Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

I saw this headline at Hotair and my reaction was a tad different than you might expect:

Depressing: US Soldiers More Likely to Die by Suicide Than in Combat

and a bit from the piece:

One of the most alarming statistics reveals that U.S. soldiers were more likely to die by suicide than from combat industries. And it wasn’t by a small margin. Soldiers were nine times more likely to die in that manner.

Now maybe it’s just me, but if your soldiers are dying from suicide at a greater rate than by combat that means that you either:

1. Are not fighting large scale wars when heavy combat causalities
2. So effective at fighting wars that your troops are unlikely to get killed

I suspect that if you look at any major war from Vietnam back to the Revolution you won’t find a ratio like that.

What IS worrying is this figure from the same piece:

That still doesn’t come close to explaining the situation with the Army, however. Looked at based on per capita figures, the overall suicide rate for Americans went from 10.4 per 100,000 to 14.0 over the 21-year period measured. By comparison, the rate in the Army was 36.1 per 100,000 in 2021, and last year it reached 36.6. That’s not a minor difference. That’s more than two and a half times greater than what is seen in the general population. It’s also far more than should be written off as a coincidence.

If I may be so bold as to suggest I think this is yet another example of the costs of a post-Christian society. Once you remove the love of Christ from an equation, particularly a tough one and you’ll be surprised how a society, particularly a subset of a society engaged in dangerous work, reacts.

I watched the Trump interview with Dr. Phil and something hit me during it.

There have been several times when I have been in the middle of things, from clearing the camps in Denver and the attack on the hotel where Conservative bloggers stayed, to boarding the Tea Party express bus to Washington, to being in the middle of the mob of “antinazis” in Boston that had to be held back from attacking two men one wearing a Trump flag and one wearing an Israeli flag back in 2018 ( a story that’s very relevant now).

But there have been also times when I just missed being in a bad spot, I had hoped to be in Texas at Pam Geller’s event but things fell through so I wasn’t there when the gunman started shooting, work prevented me from getting to DC to cover the J6 events which almost certainly in this environment would have put me in jail and destroyed my family finances.

Furthermore it has also hit me that if I had made it as an independent reporter I would have been targeted by the left in a way that would have again made life difficult for DaWife and family.

I’d like to think I’d have still done a good and honorable job if any of those things had happened, but part of faith is trusting that even if you don’t know what God’s doing God knows what he’s doing.

I’m wondering if I’ve been granted a quiet life simply because a less quiet life might not have been conducive to the heath of my soul.

It would be nice to do something for the country and in a very small way I hope we still do good here but being a good husband, a decent father and doing well in small ways in the community where you actually know and see people face to face is of no less value and might even be of greater value.

Either way may I be grateful for the quiet life that I have now been granted and carry myself well within it.

It’s a small vocation but if that’s where God has put me and might put you let’s do that job that we have been given.