Blood From a Stone
Posted on | February 13, 2009
Endless war takes an incredible toll not only on its innocent victims and front-line combatants, but also on the military recruiters charged with maintaining a constant supply of new enlistees. The Houston Chronicle has the story of what happens when the Pentagon’s expectations don’t reflect reality.
Staff Sgt. Daren Stewart remembers driving down a rural road in Arkansas and thinking how easy it would be to jerk the wheel and flip his car into a ditch.
The 27-year-old Iraq war veteran says he wasn’t suicidal. He just figured that injuring himself was the only way he could get any time off from his job as an Army recruiter.
“I would rather spend three years straight in Iraq, without coming home, without a break, than ever be a recruiter again,” said Stewart, who recruited in Hot Springs, Ark., from 2005 to 2008.
Five-hundred miles away in Houston, the suicides of four Army recruiters from a single battalion have focused lawmakers and veterans advocates on the enormous stress endured by soldiers tasked with refilling the ranks of the all-volunteer military during wartime.
In response to the deaths, the Army will suspend all recruiting nationwide Friday to focus on leadership training, suicide prevention and the health of its 8,900 recruiters. The Army Inspector General also is examining working conditions throughout U.S. Army Recruiting Command.
This is what we do to our troops and their families when we allow them to be used by corrupt leaders, and when our Congress keeps funding futile operations just because.
