Domestic Violence In The Military example essay topic

On September 30th of last year the Subcommittee on Military Personnel of the House Armed Services committee traveled to Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, NC to hold meetings concerning the alleged murders of four wives of US Army soldiers, three of whom were special operations soldiers, who had recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Although officials on base say that there is no connection between the four killings Deborah Tucker, co-chairwoman of the Defense Department's Task Force on Domestic Violence, is alarmed at the number of killings of spouses in one place in such a relatively short time. Many believe that the stress of deployment and the fear of unfaithfulness by their wives may have been a cause of the killings, but Tucker believes that there were deeper problems in the marriages including past violence, that in conjunction with insecure "control hungry" husbands who feared losing control because of their deployments. Representative Mike McIntyre (R-NC), a member of the House Armed Services Committee panel who traveled to Fayetteville believes that these incidents should be treated as crimes because that is what they are and that the military should work together with civilian agencies to fight domestic violence through a confidential reporting system. Also, Representative John McHugh (R-NY) wrote a letter to the Pentagon inquiring that the research be given to the psychological effects of the malaria drug given to the servicemen as a possible reason for the killings as a connection between three of the four incidents. Stress has also been attributed to the killings at Fort Bragg.

Officials state the three of the four service men had been deployed to Afghanistan and at least one of them had returned home early to deal with unnamed family problems but there has been no recognized correlation between the murders and their service overseas. All of the killings took place off base with two of the men committing suicide after the murders; and of the four women two were fatally shot, one was strangled, and the other was stabbed to death. The Army is looking at their current methods of stress management and is seeking to find better ways of dealing with the pressures and stress of overseas duty. But it has been said that Special Operations soldiers may be unwilling to accept help. The killings of these four wives by their husbands who are service men, three of whom were deployed to Afghanistan prior to the incidents, is deplorable and saddening. The Subcommittee of Military Personnel of the House Armed Services Committee's visit to the base in order to meet with officials and agencies in an effort to find a resolution to this problem and a method of prevention brought up many potential solutions.

Army officials are looking in to stress management and a confidential reporting system to help fight domestic violence in the ranks, which is a great start to a long road with a bloody trail. These incidents are crimes and should be treated as such, which is exactly what is happening; the long-term efforts to fight this growing problem are admirable and will help in curbing this problem. But will domestic violence in the military ever be eliminated, doubtful; these men are trained to kill and have more stress put on them than the average citizen will ever encounter in their entire lives in a matter of a few years, but with new and better methods of looking out for troops mental well-being the Army and military as a whole will see a drastic reduction in the rate of violence in the home.