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I think the article got it close that it's really to do with being: Male, Young, White. When I was with the firm, we had a spate of suicides on base over a sho

I think the article got it close that it's really to do with being: Male, Young, White. When I was with the firm, we had a spate of suicides on base over a short period of time. Enough for 'management' to implement an in-loco parentis type arrangement for the young, single servicemen (and women) who were housed on base in barracks. It meant great adventure trips away - and did help give some sort of support network for those posted away from families. A better option than just drinking in the bar, at least. There are help options available (career suicide or not), but if you're depressed/suicidal, it's actually quite difficult to reach out to those options. In a well-run workplace environment, I found the Sergeants (and up) to be both a wealth of knowledge/experience and most were quite actively involved in taking care of the well-being of us young skins.

sandworm101 10y ago
Ive seen similar attempts to compensate, to de-toxify a base by adding on new activities. Im not a fan. It is the easy solution. The harder option is to dig out the issues. Debt. Count the number of payday loan places and casinos near the base. Drugs and alcohol. Count the bars. Then turn to the attitudes of team leaders. Petty insults to subordinates might be part of military culture, but that doesnt mean it has to remain so. The little things add up. Improvement in these areas takes real effort, far more so than a weekly bus trip. It requires commanders to act a bit like parents, something they used to do but these days do not. My gandfather used to speak of "hats off" activities on the base he ran. Rank had no place during such things. He said he learned more about his people at the weekly "hats off" card game than he ever did while on duty. Those sort of back channels, without any risk of getting something on someone's record, are imho missing from base culture today. But to maintain such things you need stability of leadership. Today people move around so fast that commanders have trouble even keeping track of names.

sandworm101 10y ago

Ive seen similar attempts to compensate, to de-toxify a base by adding on new activities. Im not a fan. It is the easy solution. The harder option is to dig out the issues. Debt. Count the number of payday loan places and casinos near the base. Drugs and alcohol. Count the bars. Then turn to the attitudes of team leaders. Petty insults to subordinates might be part of military culture, but that doesnt mean it has to remain so. The little things add up. Improvement in these areas takes real effort, far more so than a weekly bus trip. It requires commanders to act a bit like parents, something they used to do but these days do not. My gandfather used to speak of "hats off" activities on the base he ran. Rank had no place during such things. He said he learned more about his people at the weekly "hats off" card game than he ever did while on duty. Those sort of back channels, without any risk of getting something on someone's record, are imho missing from base culture today. But to maintain such things you need stability of leadership. Today people move around so fast that commanders have trouble even keeping track of names.