Way to go, Army:
Officially, the Army says only that Sergeant Senft, 27, a crew chief on a Black Hawk helicopter in the 101st Airborne Division’s aviation brigade, was killed as a result of “injuries sustained in a noncombat related incident” at Kandahar Air Base on Nov. 15. No specific cause of death has been announced. Army officials say three separate inquiries into the death are under way.
But his father, also named David Senft, an electrician from Grass Valley, Calif., who had worked in Afghanistan for a military contractor, is convinced that his son committed suicide, as are many of his friends and family members and the soldiers who served with him.
The evidence appears overwhelming. An investigator for the Army’s Criminal Investigative Division, which has been looking into the death, has told Sergeant Senft’s father by e-mail that his son was found dead with a single bullet hole in his head, a stolen M-4 automatic weapon in his hands and his body slumped over in the S.U.V., which was parked outside the air base’s ammunition supply point. By his side was his cellphone, displaying a text message with no time or date stamp, saying only, “I don’t know what to say, I’m sorry.” (Mr. Senft shared the e-mails from the C.I.D. investigator with The New York Times.)
With Sergeant Senft, the warning signs were blaring.
The Army declared him fit for duty and ordered him to Afghanistan after he had twice attempted suicide at Fort Campbell, Ky., and after he had been sent to a mental institution near the base, the home of the 101st. After his arrival at Kandahar early in 2010 he was so troubled that the Army took away his weapon and forced him into counseling on the air base, according to the e-mails from the Army investigator. But he was assigned a roommate who was fully armed. C.I.D. investigators have identified the M-4 with which Sergeant Senft was killed as belonging to his roommate.
“I question why, if he was suicidal and they had to take away his gun, why was he allowed to stay in Afghanistan?” asked Sergeant Senft’s father. “Why did they allow him to deploy in the first place, and why did they leave him there?”
This is inexcusable. Absolutely no excuse. Heads should roll for this.
stuckinred
Yea, some E-4 will go to the stockade and the lifers will skate. . .same as it ever was.
Maude
wtf is wrong with the army?
They know better than to deploy someone who is suicidal.
WarMunchkin
I forget if it was this blog or another that brought up the recent Pentagon report about the battle of Wanat saying that officers shouldn’t be held accountable for things that went wrong in the war because it’s hard or something.
Powerful people don’t get held accountable for things that aren’t child rape or aren’t otherwise personally embarassing. That’s just the way the world works, or at least it seems that way.
salacious crumb
heads should roll for this?!
man the New Year Kool Aid punch still hasnt worn off you. Heads never rolled when the Army lied about circumstances surrounding Tillman’s death or when it did far more egregious things like lying about the body count in Iraq or killing of innocent civilians..even Abu Ghraib, who within the Army ever paid the price?
Nothing will happen now…
cathyx
3 things:
The army is desperate for bodies.
The army is in deep denial about anything that makes them look bad.
War is hell. It’ll screw up anyone’s mind.
lacp
Sounds like the Army might be a bit hard up for cannon fodder. Not, of course, that this would in any way be related to the fast-tracking of DADT ahead of ENDA and DOMA. Of course not.
soonergrunt
There is absolutely no excuse for several people here. The Soldier’s immediate chain of command, and his doctors come to mind.
But how should this be dealt with?
Those that suffer administrative discipline will never have that on the national news.
What criminal law has been broken? By whom?
I’m all for holding those responsible to account, but there’s not enough information here to do more than make some speculation.
No, he shouldn’t have been in Afghanistan.
No, he shouldn’t have been kept in Afghanistan once he was under treatment.
No, he damn sure shouldn’t have been kept in a room with an armed roommate.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@cathyx:
But at least we don’t have the draft!
Heads should roll but if any do it won’t be the ones that should, it’ll only be sacrificial goats.
Those in power rarely ever pay for their mistakes. Stuff is hard!
Triassic Sands
No way. We have to look forward; not back.
cathyx
@Odie Hugh Manatee: If there was a draft, the war would be over by now.
I say that not because there would be more soldiers, but because so many people would then speak up against the wars, that the pressure would be enough to end them. It’s ok if you go and fight over there, but I’m not.
low-tech cyclist
One staple of blog conversation back in 2004 or 2005 was the different ways the military was having to go to extraordinary lengths to maintain troop levels, from stop-loss to massively reducing the time between rotations in country, to calling up long-retired soldiers from the Individual Ready Reserve, to drastically reducing minimum enlistment requirements, to putting Navy troops on the ground in Iraq, to yada yada yada.
The fact is that our combined troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan aren’t noticeably lower than they were under GWB – just that most of them are now in Afghanistan. So there’s no reason to believe that things are any less stressed for our enlisted troops, and shit like this will happen.
The only solution, really, is to get out and go home. Which is what we should do anyway, for any number of reasons.
Loviatar
Hey John,
How are those votes for Bush working out for you?
Why don’t you, Tunch and Sully go apologize to go Sergeant Senft’s family and let them know you’ve got your credibility back and this will never happen again. /snark
my sympathies to his family
Odie Hugh Manatee
@cathyx:
If there was no way for rich kids (or kids in well-placed families) to avoid the draft then you know we wouldn’t be running around the world playing war unless it was absolutely necessary. Their parents wouldn’t allow it.
The middle class and lower income people are cannon fodder for rich and powerful warmongers who are too chicken shit to send their own precious children to fight.
cathyx
@Odie Hugh Manatee: And unfortunately, if the economy continues to tank like it’s predicted, the only work young workingclass kids will be able to find is military service. Maybe that’s the plan after all. Perpetual war.
Villago Delenda Est
The Army needs its warm bodies to toss into the meat grinder, and the supply is growing thin.
The all volunteer force didn’t work out as theorized, and the proof of this is the desperate scraping of the bottom of the barrel to get warm bodies on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. You cannot subject human beings to this sort of crap repeatedly and NOT expect them to be negatively effected by it.
That having been said, no heads will roll. I guarantee it.
Elizabelle
@cathyx:
I agree that we should have a draft, and that it should include non-military grade people older than your usual soldier, for support positions. Share the burden.
Heartbreaking story, and hope it results in some changes.
No reason Sgt. Senft should have remained in Afghanistan. After the Army removed his weapon? None.
Do our soldiers have a whistleblowing mechanism for cases like this?
A returning soldier from the story said it was up to the individual to seek counseling.
That works so well in civilian life, never mind among souls exposed to brutality, death and futility in the course of their professional career.
Mr Stagger Lee
When this war ends, I don’t think we will have enough psychiatric hospitals,or needed funds, to deal with PTSD cases. And with this A-hole congress coming in. These Republican jerks will probably act like General Patton and call for slapping soldiers to get them back into reality.
alwhite
Cole, obviously you do not support our military & want us to lose the war with Eastasia. Any public statement that does not fully endorse whatever bullshit out high command is pushing is unacceptable.
The damage being done is seeping into our society outside the Army as well and will only get worse. First their is the “warrior ethic” which I can tell you from my own son’s case prevent a ‘real warrior’ from seeking help. Then there is the overburdened, underfunded, VA stumbling between unable, incapable.
alwhite
@Elizabelle:
alwhite
@Loviatar:
I think John has more than admitted his past, unlike so many he has never been shy about owning up to his own stands. As long as he does not deny that, he owes nothing more.
Mr. Furious
@alwhite: Since Obama (and just about every other Dem) aggressively supported the war in Afghanistan from jump, and Obama himself ran on escalating that conflict, I’m not sure where the fuck you get off blaming John’s vote ten years ago for this.
This bullshit conflict would look much the same no matter who John, you, me or anyone else voted for in 2000, 2004 or 2008*.
*Except McCain/Palin who would have pulled all the troops to avoid the nuclear fallout drifting over from Iran.
Nellcote
and then there’s the Navy…
wazmo
@salacious crumb:
Sadly, root cause analysis isn’t a strong point among the decision makers.
annie
A Catch 22 ““they have a right to do anything we can’t stop them from doing.” “
soonergrunt
@cathyx:
Cause that worked so well in Viet Nam.
CynDee
@Loviatar: Problems with a mean spirit today only, or every day? Just asking.
We all have some responsibility in letting things get this bad, just as we all have responsibility to help make something better. I’d say John’s balance is looking good. Since you are quick to blame, how about letting the community know what have you done lately to help?
cathyx
@soonergrunt: I would say to that that it’s different this time. The draft was instituted at the beginning of that war. When people saw the war as a mistake, protests happened and the war ended. This time, we’ve had plenty of time to see what a mistake these wars are, and no one would go willingly into this mess.
soonergrunt
@cathyx: People go willingly into that mess all the time.
The economy can’t explain everything about the current enlistment and reenlistment rates. Both were above target before the economy went completely in the shitter, and people who enlist today do so with the understanding that they are likely to be deployed to the combat zone. Those that re-enlist are virtually certain that they will be deployed (again) and they do so anyway.
cathyx
@soonergrunt: We’re not talking about voluntary enlistment. We’re talking about the draft. I stand by what I said that if Obama instituted a draft, the war would end soon after.
Janet Strange
@alwhite:
Sadly, very true.
And in spite of all of the information available about PTSD and how common it is with these wars (for many reasons, including stop loss, rotating back for additional tours too quickly, etc.) this is still the attitude of most in the military.
I know someone with PTSD from a tour in Iraq. About six months after his return, he and his wife went to get him tested for TBI because his behavior was so troubling, and he’d been blown up by IEDs a couple of times. No TBI, but PTSD was the diagnosis. His wife told me, “But we thought PTSD wasn’t real! That it was just something people trying to scam the VA benefits system made up.” (Who is spreading this idea? Keyboard commandos?)
Interestingly, she compared it to her mother’s refusal for many years to seek help for her depression because our culture as a whole tells people that seeking help for mental/emotional disorders is a sign of weakness.
timb
@Loviatar: how’s that vote for Obama working out for you. Maybe you go with John and apologize?
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Loviatar: That’s pretty shitty. And putting “/snark” at the end of it doesn’t change that at all.
Sloegin
The draft would work pretty well on shortening these things as long as most all the deferments and exemptions were eliminated.
What would work much better would be taxing to pay for the goddamn thing. Pay as you go war. Most every other country in the world – in the entire history of the world raised taxes during wars. Oh, not us though. (One exception, pointed out here a while back… Czarist Russia right before the revolution)
Previous wars were generally several years at most. We started deferring and shuffling around the cost of war back in Vietnam days, and look what we got. Vietnam was some dozen-odd years. In Iraq and Afghanistan we’re going into 10-15 year overtime as well.
Get our elites to cough up some coin for it, and this thing is over faster than you can say boo.
timb
@cathyx: And President Palin would use those new soldiers wisely, after Obama’s youth vote switched over to the Republican party en mass and people like me wrote blog comments about the irony of it all until “they” came for me
J. Michael Neal
@Evolved Deep Southerner: Well, look at the choice of screen name.
soonergrunt
@cathyx: Well, it’s good that you stand by your words. Really.
It sucks that your words are wrong and have no basis in reality, but good on you anyway.
Janet Strange
@Sloegin:
Another notable exception, the Confederacy. And you’re right, the Civil War didn’t last nearly as long as our recent wars (Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan). The South running out of money was a factor. But the modern day Confederate/Republican party is simply continuing their 150 year long tradition of wanting war and not being willing to pay for it.
Suffern ACE
@Sloegin:
Yep. Pretty much. A draft would mean undoing the high-tech investments the military has made that reduce the number of soldiers and sailors. Pretending that the country could do this while borrowing (specifically, I think, from the SS Surplus) is going to be one of the gifts that will keep on giving.
@cathyx:
If the economy continues to go south for the middle class taxpayer, we will institute the draft as it might be less expensive to conduct the wars with more bodies than with the weapon systems we currently deploy. What tax base will be there to even tax?
Platonicspoof
—
and
This is far beyond ‘warning signs’.
I hope people can learn early warning signs of suicide, keeping in mind that there won’t be an all-inconclusive description.
If you read through this article by Jesse Bering, you’ll see that his view is personal as well as professional.
Again, these are individuals, regardless of the number of theories:
graves007
Heads should roll, but they won’t. Anyone who says anything about this will be labeled anti-american or a supporter of terrorists or that they don’t suppot the troops etc etc. Then it will go away and the poor family will be left holding the crumbling pieces.
Paul in KY
@Loviatar: Leave Tunch out of this.
brendancalling
@graves007:
yup. not one single head will roll over this. not one.