Latest news with #veteransuicide
Forbes
4 days ago
- General
- Forbes
Fox News Correspondent Summits Mount Everest, Does 22 Pushups
Fox News Senior Correspondent Mike Tobin on the summit of Mount Everest Carrying a Fox News Channel flag, Fox News Senior Correspondent Mike Tobin reached the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. That's a massive achievement in itself, but Tobin completed one of the world's riskiest and most dangerous challenges by dropping and doing 22 pushups in recognition of the 22 veterans who die by suicide every day. 'You have seen some of the different events that people have done as far as the 22 push-ups in recognition of the veteran suicide," Tobin said on Fox News Channel's America's Newsroom. 'I hope that a troubled guy out there somewhere who was looking at suicide as a reasonable response to his troubles will realize that someone took the time to do that in a perilous situation and reconsider before he hurts himself.' Tobin, an experienced climber who has reached the summits of Cotopoxi, Chimborazo, Aconcagua, the Eiger, the Matterhorn, the Wetterhorn, and Cho Oyu, says preparing for Everest was an entirely different--and grueling--experience. 'We did crazy kinds of training,' he said. 'Like, I take the sandbags that our cameramen use and I put them in a backpack and I ran up and down the Indiana sand dunes for hours at a time.' But that physical training couldn't prepare him for the unique psychological experience of reaching the top of the world--and then returning safely. 'I certainly was spooked at different times on the climb,' Tobin said. "The only time I really noticed that I was spooked was coming back down the Second Step. To explain what the Second Step is, on the northeast ridge of Everest, there are three major obstacles, the First, Second and Third Step. And for whatever reason--and some of the other guys on the team said the same thing--coming back down on the Second Step, that was spooky.' GOKYO- KHUMBU HIMAL,NEPAL: (UNDATED FILE PHOTO) Mount Everest, at 8,850-meters (29,035-foot) ... More towers over the surrounding peaks as seen from the adjacent Gokyo Ri in this undated file photo. A record 1,000 climbers plan assaults on the summit as mountaineers celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the conquest of Everest on May 29, 2003. Since Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Everest in May 1953, 1,200 men and women from 63 countries have summited the mountain. (Photo by) It was in Everest's 'death zone,' above 26,247 feet where the air is too thin to support human life without supplemental oxygen that Tobin stopped to complete the 22 pushup challenge. ""The only way you survive the death zone is to get in and out of there as fast as you can before the sand runs out of your hourglass or before the oxygen runs out of your bottle," said Tobin. "I was just trying to think, 'Keep your head about yourself. Don't make any mistakes, don't turn what's otherwise going to be a celebration into a tragedy.'" About 700 to 1,000 climbers attempt the summit each year, with success rates ranging between 60% and 70%, according to Climbing Kilimanjaro. In 2023, 12 climbers died on Everest, and another five were separated from their teams and listed as missing. In terms of climbing, once you've reached Everest it's all quite literally downhill from there. But would Tobin want to follow his climb with another equally impressive feat? 'Given the caliber of men I climbed with on this team, it will be hard to top this Everest experience," Tobin said. "However, the very reason I became a reporter is a lust for the next experience or adventure. I won't shut the door and declare the thrill-seeking portion of my life has peaked. In the short term, what I want now, is to be with my wife.'
CBS News
6 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Fort Worth organization raises awareness and support for veteran suicide prevention
An estimated 22 men and women who have served in our military are dying in battle each day. It's not from a battle in a combat zone, but rather a battle going on inside their own minds. Preventing suicide among US veterans is one of the missions that a Fort Worth-based organization is focused on addressing and bringing to the public's attention. When she joined the Marine Corps as a teenager, Kara Martin thought she had her career and future planned out. Kara Martin "I really enjoyed my time there," said U.S. Marine Corps Veteran Kara Martin. "I was only 17 when I went in." Her first years were spent building trust with her fellow Marines in a unit trained to believe in loyalty to each other above all. But when the young sergeant was sent to Afghanistan in 2011, Martin said that code was broken. "I endured a lot of sexual harassment in the military," said Martin. Harassment that she said escalated. "Some of my closest comrades, my fellow Marines, were those responsible for sexually harassing me, and then ultimately, while I was on tour," Martin said. "I was sexually assaulted by one of my fellow Marines at night while I was on the operating base in Afghanistan," she said. It led Martin to forego her dream of a military career. The trauma that the mother of two, who lives in Saginaw, has dealt with since then became overwhelming earlier this year. "Everybody around me would be better off if I wasn't here because I was damaged," said Martin. "Because the people I trusted hurt me the most." Martin became one of dozens of U.S. veterans who attempt suicide every day. "I took a bunch of medication that I was prescribed and I told everybody that I loved them and asked them to take care of my family," Martin said. "And I took them and just hoped that I wouldn't wake up." An average of 22 U.S. veterans a day die from suicide. Martin recovered from her attempt and got the help she needed from the Airpower Foundation. Kara Martin "That's the first time that I've received treatment—actually received treatment—that really helped me get through what I was going through and learn new coping skills," said Martin. The 36-year-old is now an advocate and will be taking part in Airpower Foundation's month-long Walk 22 event that starts on Sunday in Fort Worth. Of all the worthy resources and services that the nonprofit offers veterans, mental health treatment might be the most important and most needed. "This has always been something that is kind of taboo or in the dark or in the shadows and we want to shine a light on it and make it ok to talk about," said Melissa Dabi, the Airpower Foundation Executive Director. Martin said she's on a path of healing, but only because of the treatment she continues to receive. "They haven't just over and over again changed my life," she said. "They have ultimately saved my life ... I do not let the negative things that happened define me."
Fox News
26-05-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Florida nonprofit helps cut veteran suicide rates by 25% with community-based approach
A Florida-based nonprofit is tackling veteran suicide by connecting community members and holding fast that the crisis American vets are facing is preventable. The Fire Watch operates on three premises: that suicide is preventable, that timely connection to resources can save lives, and that communities must play an active role in prevention. "It takes the community to get involved in suicide prevention," Executive Director Nick Howland told Fox News Digital. After seeing impressive results, The Fire Watch is hoping to take its regional organization nationwide with an approach that tackles veteran suicide differently with treatment-focused efforts and local engagement. At the heart of The Fire Watch's strategy is the "Watch Stander" program, modeled after CPR training. In a concise 30-to-45-minute session, volunteers learn to recognize warning signs, ask direct questions, validate the veterans' experience, and expedite referral to services—summarized by the acronym SAVE. "Like CPR doesn't train you to be a paramedic, our training doesn't turn you into a clinician," Howland said. "It trains you to notice the change and sound the alarm for help." Each Watch Stander leaves with a wallet card, wristband, and sticker as reminders of critical red flags—expressions of self-harm, substance abuse, reckless behavior, or giving away possessions—and the simple steps to get someone to help. The nonprofit works in tandem with the state's veteran affairs offices and connects veterans with counseling services. Since its inception in Northeast Florida, The Fire Watch has tracked dramatic reductions in veteran suicides. After recording 81 veteran deaths by suicide in 2019, Howland set an audacious goal: cut that number by at least 25% for three consecutive years. As of the latest data released May 1, veteran suicides in the region fell to 61 in 2023—25% below the 2019 baseline for the fourth straight year. Statewide, veteran suicides are down 5%, and in areas where The Fire Watch has a foothold (Northeast Florida, South Florida, Tampa Bay, and Escambia County), the decline has been 12%, compared to just 2% elsewhere in the Sunshine State. "Where we're building our network of community members who care, who get veterans to the help they need, veteran suicidality is decreasing," he said. "It's remarkable." For volunteers like Ryan Haczynski, the program's impact is deeply personal. After losing a Vietnam veteran friend to suicide in late 2022, Haczynski searched for a way to honor his memory and prevent further loss. "I didn't recognize the signs," he reflected, telling Fox News Digital that his friend had even asked him to be the executor of his will just weeks before his death. Following the vet's suicide, Haczynski's online search led him into Watch Stander and Ambassador trainings, where he has since certified others and even helped arrange a proper military funeral for his friend. Haczynski now uses every community interaction to check in on veterans, validate their experiences, and point them to Fire Watch's free 24/7 crisis resources. "We want to give back, we want to help, especially people who have done so much [for our country] to go and serve us," he said. Learn more about The Fire Watch at
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
From battlefield injury to suicide prevention: How a wounded soldier is helping save fellow veterans' lives
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Daniel Gade, a wounded soldier who refused to let the enemy win and built a career helping other soldiers in the classroom, is now assisting veterans as they cope with returning to normal life while facing dark times and possibly suicide. The Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) National Veteran Suicide Prevention annual report, released in December 2024, revealed there were 47,891 suicides among all U.S. adults in 2022, averaging just over 131 per day. The numbers included 17.6 veteran suicides per day. Gade, a two-time Purple Heart recipient, serves as a senior advisor for America's Warrior Partnership (AWP), which has a mission to partner with communities to prevent veteran suicide, while also helping communities figure out how to provide for their veterans. Through academic research with Duke University and other institutions, along with state and local agencies, AWP found that the veteran suicide rate is much higher than what is reported. Bipartisan Bill Would Make It Easier For Military Recruits With Medical Issues To Land Defense Jobs In fact, the research conducted by AWP and its partners shows the veteran suicide rate is actually higher, Gade said, because many deaths go unreported. The organization, he added, is conducting rigorous research that is getting to some of the root causes of veteran dislocation, a term Gade used because dislocation, or disconnectedness, is "kind of a precondition for suicide." Read On The Fox News App "What they're looking at is the disconnectedness in order to better prevent suicide," he said. "So, it's not about dumping money into crisis lines, because by the time somebody calls a crisis line, it's way too late. And for a lot of people, they never call a crisis line; they just go to the gun safe. And that's not good enough." Instead, the process is about building veterans back up and helping them find their place in society, a process Gade said he personally experienced. Gade joined the Army in 1992 at the age of 17. A year later, he was accepted into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York. He graduated from the academy in 1997, becoming an armored officer in the Army. Seven years later, he was deployed to Iraq, where he was wounded twice. 'Down To Zero': Veteran Suicide Crisis Targeted In Va Bill By Bipartisan House Coalition The first time he was wounded was in November 2004, when the tank he was in was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. Gade said he was wounded mildly, though a young soldier next to him, Dennis Miller from La Salle, Michigan, was killed in the attack. Two months later, Gade was involved in another attack. "I was hit by a roadside bomb, an IED [improvised explosive device] that caused me to lose my entire right leg. So, I'm a right leg, hip-level amputee," he said, adding that the wounds forced him to spend a year in the hospital. "During that time… I had to find a way to rebuild myself." Rebuilding meant Gade had to rediscover who he was going to be professionally and personally. It also meant pondering the type of athletics he would be able to do and whether he would be able to provide for his family. "All of those were really critical questions 20 years ago when I was trying to solve that problem, and since then, I've had a great career," he said. U.s. Soldier Wounded During Gaza Pier Mission Dies Months After Being Injured A year to the day after Gade was injured, he started to work on his master's degree at the University of Georgia. Upon completion, he was invited to the White House to serve as an associate director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under George W. Bush's administration. "I went from being sort of a user-level wounded warrior… to being at the very highest levels of government, you know, helping to formulate policy that would help wounded warriors," Gade said. Gade retired from the Army in 2017, spending the last six years of his service as a professor at West Point, which he calls "a phenomenal place." After that, Gade dabbled in politics, making a run for the U.S. Senate in Virginia in 2020 as a Republican against Democratic Sen. Mark Warner. Gade ultimately lost, but he was able to join Glenn Youngkin's campaign for Virginia governor as an advisor, and when Youngkin won, Gade was tapped to serve as the commissioner of the Department of Veterans Services. "I got to go back to my roots, kind of, serving veterans, which is what I've done as a personal mission for many years now, basically since I became a wounded warrior back in 2005," Gade said. Today, Gade owns a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business called Interfuse, which is involved in chemical and biological defense products for the Air Force, Army and Navy. Benghazi Legend Mark Geist Presents K9 Service Dog To Combat Veteran In N.j. He also continues to help veterans through AWP by connecting veterans to their communities and giving them purpose and value while connecting them with other people. When you do that, Gade said, you find suicidality or the propensity to commit suicide goes down "a good bit." One of the communities the organization has worked with is the Navajo Nation. "If you think about people in society who are disadvantaged… you always sort of think about, you know, minorities in the inner city or people born into a tough situation like that," Gade explained. "But very few people know the plight of the American Indian." Gade grew up in North Dakota, where the Navajo Nation owns several large reservations. Those reservations, he said, suffer from poverty, alcoholism, dysfunctional families, divorce and many other issues. He explained that many people in the Navajo Nation join the military because they are patriotic, but also because they are searching for a way to escape and better themselves. Oftentimes, they go on to do great things in the military, Gade said, pointing to the Navajo Code Talkers, who used their native language to create secret codes during World War II. After serving their country, the tribal members return to their communities, but according to Gade, they bring back post-traumatic stress, physical injuries or other conditions that get laid on top of what were already tough economic and social conditions for them. "America's Warrior Partnership, through its connectedness with the Navajo Nation, [is] taking sort of a whole-of-society approach," Gade said. "It's not just helping police figure out how you divert somebody instead of arresting somebody. In some cases, you might want to offer them resources so they can escape that path themselves." Part of that community connection also gives insight into whom the veterans are, not just to prevent suicide, but also to get better statistics on what is leading to veteran suicide. AWP created a project called Operation Deep Dive that digs further into veteran causes of death. Fox News' Pete Hegseth Opens Up About Post-traumatic Stress After Iraq Deployment While the VA reports a veteran suicide rate of about 17%, AWP found through Operation Deep Dive that the rate is almost double that. Gade said the difference came down to unreported suicides. For example, there may be a 25-year-old veteran who crashes a vehicle at midnight, but it is not known why he crashed the car. The coroner may just write the cause of death as a single-vehicle accident, but a deeper dive by Operation Deep Dive may look into the person's life. That same investigation may find the veteran was despairing, had just gone through a divorce or something along those lines. Another example where Operation Deep Dive may help is if someone has an overdose of a prescription medication prescribed by the VA. The coroner has to determine if it is accidental or suicide, and by doing a deep dive, the organization is finding that the deaths are more likely than not to have been self-harm or accidental self-harm, rather than just pure accidents. "That's where the difference comes — it's expanding our definition of unnatural death to include these others," Gade said. "And then you realize, oh, man, a whole lot of these are suicides and not just single-vehicle accidents." "Every suicide is tragic, but every suicide, you know, suicide is a disease of despair," he added. "What America's Warrior Partnership is doing is really trying to get at the roots of that and defeat suicide before it comes into somebody's life."Original article source: From battlefield injury to suicide prevention: How a wounded soldier is helping save fellow veterans' lives
Fox News
24-05-2025
- Health
- Fox News
From battlefield injury to suicide prevention: How a wounded soldier is helping save fellow veterans' lives
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Daniel Gade, a wounded soldier who refused to let the enemy win and built a career helping other soldiers in the classroom, is now assisting veterans as they cope with returning to normal life while facing dark times and possibly suicide. The Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) National Veteran Suicide Prevention annual report, released in December 2024, revealed there were 47,891 suicides among all U.S. adults in 2022, averaging just over 131 per day. The numbers included 17.6 veteran suicides per day. Gade, a two-time Purple Heart recipient, serves as a senior advisor for America's Warrior Partnership (AWP), which has a mission to partner with communities to prevent veteran suicide, while also helping communities figure out how to provide for their veterans. Through academic research with Duke University and other institutions, along with state and local agencies, AWP found that the veteran suicide rate is much higher than what is reported. In fact, the research conducted by AWP and its partners shows the veteran suicide rate is actually higher, Gade said, because many deaths go unreported. The organization, he added, is conducting rigorous research that is getting to some of the root causes of veteran dislocation, a term Gade used because dislocation, or disconnectedness, is "kind of a precondition for suicide." "What they're looking at is the disconnectedness in order to better prevent suicide," he said. "So, it's not about dumping money into crisis lines, because by the time somebody calls a crisis line, it's way too late. And for a lot of people, they never call a crisis line; they just go to the gun safe. And that's not good enough." Instead, the process is about building veterans back up and helping them find their place in society, a process Gade said he personally experienced. Gade joined the Army in 1992 at the age of 17. A year later, he was accepted into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York. He graduated from the academy in 1997, becoming an armored officer in the Army. Seven years later, he was deployed to Iraq, where he was wounded twice. The first time he was wounded was in November 2004, when the tank he was in was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. Gade said he was wounded mildly, though a young soldier next to him, Dennis Miller from La Salle, Michigan, was killed in the attack. Two months later, Gade was involved in another attack. "I was hit by a roadside bomb, an IED [improvised explosive device] that caused me to lose my entire right leg. So, I'm a right leg, hip-level amputee," he said, adding that the wounds forced him to spend a year in the hospital. "During that time… I had to find a way to rebuild myself." Rebuilding meant Gade had to rediscover who he was going to be professionally and personally. It also meant pondering the type of athletics he would be able to do and whether he would be able to provide for his family. "All of those were really critical questions 20 years ago when I was trying to solve that problem, and since then, I've had a great career," he said. A year to the day after Gade was injured, he started to work on his master's degree at the University of Georgia. Upon completion, he was invited to the White House to serve as an associate director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under George W. Bush's administration. "I went from being sort of a user-level wounded warrior… to being at the very highest levels of government, you know, helping to formulate policy that would help wounded warriors," Gade said. Gade retired from the Army in 2017, spending the last six years of his service as a professor at West Point, which he calls "a phenomenal place." After that, Gade dabbled in politics, making a run for the U.S. Senate in Virginia in 2020 as a Republican against Democratic Sen. Mark Warner. Gade ultimately lost, but he was able to join Glenn Youngkin's campaign for Virginia governor as an advisor, and when Youngkin won, Gade was tapped to serve as the commissioner of the Department of Veterans Services. "I got to go back to my roots, kind of, serving veterans, which is what I've done as a personal mission for many years now, basically since I became a wounded warrior back in 2005," Gade said. Today, Gade owns a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business called Interfuse, which is involved in chemical and biological defense products for the Air Force, Army and Navy. He also continues to help veterans through AWP by connecting veterans to their communities and giving them purpose and value while connecting them with other people. When you do that, Gade said, you find suicidality or the propensity to commit suicide goes down "a good bit." One of the communities the organization has worked with is the Navajo Nation. "If you think about people in society who are disadvantaged… you always sort of think about, you know, minorities in the inner city or people born into a tough situation like that," Gade explained. "But very few people know the plight of the American Indian." Gade grew up in North Dakota, where the Navajo Nation owns several large reservations. Those reservations, he said, suffer from poverty, alcoholism, dysfunctional families, divorce and many other issues. He explained that many people in the Navajo Nation join the military because they are patriotic, but also because they are searching for a way to escape and better themselves. Oftentimes, they go on to do great things in the military, Gade said, pointing to the Navajo Code Talkers, who used their native language to create secret codes during World War II. After serving their country, the tribal members return to their communities, but according to Gade, they bring back post-traumatic stress, physical injuries or other conditions that get laid on top of what were already tough economic and social conditions for them. "America's Warrior Partnership, through its connectedness with the Navajo Nation, [is] taking sort of a whole-of-society approach," Gade said. "It's not just helping police figure out how you divert somebody instead of arresting somebody. In some cases, you might want to offer them resources so they can escape that path themselves." Part of that community connection also gives insight into whom the veterans are, not just to prevent suicide, but also to get better statistics on what is leading to veteran suicide. AWP created a project called Operation Deep Dive that digs further into veteran causes of death. While the VA reports a veteran suicide rate of about 17%, AWP found through Operation Deep Dive that the rate is almost double that. Gade said the difference came down to unreported suicides. For example, there may be a 25-year-old veteran who crashes a vehicle at midnight, but it is not known why he crashed the car. The coroner may just write the cause of death as a single-vehicle accident, but a deeper dive by Operation Deep Dive may look into the person's life. That same investigation may find the veteran was despairing, had just gone through a divorce or something along those lines. Another example where Operation Deep Dive may help is if someone has an overdose of a prescription medication prescribed by the VA. The coroner has to determine if it is accidental or suicide, and by doing a deep dive, the organization is finding that the deaths are more likely than not to have been self-harm or accidental self-harm, rather than just pure accidents. "That's where the difference comes — it's expanding our definition of unnatural death to include these others," Gade said. "And then you realize, oh, man, a whole lot of these are suicides and not just single-vehicle accidents." "Every suicide is tragic, but every suicide, you know, suicide is a disease of despair," he added. "What America's Warrior Partnership is doing is really trying to get at the roots of that and defeat suicide before it comes into somebody's life."
