Some good news for a change!

Vet Suicide rate dips

It isn’t a final solution, but it is encouraging that the suicide rate for veterans dropped for 2020, down to about 17 a day in the most recent year for which data has been compiled. That is still a suicide rate roughly double that of our civilian brethren, but the decrease from 2018 (9.7%) is almost twice as high as that for civilians (5.5%) too.

In a statement, VA Secretary Denis McDonough expressed tempered optimism over the findings.

“This year’s report shows real progress, but there is still so much work to be done,” he said. “One veteran suicide is one too many, and VA will continue to work with our federal, state, local and private partners to tackle this problem and save veterans’ lives.”

About 16.8 veterans a day died by suicide in 2020, the first time that calculation has fallen below 17 a day since 2006. The figure has risen to as high as 18 a day in recent years.

When active-duty and reserve suicides are included in the totals, the estimate is about 20 suicides a day, a figure widely quoted in the military and veterans communities.

Military Times

Now, it’s nice that it dropped – but that is still a rate of about 31.7 per 100,000 vets, as opposed to about 16.1 per 100K in the never-served world. This is encouraging, not worth a final celebration. But, it’s nice to think it is headed in a better direction. Note there are other methodologies which estimate the rates as significantly higher, too, but you can’t compare figures derived two different ways and expect a valid result.

AF Extra duty pay is back

The Air Force announced a while back that it was cutting special duty assignment pay for airmen drawing said pay for particularly grueling or important jobs, to wit:

• Recruiters
• Basic Military Training instructors
• Human Intelligence debriefers
• Combat Controllers
• Pararescue operators
• Command chief master sergeants
• First sergeants
• Defense Attaché Office (DAO) liaisons
• Nuclear Enterprise airmen
• Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) agents
• Air Traffic Control (ATC) supervisors
• Postal and National Defense Advisory Commission (NDAC) enablers
• Tactical Air Command and Control Party (TACP) operators
• Enlisted pilots and weapons directors
• Parachute instructors and those with test parachute program
• Flight attendants
• Mission system specialists
• Load masters
• USAF Honor Guards
• Special Reconnaissance operators
• Phoenix Raven Security Forces defenders
• Forward Area Refueling Point enablers
• Flying crew chiefs
• Defense couriers
• Airmen who support various commands
• Enlisted airmen who work with special government agencies
• Public affairs airmen assigned to recruiting squadrons
• Air transportation airmen
• Airmen assigned to special classified Air Force projects

AF Times

Well, they have decided that, in these financially stressful times, that taking child-care or gas money  out of the mouths of folks already whipsawed by inflation and Covid was not a good idea. The Air Force has asked Congress to add the estimated $90 million cost back into the budget.  Military Times

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Air Force, Support the troops, Veteran Health Care, Veterans Issues