation do not affect suicide, in fact it is one of the things that unites us as human beings. The aftermath for those who are left behind is terrible, pain, grief, guilt, anger, confusion and many more emotions all come bubbling to the surface in order to try and make sense of a loss that is unfathomable to understand. This man gave everything to this Country and in return he was not rewarded for a job well done but rather held against his will because of poor planning by the powers that be.

George W. Bush asked us to sacrifice for this war by going to the mall and shopping. However the real sacrifice is the horrific stories like this that show how a President who does not think, plan, think, plan and then think some more before committing anyone's child to a war with no end will only end in tragedy for those the President orders affect the most. President Bush failed this young man, his comrades in arms and the American people by rushing into this war and lying non-stop for the justification of it's continuation.

[ImmanuelKant]

It is terrible. They serve and can't find their way home.

[floydSmoot]

I find it troubling that icasualties.org stopped posting deaths by self-inflicted wounds.

Pressure from the Pentagon? Or did the Pentagon just stop releasing the numbers?

The last number posted was 141.

[hopeless277]

Dying here so they don't have to die over there. Another proud Bush policy produces results.