Synaptic Silence

Editorial for the Daily Astorian, published March 27, 2007

In 2004, I commended the courage of U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith for speaking openly about his son’s suicide and highlighting the serious problems facing the mentally ill.
As a mental health investigator who works daily with the most seriously mentally ill in our society, I was deeply moved by his willingness to take a public stand for something terribly painful and difficult for him and his family.

I’m writing now to challenge our state and federal legislators, including U.S. Rep. David Wu, to be equally courageous in confronting the tragedy of the war in Iraq.

I have earned the right to make such a challenge. Prior to my retirement in 1993, I was a chief master sergeant with a 21-year career in military intelligence as a foreign linguist, intelligence analyst and intelligence operations superintendent.

I loved the volunteer military. It gave me a career, maturity and education beyond anything I foresaw when I enlisted in 1972. But I honestly fear we’ve all but destroyed the soul of the volunteer force in which I was so honored to serve.

We are rapidly approaching a tipping point where those remaining in the military will be the ones who have to serve to maintain their families and gain an opportunity to improve themselves, rather than those who serve because they are willing to stand the line for the rest of their countrymen. My friends who are still in the military tell me that the best and the brightest are leaving the forces at the first opportunity – not because they’ve lost their sense of duty to this country, but because they don’t believe the rest of the country truly shares in their sacrifice.

It isn’t hard to understand. We pay no additional taxes and don’t volunteer our time. Instead, we yell “bring ‘em on,” and think that a yellow ribbon on the trunk of our car is all it takes to prove we have their backs.

Well before my article about Garrett Smith’s suicide, and before our actual invasion of Iraq, I argued that that our volunteer force has been translated by our lack of personal involvement and investment into a tacit foreign legion. I think time has only proven the basic truth in that argument. The only difference is that, rather than recruiting from abroad, we recruit from the sectors of our own society where the military may be the only opportunity for a new life. Freed from any personal risk by their willingness to fight in our stead, we can send them off to war assured that our lives and the lives of our children won’t be disturbed in any way at all.

I was impressed with Sen. Smith’s willingness to open himself up to the country about a personal crisis in an effort to help others understand the hidden epidemic of depression and suicide. I believe Sen. Smith, Rep. Wu, and all our legislators must be just as courageous now.

They must lead the country to do the right thing to resolve this hidden crisis faced by our military men and women – to move America to truly share in their sacrifice, to cease funding an illegal and immoral war, and to bring our service members home immediately to the honor and homage they deserve.

The clock is at the hour where decisive action is necessary to save the best military the world has ever seen.