Suicides of Army recruiters examined
http://www.mysanantonio.com/military/29849834.html
09/28/2008
Lindsay Wise - Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON An alarming number of suicides among Army recruiters based
here including two in recent weeks has prompted calls by
legislators and military advocates for closer scrutiny of high-stress
recruiting duty during wartime.
Staff Sgt. Larry G. Flores, 26, and Sgt. First Class Patrick G.
Henderson, 35, are the fourth and fifth recruiters at the Houston
Recruiting Battalion to kill themselves since 2001. Both men belonged
to the battalion's Tyler Company, and both were combat veterans who
served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Clearly there's a problem," said David Rudd, a former Army
psychologist and psychology chairman at Texas Tech University.
"Somebody needs to look and see if there's a broader national problem
outside of this one battalion. Is it a problem placing these combat
veterans in recruiting positions?"
After inquiries by the Houston Chronicle on the suicides, U.S. Sen.
John Cornyn of Texas sent a letter Thursday to the secretary of the
Army, asking for a briefing on an ongoing investigation and on the
policy of returning soldiers from combat and reassigning them to a
recruiting office.
"I am very concerned about this apparent trend within the
Houston-based recruiting battalion, and I believe the situation
requires your leadership and oversight to ensure the proper actions
are taken and safeguards put in place to protect our troops," Cornyn wrote.
Also Thursday, U.S. Recruiting Command at Fort Knox in Kentucky
announced that it is "deeply concerned" and will deploy a critical
response team to the battalion.
Houston has one of the top recruiting battalions in the nation. But
with America's all-volunteer force straining to meet the manpower
requirements of fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the difficulty
of meeting monthly quotas called "making mission" is taking its
toll on recruiters and their families, say mental health specialists
and veterans advocates.
The suicides in the Houston battalion are a "very loud, very bright
alarm" that Army officials and politicians can't afford to ignore,
said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense.
'Pressure from the top'
Recruiting has long been considered one of the toughest jobs in the
military. Recruiters from the Houston battalion who spoke to the
Chronicle said they regularly work 12- to 14-hour days, six or seven
days a week. The pressure to sign at least two fresh "prospects" a
month is immense.
Recruiters who were hand-picked from the ranks find themselves
suddenly playing the unfamiliar role of salesman. If they don't "make
mission," they're punished with even longer duty hours and threatened
with losing rank or receiving bad evaluations that could label them
as failures.
"You dread waking up and going to work," said Chris Rodriguez, a
Houston battalion recruiter in 2005 and 2006. "You'll have no life,
you'll never see your family. It's worse than a deployment because
you're there with your family but you can't spend any time with them."
Rodriguez, 25, used to have nightmares about recruiting after he left
the battalion to serve in Iraq. In March, his friend and fellow Army
recruiter, 25-year-old Nils Aron Andersson, shot himself to death in
a downtown Houston parking garage.
"You've heard that recruiters are kind of insensitive to their
recruits and tell them anything, but that pressure comes down all the
way from the top," Rodriguez said. "It'll change your personality."
Seeking mental health treatment is difficult because even if
recruiters get over the stigma they have little free time or access
to doctors and therapists.
Recruiters said they're proud of their Army service but feel trapped
by what they describe as the Houston battalion leadership's lack of compassion.
"The situation you're placed in, the expectations you are given, are
lose-lose," said Staff Sgt. Jonathan L. Heinrich, a recruiter with
the battalion's Tyler Company. "You can talk to as many people as you
want to, but if people don't want to join the Army, there's nothing
you can do."
The battalion's Lt. Col. Toimu "Troy" Reeves and Command Sgt. Maj.
Cheryl M. Broussard declined requests for interviews.
Troubled in East Texas
Flores, the deceased recruiter, headed up the Tyler company's
Nacogdoches recruiting station.
On Aug. 2, he was called to Houston to attend "low-production
training" at 10:30 a.m. with other station commanders having trouble
making mission.
The recruiters were told they'd go before a panel of their superiors
to defend the work ethic at their stations.
It was 6 p.m. before Flores went inside to take his turn.
From the other side of the door, Sgt. First Class Willie Dawson, 40,
could hear voices rising and muffled shouting. When Flores came out
of the room, his face was beet red, Dawson said.
Dawson, commander of Tyler Company's Jacksonville station, asked
Flores what happened.
"He just shook his head and said, 'I can't talk,'" Dawson recalled.
Later, Flores called fellow recruiter Heinrich, who also was his friend.
"The way he told me it went down is, the sergeant major kept
pressuring him to say he's a failure and that he wanted to quit so it
would make it easier for her to get rid of him from recruiting
altogether or even out of the Army, basically chaptering him out of
the Army," Heinrich recalled.
Flores had more than work stress to confront. His wife, Jennifer
Flores, later told police she'd planned to leave her husband. The
couple's marriage was deteriorating under the strain of Flores' long
hours and other job-related problems, she said.
Flores was found dead in his garage in Palestine on Aug. 9. He had
hung himself with an extension cord.
Two weeks after Flores' death, police were called to fellow recruiter
Henderson's home because he was acting delusional and threatening suicide.
"He was basically having a meltdown," said Lt. Craig Sweeney of the
Henderson Police Department. "He was seeing some Iraqis in the woods
near his house."
Henderson was posted in Tyler Company's Longview station. His wife,
Staff Sgt. Amanda Henderson, worked as a recruiter under Flores at
the Nacogdoches station.
After his breakdown, Henderson was diagnosed with post traumatic
stress disorder, police said. He was removed from recruiting duty and
ordered to report to the Tyler Company headquarters until reassignment.
On Sept. 19, Henderson and his wife apparently argued, police said.
The next morning, his stepson found him dead in the shed behind his
house. Like Flores, he had hung himself.
Their deaths come at a time when suicides among all active-duty
soldiers are on track to set a record for the second year in a row.
Last year, 115 soldiers committed suicide. By the end of August this
year, 93 had killed themselves.
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Army recruiter suicides in Houston worry advocates
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6025346.html
Sept. 26, 2008
HOUSTON Five Army recruiters from the same Houston-based battalion
have committed suicide in recent years, leading veteran advocate
groups to ask for more scrutiny of such stressful jobs during wartime.
The August suicides of Staff Sgt. Larry G. Flores Jr., 26, and Sgt.
1st Class Patrick G. Henderson, 35, occurred as suicides among active
duty personnel are expected to set a record for the second year in a
row. The Houston Chronicle reported Friday that 93 soldiers had
killed themselves by the end of August. In 2007, 115 soldiers
committed suicide.
The Houston battalion's suicides are a "very loud, very bright alarm"
that Army officials and politicians shouldn't ignore, said Paul
Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense.
"This may warrant changes in ... how the military addresses mental
health needs for returning combat veterans placed in stressful
noncombat jobs," he said.
The Houston Recruiting Battalion's Lt. Col. Toimu "Troy" Reeves and
Command Sgt. Major Cheryl M. Broussard declined the newspaper's
request for interviews. Neither Reeves nor Broussard replied to
e-mail requests by the AP for comment. But a spokesman for the U.S.
Army Recruiting Battalion Houston said all commanders train their
military and civilian personnel on suicide prevention each year.
The U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox issued a statement
saying it will deploy a chaplain, psychologist and equal opportunity
adviser to the battalion in October. It also plans to establish a
suicide prevention board.
"The United States Army Recruiting Command is deeply concerned by the
instances of suicide within the Houston Recruiting Battalion," the
statement read.
Recruiting is considered a tough job in the military. Recruiters face
pressure to sign at least two "prospects" a month, which is more
difficult during war. If they don't "make mission," recruiters can be
punished with longer duty hours and threatened with losing rank or
receiving bad evaluations, veterans advocates said.
"The situation you're placed in, the expectations you are given, are
lose-lose," said Staff Sgt. Jonathan L. Heinrich, a recruiter with
the battalion's Tyler Company. "You can talk to as many people as you
want to, but if people don't want to join the Army, there's nothing
you can do."
Many recruiters from the Houston battalion said they regularly work
12- to 14-hour days, six or seven days a week, and have long commutes
to small stations far from a military base.
In the latest suicides, the recruiters died six weeks apart. Flores
was found hanging in his garage in Palestine on Aug. 9. Flores had
led the Tyler company's Nacogdoches recruiting station and served in
Afghanistan and Iraq.
Two weeks later, police were called to Henderson's home in an East
Texas town also named Henderson. The Iraq veteran, who was posted in
Tyler Company's Longview station, was threatening suicide in what
police described as a "meltdown." He and his wife apparently argued
Sept. 19, and the next morning, his stepson found him hanging in the
shed behind his house.
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