WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. Army is establishing a suicide prevention board to examine the mental health of its recruiters around the country after the fourth suicide in three years by Houston, Texas-based recruiters, according to Army officials.

The Army Recruiting Command is examining recruiters all over the country for job-related and combat-related stress.

The board will look at how to handle the high-stress climate facing recruiters who may be both under pressure from their job and victims of post-combat deployment stress, according to Douglas Smith, a spokesman from the U.S. Army Recruiting command.

“The United States Army Recruiting Command is deeply concerned by the instances of suicide within the Houston Recruiting Battalion,” said a statement released by the Recruiting Command. “The board’s objective will be to prevent future suicides, increase suicide awareness, analyze trends and highlight additional tools and resources to combat suicide within the Recruiting Command.”

The Army’s examination comes after a sergeant first class, a member of the Houston Recruiting Battalion and an Iraq combat veteran, killed himself at his home earlier this month.

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Jerry Hogan – Columnist
Rockwall County Herald-Banner

In 1972, seventy-two seniors graduated from Rockwall High School. One of those was Craig Combs whose father, Joe Combs, still lives just north of town and another was Marcylle Jones, whose father Tommy Jones lives right off White Road in Heath. They both entered Dallas Baptist College in the fall and then two years later they married. Craig graduated from school in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion and immediately entered Dallas Theological Seminary where he received a Master of Theology degree in pastoral ministries in 1981. Not to stop at this level, he then entered Texas Tech University in August of 1983 to work on his doctorial degree. This he finally got in 1996.

And you are probably saying to yourself, “Why in the world is Jerry Hogan going into all this detail about the education of a preacher when this column has always been about the military and its people and missions?”

Simple: since 1988, twenty years ago, Craig has been in the military too and has been a practicing military chaplain in the Texas National Guard. He first started his dual career when he moved to Lubbock and enrolled in Texas Tech University.

Most civilians probably don’t know what an Army chaplain does or what his purpose is.

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By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, September 30, 2008

ARLINGTON, Va. — Journalists will now have a say on what the media can and cannot do when covering funerals at Arlington National Cemetery.

Army Secretary Peter Geren has signed a new media policy for the cemetery that calls for the creation of an oversight board that will include representatives from the cemetery, the Army and the media, including Stars and Stripes.

The board will serve as a forum to discuss “what is working well, what needs to be improved, what needs to be addressed in the future,” said Army spokesman Paul Boyce.

Boyce said the board is expected to hold its first meeting in late October, and it should meet again before Veterans Day.

“The cemetery itself personifies the respect that we all have for our veterans,” Boyce said. “We want to make sure that the media are part of that process, as transparent as possible, but while also respecting the wishes of the families and the deceased.”

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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.

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By Amanda Kim Stairrett
Killeen Daily Herald

FORT POLK, La. – First Lt. Jeff Ellis is the oldest and one of the newest people in the 1st Cavalry Division’s 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

At age 45, he beat out the squadron’s senior noncommissioned officer, Command Sgt. Maj. James Daniels, by just a few months.

Ellis arrived to the squadron a week ago on Tuesday.

He graduated from the Army’s chaplain school at Fort Jackson, S.C., came to his first duty station at Fort Hood and immediately joined the squadron at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk. Three of the chaplains he graduated with also were placed in the 2nd Brigade

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By John E. Carey

Henry Vinton Plummer, slave-born, enlisted in the U.S. Navy and saw combat in the Civil War, enrolled in a seminary after the war and became an Army chaplain to the famed Buffalo Soldiers. However, he was drummed out of the Army and humiliated on what his descendants are convinced was a trumped-up charge. He continued to serve his community as a minister until his death in 1905 at age 60.

…..

He applied to become an Army chaplain in 1884. With Plummer’s war record, service to his congregation and letters of recommendation from dignitaries such as Frederick Douglass, Plummer won appointment in the U.S. Army’s Chaplain Corps. The Army assigned Plummer to minister to the famed 9th U.S. Cavalry, the Buffalo Soldiers, deployed to Kansas, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Plummer reported to Fort Riley, Kan., where he immediately made an impression as a spiritual leader and an excellent minister to the men. His commanding officer attended services and encouraged the troops to “a higher state of morality and education.”

The post correspondent to the Army-Navy Journal complimented Plummer on his fine sermons and prayers and for “doing a good work among the soldiers.” The writer also noted that Plummer could “discount any of the white Chaplains in the Service.”

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WASHINGTON (BP)–Do military chaplains have the right to pray in Jesus’ name in ceremonies outside of chapel services? The military insists they do, but U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R.-N.C., is attempting to write that guarantee into federal law.

Shortly before Congress’ summer recess, Jones introduced H.R. 6514, which would ensure chaplains the right to close a prayer outside of a religious service according to the dictates of the chaplain’s conscience.

“For Christian chaplains, closing their prayers in the name of Jesus is a fundamental part of their beliefs,” Jones said in a statement. “To suppress this form of expression would violate their religious freedom.”

No hearings have been scheduled yet on the bill, which has attracted former presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R.-Texas, and Rep. Christopher Smith, R.-N.J., as co-sponsors.

Jones said he regularly has received complaints from officers and chaplains about such restraints.

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(Media-Newswire.com) – ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 11, 2008 – “Communication saves lives on the battlefield. It saves marriages, too.”
That was a major theme that Army Chaplain ( Lt. Col. ) Antonio Daggett stressed at the National Guard Strong Bonds Marriage Seminar in Old Town Alexandria, Va., Sept. 5 to 7.

About 20 Guard couples attended the retreat, which was geared to strengthen marriages through improving communication skills. Daggett, who works in the National Guard Bureau’s chaplains’ office here, facilitated the seminar that equips families with tools to combat the stressors of military service.

On Day 1 of the seminar, Daggett explained the danger signs of marriage communications, such as “escalation,” and demonstrated them through videos of actual couples discussing their marital issues.

In one video, a conversation that started with household cleanliness escalated into talk of separation. The chaplain delved into other communication no-no’s, such as withdrawal — “Yes Dear, whatever you say, Dear” – and “invalidation,” which he called a $10 word for name-calling.

“Our communications are pretty good, but could use a little tweaking,” said Cynthia Cole, wife of Army Lt. Col. Reyes Cole of the National Guard Bureau’s counterdrug office, who attended the weekend retreat.

By their own admission, it’s been a stressful year for the Coles and their four young children. Along with recent deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan, the colonel suffered a massive pulmonary embolism last year that almost ended his life.

“This has been a great way for us to decompress and reconnect and find out what we have been doing right and what we can improve on,” Cynthia Cole said.

These seminars, held around the country for married Army and Air National Guard couples, are part of the Strong Bonds Program, which began in 1999 and was formerly known as Building Strong and Ready Families.

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For chaplains to become effective ministers to troops in the field, they undergo specific training about the rules and customs of Army life. Saul Gonzalez reports on how Army chaplains are pepared to provide religious guidance in war zones and the guidlines of their ministries.

JIM LEHRER: Finally tonight, boot camp for military chaplains.

NewsHour correspondent Saul Gonzalez of KCET-Los Angeles has the story. A version of this report aired on the PBS program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.”

SAUL GONZALEZ: At Fort Jackson, South Carolina, soldiers train for the dangers of Iraq and Afghanistan.

SOLDIER: Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!

SAUL GONZALEZ: This recent afternoon, it was a simulated insurgent ambush on a military convoy.

SOLDIER: Combat base. This is Charlie One. Copy that.

SAUL GONZALEZ: But many of the troops in this exercise, the ones not carrying weapons, aren’t warriors. They’re members of the clergy attending the Army’s boot camp for chaplains.

READ MORE from The Online NewsHour (transcript)