Since at least the time of Abraham Lincoln, presidents have sent letters of condolence to the families of service members killed in action, whether the deaths came by hostile fire or in an accident.
So after his son killed himself in Iraq in June, Gregg Keesling expected that his family would receive a letter from President Obama. What it got instead was a call from an Army official telling family members that they were not eligible because their son had committed suicide.
“We were shocked,” said Mr. Keesling, 52, of Indianapolis.
Under an unwritten policy that has existed at least since the Clinton administration, presidents have not sent letters to survivors of troops who took their own lives, even if it was at the war front, officials say. The roots of that policy, which has been passed from administration to administration via White House protocol officers, are murky and
probably based in the view that suicide is not an honorable way to die, administration and military officials say.
But at a time when the Pentagon is trying to destigmatize mental health care in hopes of stemming a
near epidemic of suicide among service members, the question of whether the survivors of military suicides deserve presidential recognition has taken on new significance.
“These families already feel such shame and so alienated from the military and the country, a letter from the president might give them some comfort, some sense that people recognize their sacrifice,” said Kim Ruocco, director for suicide support for Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, a military support group. “What better way to eliminate stigma?”
( As suicide has crept out of the shadows and become a front-burner problem for the military... )--------------
Source.I had no idea this policy existed. That's awful.
Also, this bit, both vague and infuriating: "But opponents of presidential letters of condolence argue that treating suicide the same as other war deaths might encourage mentally frail soldiers to take their lives by making the act seem honorable."
...Seriously? Who the hell are these "opponents" saying that?
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