Sean's Room: How Joint Base is Working to Combat Suicides in the Military

Senior Airman Connor Runkle, crew chief for the 305^th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst was going about his daily duties and handling the usual ups and downs of military life a little more than a year ago when he was summoned to a commander’s call which shattered his day.

Runkle was told that an airman had died by suicide the day prior. He then found out it was one of his closest friends.

“I never met anyone with as many goals and ambitions,” Runkle said about the friend he lost. “His life was so organized. And, just like that, he was gone.”

That was Jan. 13, 2023.

Only six weeks later, on Feb. 25, while he was still processing the loss of one friend, Runkle was summoned to another commander’s call where he received a second sledgehammer blow of bad news.

Another airman from the same dorm had committed suicide. It was another friend of Runkle’s.

“It certainly blindsided me,” he said. “None of us ever thought this could happen.”

Runkle noted that both of his friends had talked about issues they were having. Both were a long way from home for the first time — one was from the state of Washington and the other from the Philippines; both were having some difficulty adjusting to military life and managing the stress of dealing with their leadership.

Both became part of a troubling statistic: Nearly 500 active-duty personnel took their own lives in 2022, according to the Department of Defense.

Slowing this trend is not easy. Runkle noted both his friends were using mental health organizations on the base, but, “Neither was sure he had a safe place where he could go to talk.”

Shortly after the loss of his friends, Runkle began attending training sessions, including the military’s Integrated Prevention and Resiliency Program, which is designed to help servicemen and -women obtain the resources they need to thrive in military life, including mental and emotional help.

“I needed to understand what happened and I wanted to know if there was something more I could do,” Runkle said.

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https://www.roi-nj.com/2024/02/20/healthcare/seans-room-how-joint-base-is-working-to-combat-suicides-in-military/