Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Deputy Rick Rhyne
The city of Fayetteville, North Carolina, home to the U.S. Army’s Fort Bragg, has suffered through a series of violent incidents perpetrated by soldiers who have returned home from war.
Many of the 14,000 soldiers stationed at the base suffer from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems caused by the stresses of combat and multiple deployments.
Lieutenant General Frank Helmick reported that six For Bragg soldiers had committed suicide in the past six weeks, and that there were at least 25 cases of spousal abuse at the installation in the past 30 days, according to the Fayetteville Observer.
On December 8, Iraq veteran Martin Abel Poynter shot to death Moore County Deputy Rick Rhyne before killing himself. Two days later, paratrooper Seth Andrews, recently returned from Iraq, murdered his wife, Hillary, before turning his rifle on himself.
Last year, the application for increased funding for Fayetteville’s drug court noted “an alarming trend in the area—illegal use of prescription drugs by active-duty military and veteran populations. It is an accepted statistic that one in four soldiers (has) used prescription medications for nonmedical purposes. Many of our soldiers are coming back addicted to some type of prescription narcotic due to injuries sustained overseas.” The most abused drug is oxycodone.
-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
When War Comes Home: Crime Surge Among Veterans Suggest Some Didn't Leave Horrors Behind (by Greg Barnes, Fayetteville Observer)
Prescription Drugs Cause More Deaths than Illegal Drugs (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Should Fort Bragg Soldiers be Punished for Killing a Private? (AllGov)
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