Army releases study of June, July Fort Bragg homicides
By Spc. Kyle J. Cosner
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (Army News Service, Nov. 12, 2002) -- The findings of a new study detailing the Army's plan for addressing recent incidents of domestic violence were released during a Fort Bragg, N.C. media roundtable Nov. 7.
The release included proposed solutions to what the study described as tragedies "of great concern to the entire Department of Defense and Department of the Army leadership at all levels."
The Fort Bragg Epidemiological Consultation Report concluded the victims of June and July homicides all suffered from marital discord. It said the stress of long deployments contributes significantly to a number of marital problems and many soldiers see seeking help for behavioral health problems as potentially career-ending.
"Hopefully, over time, if we're able to take on some of the findings of the EPICON team and to put in place some of their recommendations, then ... there will be a greater willingness on the part of both soldiers and their family members to seek assistance and that the assistance may be more readily available to them," said Col. Tad Davis, Fort Bragg's garrison commander. "We must move forward ... in a way that will allow us to enhance the way in which we conduct business today and ... in a fashion that improves the quality of life and well-being for our soldiers and their families."
In a six-week period during June and July, four soldiers at Fort Bragg allegedly killed their wives, two of those soldiers then committed suicide and another soldier was allegedly murdered by his wife in an unprecedented string of events that raised questions about the health of military marriages. The clustering of domestic violence-related homicides caused the Army to charter EPICON to investigate the incidents and determine what measures could be taken to prevent future acts of domestic violence.
Commissioned by the Army's surgeon general, the study was conducted on-site by a team that included subject-matter experts from the Department of the Army and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Col. Dave Orman, EPICON team chief, said the study was chartered in late July to quickly assess the situation.
"We were clearly concerned about what specifically was happening here at Fort Bragg, (and) we wanted to know if these tragedies had issues associated with them that were statistically significant," said Orman, who also serves as the psychiatry consultant to the Army's surgeon general. "Finally, we wanted to ... develop some recommendations that we could advise not only the local leadership with, but also the leadership of the Army at the national level."
Of particular note, the EPICON study determined that the anti-malarial drug mefloquine, commercially known as Lariam, was not a factor in the clustering of the homicides. There had been rampant speculation by the media shortly after the incidents that the drug's side effects had played a role in the killings.
"We could not find any evidence ... that Lariam had anything to do with the ... individuals' behavior," Orman said.
The recommendations that the EPICON report ultimately made to both Fort Bragg and Department of the Army officials included what the report characterized as a need to bring behavioral health counselors closer to soldiers, at the brigade level or lower.
"In none of these cases, as far as we could find documented, was behavioral health treatment sought prior to the tragedies," Orman said. "What was (also) discovered was that there was a prevalent attitude and a perception that seeking behavioral health care was not career-safe."
"One way to get to this issue is to make those behavioral health specialists more available to the soldiers, more accessible to them, and more familiar to them and their commanders," Davis said. "The key part of this is ... making the behavioral health specialists available more readily down in our unit areas."
The report also stipulated that more counseling and redeployment training is needed for soldiers returning from a combat zone to prevent potential conflicts among newly reunited families.
"A lot of effort was put into our reunification program (as a result of the study), and that program consists of several parts," Davis said. "Part one is essentially the training we provide to our soldiers ... in terms of what expectations they should have or maybe not have when they reunite with their families ... so that when that soldier returns, (he is) going to have to go through a transitionary period. We want to work very hard with the soldiers to increase their understanding of what to expect back home.
"At the same time, we are offering a similar approach to family members through our Family Readiness Groups back at Fort Bragg, so we make those family members equally aware of what the expectations might be of their spouse when he or she returns. Those two things were put into place almost immediately after this series of events occurred."
Davis said more would be done to remove the stigma from seeking out help for behavioral or marriage problems.
"In some cases, there is a reluctance on the part of individuals to come forward and ask for assistance," Davis said. "It may be because there is a perception that they may not be well-received, there's a perception that it may adversely affect their career progression or adversely affect their family as an entity."
"There are a lot of misperceptions out there, but consequently, whether it's a perception or a reality, we've got to do a better job in terms of reaching out and assisting folks," Davis continued.
Orman said through extensive research, interviews and the use of focus groups, his team identified six major findings during its time at Fort Bragg.
He said the statistical anomaly of the cases, the discovery that marital discord was a major factor in each case, the fact that the stresses of long deployments contributes significantly to a number of marital problems and soldier redeployments lack proper reunification training all led directly to their recommendations. The removal of Lariam as a factor in the cases and the finding that the Army's model for developing behavioral health services contains flaws were also cited in the report.
"When we're dealing with the issue of domestic violence, it's not just a Fort Bragg issue, it's not just a Cumberland County issue, (and) it's not just a state of North Carolina issue - it's an issue nationwide," Davis said. "The sooner that we realize that and get (these recommendations) on board, the sooner that this awareness is going to permeate around our society so that folks can assist with these issues when they come up.
"Just as we will never leave a soldier behind on a field of battle, we will never, ever leave a family behind or adrift," Davis said. "We will always be concerned about them and work as hard as we can to assist them in every way possible."
(Editor's note: Spc. Kyle J. Cosner is assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Public Affairs Office.)
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