In Sunday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Meg Kissinger wrote the story of Army Spec. James Weigl, a Iraq war veteran who committed suicide.
On Monday, Mark Belling discussed the article, noting that Kissinger's piece lacked context. He took issue with the fact that she used Weigl's personal story to make a larger point about military service and suicide that just wasn't there.
Kissinger writes:
Weigl's death is part an alarming epidemic of suicides among those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last year, the official number of suicides by active-duty Army soldiers hit an all-time high at 140. In the first half of this year, the Army reported 129 confirmed or suspected suicides - more than the number of soldiers who died from hostile action during that time.
Suicide by veterans is tougher to pin down, largely because more than 70% of them get their psychiatric care through providers other than the Veterans Administration. But VA officials say suicide is a growing problem.
The Nov. 5 shootings by an Army psychiatrist that killed 13 at Fort Hood in Texas have raised even more concern about the psychological toll of the wars, now over eight years running.
Weigl's case shows how the military needs to do a better job at every step - from questions recruiters ask those enlisting to the kind of psychological care offered to active soldiers to record-keeping for veterans.
The Army has declined to comment on Weigl's death. But a review of his military and medical files - painstakingly gathered by his mother and provided to the Journal Sentinel - shows mistakes were made and several warning signs were missed.
Weigl never should have been in the military in the first place.
He had at least two conditions that would have disqualified him - an anaphylactic reaction to vaccines that caused his throat to close and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Both are spelled out as disqualifying conditions in the Army's Standards of Medical Fitness.
Weigl was discouraged from getting psychiatric care while in the Army, even after he attempted to kill himself in 2007. His medical records at the VA's Zablocki Medical Center were incomplete and consistently inaccurate. They are riddled with wrong birth dates, a wrong address and incorrect phone numbers. A VA psychologist confused Weigl with a veteran who had been incarcerated.
...Afraid that his potentially deadly reactions to vaccines would keep him out of the military, Weigl forged his mother's signature on a note, claiming that he was allergic to penicillin but nothing else.
"They put him up in a hotel in Milwaukee for the 24 hours after he signed up," Mike Weigl said. "We didn't even know he'd signed up before it was too late to back out."
Recruiters did not note Weigl had been diagnosed at the age of 4 as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that was so pronounced he had attended special classes in school. Nor did they ask Weigl about a family history of mental illness. His mother and other close family members suffer from treatment-resistant depression. Studies show family history of depression is a strong indicator of vulnerability for the disease.
In discussing Kissinger's article, Belling refers to an e-mail exchange between Kissinger and a reader who questioned Kissinger's treatment of the story.
It turns out that the "alarming epidemic" of suicide that Kissinger cites is not nearly as dramatic as she leads her audience to believe.
MARK BELLING: A reader challenged Meg Kissinger on her reporting and got the following acknowledgment from Kissinger:
'The suicide rate for soldiers is higher than for the general population, 20.5 per 100,000 versus 19.5.' And then she writes to him, 'It's a huge and growing problem for the military and they have greatly stepped up prevention efforts.'
Belling points out that Kissinger didn't reveal those statistics in her article, even though the suicide rates between Army veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and those in the general population are within any statistical margin of error. Of course, revealing those statistics would negate her premise.
The e-mailer did some research on the suicide rates of other branches of the military. When combining those figures, one arrives at a suicide rate even lower than the general population.
It turns out that what Kissinger calls an "alarming epidemic" isn't that alarming at all. That is not to say that veterans committing suicide isn't a serious matter. It certainly deserves attention.
Kissinger writes, "Weigl never should have been in the military in the first place." She says that several warning signs were missed and mistakes were made.
However, while she casts blame on the military, she doesn't hold Weigl himself as accountable as she should.
He lied when he enlisted, forging his mother's signature on a note that claimed "he was allergic to penicillin but nothing else."
Although she mentions it, Kissinger glosses over the fact that Weigl had a family history of depression. She blames recruiters for not asking about Weigl's "family history of mental illness. His mother and other close family members suffer from treatment-resistant depression."
Kissinger points out, "Studies show family history of depression is a strong indicator of vulnerability for the disease."
Certainly, Weigl and his family bear responsibility, too. It's wrong for Kissinger to dump it all on the Army. It's especially odd because she admits that Weigl was "vulnerable for the disease." That vulnerability had nothing to do with his position in the military.
Belling goes on, reading the e-mailer's reply to Kissinger:
BELLING: Now my e-mailer, who clearly knows something about the subject, suggests that people who are troubled before they go into the military would be the very people who would be likely perhaps or at least possible, potentially liable to commit suicide whether they served in the military or not.
Now he sent this response to Meg Kissinger, writing to Meg: 'Huge number. Again, compared to what?' This is referring to her claim of 20.5 versus 19.5. 'I'd say that is well within the margin for error, don't you? I could also argue that you only looked at the general population numbers instead of the apples to apples comparison of ages 20-24. But even so, why wasn't that vital number put in your article?'
...He continues, 'What about the other points in my letter? The fact that...' And then he goes into things that she put in her story -- 'that his mom and other close family members suffered from treatment-resistant depression. You don't think that that should have been highlighted in the beginning of the article?' And then he writes, 'It's sloppy agenda-driven reporting like this and non-answers like yours below that remind me why I need to cancel my subscription.'
The e-mailer CC'd his response to Kissinger to the Journal Sentinel Managing Editor, George Stanley.
This is where the story gets really weird.
Kissinger goes ballistic. Belling reads Kissinger's reply, sent at 12:12 PM on Monday, to the e-mailer.
BELLING: 'Agenda-driven? What the hell gives you the right to say that? You're picking a fight with me and I greatly resent it. Who are you? Where do you work? What is your boss's name and e-mail so I can copy him and question your motivations. This is a legitimate story and no amount of paranoia and hatemongering will change that. Meg Kissinger, Reporter.'
Good grief.
She really flies off the handle.
That's not very professional on Kissinger's part. The e-mailer makes some very valid points. It's not paranoia or hatemongering.
Why won't Kissinger acknowledge that?
There's no question that James Weigl's story is a terribly sad one. He was suffering, killed himself, and now his family must suffer with that.
But it's not right to mislead readers the way Kissinger does. It's wrong to claim that there is an "alarming epidemic" of suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans when it's not significantly greater than suicide in the general population.
Kissinger impugns the military for failing to prevent suicide in its ranks, while she e-mails that the military has greatly stepped up efforts to address the mental health needs of service members in terms of suicide prevention.
I think Kissinger may have become so angry in her communications because she realized that the e-mailer was, in fact, making sense. She wouldn't have cared if he had CC'd Stanley with a bunch of paranoid, hateful drivel.
I suppose Kissinger didn't count on being challenged.
Accountability bites.
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