There's an old saying in the military "A soldier takes a soldier's chance." This usually refers to the chances that a soldier can, while serving in the military, die but with the acceptance that he or she is aware of this by signing up (granted, this is less applicable in times of draft, but still it's said). But now, there is one less chance a soldier can take on since the Senate is moving to
ban gambling machines on military bases. This bill is in Congress, sponsored by Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-TN), is on the table because a Warrant Officer by the name of Aaron Walsh killed himself in 2006 because of 20,000 dollars in gambling debt he had accrued, which it is said started after he played with slot machines available on military bases. So, a soldier kills himself after gambling too much and we ban slot machines.
Rep. Davis is a third term representative from the state of Tennessee who was mayor of a small town, then state representative. Aaron Walsh, as far as I can tell, had nothing to do with the Volunteer State. His tragic suicide took place in a Maine forest (after he went to an Indian Casino to gamble). After he got out of the army, after years of battling addiction for years, after being homeless in Las Vegas for a while, after trying to reunite with his wife and children (whom he estranged in favor of his gambling addiction), WO1 Walsh, Aaron killed himself in a Maine forest. Seemingly, these two men were not connected in anyway that traditionally drives legislation, that being he's from the representative's district or any part of his committees. Davis is a
blue dog on the House committees of Science, Agriculture and Transportation and Infrastructure. Not a one of those three committees has anything to do with commerce, armed services or anything. He has nothing to do with how the military functions, how gambling in this country works or how personnel in the government service are treated. And yet, he's making this a big deal. Which means, oddly enough, he probably believes in all of it.
CNN couldn't stop reporting that slot machines on various bases brings in 130 million in revenue that goes to morale enhancing activities [ed note: I freudian slipped and wrote "enchancing activities" when I first wrote that] and paying for other R&R facilities. Which means people are getting all excited about the prospect of where is this money gonna come from in these days of budget crunch. And the main thing is that people are wondering where in the name of all that is budgeted this issue came from. There have always been some kind of revenue enhancing activities at military bases (movies, bake sales, etc) but this is the first time there's ever been real discussion about gambling run by the military for the entertainment of (and possible fleecing of) American soldiers. It's also worth noting this bill only targets the Army gambling concessions but not the other branches of service. It's also the epitome of current military thinking.
After all, the goal is to prevent another tragedy like what happened to Aaron Walsh. So, the Congress reacted, as all public policy is reacting to some event, and over-reacted as they are wont to do. But, instead of addressing the real problem, mental health in the Army, they address the symptom. The Army has real issues, deep issues, major issues with how it deals with less than ship shape soldiers. There are numerous incidents with
how they handle PTSD. Veterans care is failing, so they cut back money, but make Walter Reed look prettier. Sure there are less facilities around the country for real veterans' health care, but they look nicer. We don't try and treat the real problem of not enough good training for military medical personnel, but we try to point to lower numbers of PTSD. Of course, the numbers are lower because less people are diagnosed properly, but it all looks good.
We overreact in all the wrong ways and at this point, we're taking away gambling machines, but not teaching soldiers how to be financially responsible enough to deal with gambling. We don't have enough opportunities for this man to have sought REAL help while he was in the military. The military support staff are probably good people who do their best, but there just isn't enough manpower or attention thrown at that part of the issue. We don't like to think of our military or soldiers as vulnerable or weak in any way, and that doubly applies to mental issues we don't deal with in the general population. Addiction is terrible, but short of alcoholism, we don't really deal with addiction in a real way. Heck, we don't even deal with THAT very well. But, the Army deals with it even worse out of a sense of denial and sense of shame about those who might try to come forward.
So, we're taking away the slot machines to prevent suicides caused by financial dire straights. Only makes me wonder if we're going to ban credit card companies and mortgage lenders from dealing with army personnel those, when abused can, lead to suicides. There has been a history not enough teaching young soldiers, usually with barely a high school education, about how to properly handle finances (David H. Hackworth has been far more eloquent on that score than I will ever be). This is another case of instead of proper training, we're gonna spend money on dealing with the aftermath, but a day late and a dollar heavy.
Well, it's a good thing we're doing so well in Iraq, right? Right?
So it is written, so do I see it.