By Ernest LaMertha II
Special to GUIDON

What makes an individual all of a sudden decide to commit suicide? In some people we can see it building up, while in others we might see nothing at all.  What we actually are dealing with is “life erosion.”   

“Life erosion” is the gradual life wearing-away. You may ask, “wearing-away of what?” and the answer is the ability to cope. A person reaches a point where they feel that they can no longer cope with their stress, pain, grief, anguish, anger, alienation, loneliness, frustration, disappointment, guilt or illness. There is not a cause. There are causes.  

The final event which happens is just the “one too many” event that causes these feelings. Call it “the straw that broke the camel’s back,”  or some call it the “precipitating event.”  

For some people, the seeds for suicide are sown in childhood as a person is not born suicidal. A person is made suicidal. This might be discovered in their family history. 

Special to GUIDON

Military spouse employment is a fad. Or maybe that’s just my paranoia talking.

Recently, I read about all these programs and I wonder if any of them really work. On my darker days, I feel suspicious of these flag waving, “red-white-and-blue wearin’” spouse employment program people.

Somehow, I suspect they are far more interested in making military spouses seem like big-eyed, three-pawed kittens in a Sarah McLachlan commercial than employing us to do what we can so competently do.

Then I met Melissa King at a SpouseBuzz Live event in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. Melissa is a Military Family Employment Advocate at JobsPlus in Crestview, Fla. She isn’t some big deal testifying before Congress. She isn’t courting Fortune 500 companies to put a sticker on their window. Melissa just goes out into her community and gets jobs for military spouses.

The woman gave me cause to hope. Getting jobs for spouses is supposed to take some kind of practical magic. Surely this job finder would be Hermione Granger incarnate. Not so much.

Melissa is simply one of eight military family employment advocates in the state of Florida. In her job, Melissa meets with military spouses who are new to the area. She talks to the newcomers one-on-one about what kind of work they would like to find and how that fits into their Florida community.

“I’m kinda a good judge of character,” said Melissa in a recent interview. “I am surprised how quickly I can figure out people and see what their needs are. If we are talking on the phone and I hear kids crying in the background, I know that childcare is going to be an issue. I can help with that. I can help with all of that.”

 

GUIDON staff

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Two of Fort Leonard Wood’s own are scheduled to attend the Department of Defense Military Working Dog Training Seminar and K-9 Trials, which will be held at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, April 30 – May 3.

Sgt. Jason Cartwright, 5th Engineer Battalion and his Specialized Search Dog, Isaac, as well as Sgt. David Ricks, 92nd Military Police Battalion, and his SSD, Storm, were selected to attend the event and are looking forward to the seminar and the challenges the trials will bring.

The K-9 Trials are intended to showcase the best K-9 teams throughout the Armed Services, and each team will be tested in a variety of missions to include explosive and narcotics detection, handler protection, building searches and special search missions.

“The biggest challenge for me and Isaac is slowing our search down. He searches real fast and I want it to get done in a timely manner, but I like to be thorough. The challenge is going to be meeting the criteria on how they want us to search,” Cartwright said.

Cartwright and Ricks said they were interested in the information they would gather during the seminar and both were looking forward to bringing that information back to their respective kennels.

“I have been to all of the MWD courses, except for the mine dog and combat tracker dog courses, so I just want to see what the seminar has to put out to the WMD handlers so we can bring that to our handlers here,” Ricks said.

GUIDON staff

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Today, 76 Soldiers — representing 13 installations and spread across Fort Leonard Wood’s training areas — are competing for the title of Best Sapper 2012. New this year, the public is invited to watch the events unfold by way of a post bus tour.

The 52 hours-straight Best Sapper competition will push Sappers pass their physical and mental limits until one team of two emerges victorious.

“At least one person on the team has to be a Sapper Leader Course graduate with a tab,” said 1st Lt. John Warson, Best Sapper competition project officer. “The Sapper Leader Course is the premier school for the Engineer Corps. You’ve got Rangers for the Infantry and Sappers for the Engineer Regiment.”

Warson thinks the Best Sapper competition is the most exciting event of ENFORCE.

“I like to go look at the new equipment and talk to the vendors, and go to the ball, but the Best Sapper competition is the feather in the cap,” Warson said.

 The events are modified from year to year so competitors can’t specifically train for the various events.

“The events are both technical and tactical in nature. The Sappers have to be physically strong and be able to problem solve and think outside the box. The tops teams are going to be the competitors that are consistently good at everything,” Warson said. “These events will test competitors mentally and physically to see how far they are willing to go. It’s going to be an internal gut check.”