Jessica Hailey

9 April 2014
Prof. Linda Hofmann
ENGL 1102
Note to Reader
This is a global revision of my original paper. Im struggling to keep the ideas connected
to the inquiry question because there is so much information. For the final revision, I
hope to have better transitions and connectivity to what Ive sought about to learn about
my topic.
Life Over Matter
I woke up in a 4 star hotel room and turned on my cellphone. I was happy to see
that I had no missed phone calls from strange area codes. There were no text messages
with ranks tacked onto the names. Every day, I think of how different my life is now that
I transferred from Active Duty into the Reserves. Something as simple as logging onto
my computer at work relieved me; the mission isnt as demanding, so I only operate on
one screen.
My coworkers have always been in the Reverses; they have never led an Active
Duty life. They laugh when Im so uptight. They constantly remind me that Im in the
Reserves now. It made me wonder how much was I going through when I was on Active
orders? What are factors that increase the chance of suicide in Active Duty Air Force in
comparison to the Reserves?
In my 3 years of Active Duty service, I noticed that the majority of Airmen I
worked with joined the Air Force after high school. Adolescent Airmen were trained to
maintain military bases, deploy and train other new Airmen who come from a variety of
backgrounds. Based off the researched of Dr. Stultz, it can be argued that Airmen who
are going through their adolescent stage should not have this kind of responsibility.
Dr. Stultz lectured that since adolescents are still developing problem solving
skills, There is no obvious, there is no surely, there is no of coursebecause
theyre reading the emotions incorrectlytheir response is going to be incorrect. (Stultz
2010). The constant pressures accompanied with being a full-time Airman create more
stress in Active Duty than it does in the Reserves. Since there is hardly room for error in
Active Duty, young Airmen constantly deal with the strain of complying with military
instructions as well as meeting the demands in their personal lives.
Life in the Reserves is almost the exact opposite; since Airmen only have to
report in once a month, they only endure these stressors for a short period of time. Also,
the Reserves is designed so that the military can fit into the Airmans schedule whereas
Active Duty is priority 24/7. Adolescent Airmen have a choice in the Reserves. If they
decide they no longer want to serve in the Armed Forces, they can engage with their
leadership to discontinue their service and will be able to come back to it. In Active Duty,
Airmen are confined to their contracts.
This confinement greatly increases distress for adolescents. As young Airmen
slowly learn new things about themselves, the Air Force constantly redefine them. This
creates more stress. Adolescents minds are constantly at work as their frontal lobes are
developing (Stultz 2010).
Another detail most adolescent Airman dont take into account is how Active
Duty life can put them at risk. Metrics recorded in 2011 revealed that 4.7% of the lowest
pay grades, E-1 (Airman Basic) through E-4 (Senior Airman), contemplated suicide at
some point of their careers (Snarr, Heyman and Slep). As the ranks increase, the ideation
of suicide decreases. The officer grade O-4 (Major) through O-10 (General) levels out at
2.0% thinking of suicide. This means out of 10 adolescent Airmen who signs up to enlist,
its more likely that 5 of them will contemplate suicide.
These probabilities are greatly affected by the amount of time Airmen spend
focusing on their jobs. High school students who join the Air Force after high school are
typically authorized the rank of E-1 (Airman Basic). After the student completes boot
camp, theyre immediately assigned a military base. In Active Duty, the Airman starts
work in a matter of days, whereas a Reserves Airman starts work in months.
Active Duty and Reserves are set up so drastically for specific reasons. The
Reserves mission is to ensure the Airman is able to maintain a healthy civilian life as
well as fulfill the missions of the Air Force. In contrast, Active Duty is structured for
Airmen to be mission-ready at all times. This gives Airmen little to no time to focus on
their civilian lives. Active Duty life is priority at all times.
Adolescent Airmen typically sign contracts without thinking of what theyre
agreeing to. For example, career fields that have big bonuses tacked on to them are more
likely to be the most stressful ones. With the mission becoming more demanding as war
operations change, fitting in becomes another stressor that can contribute to making
Airmen feel overwhelmed.
Based off my contract, statistics show 4.8% of Black/African-American female
Airmen thought of suicide, which was the lowest percentage compared to White, Latino
and other races. Unmarried women have a higher report at 6.1%. Classified as the
unknown in religious faith, the lowest rate of 4.6% of women attempted suicide as the
highest recorded non-Christian skyrockets at 13.9%. And finally, as a Mission Support
Airman, I fit the third highest suicide attempt category of 8.3% (Snarr, Heyman and
Slep).
Airmen who are unmarried, nonbelievers have a higher chance of contemplating
suicide than those who are married with a belief system. In the Reserves, the constant
strain of the mission of the Air Force is a secondary stressor. While Active Duty forces
Airmen to focus on what theyre trained to do, the Reserves allows Airmen to make
themselves priority.
When I was on active orders, I didnt realized how bad I was burning myself out.
Joie Acosta and his team categorized how the struggles of military duties affect members.
Every military member starts in code green. In code green, we are alert and well trained.
We are prepared and in the best condition for duty. Code yellow is when our environment
affects us. At this point, we will have to remember all that we were trained to do. Code
orange is when something goes wrong. At this point, military members are still focused
and alert on our mission. Code red is when we first realize that were too damaged to
continue the mission (Acosta, et al). By this time, its very difficult to recover. Some
military members dont make it back to code green and end up stuck in code yellow at
best.
When I was in Active Duty, my sister made me realize when I was in code yellow
too long. Every time she called, shed suck her teeth and let out a disappointing sigh.
What? You called me to complain about the money Im sending you? I replied. Most
times when Dana pouted on the phone I knew what she was thinking until shed finally
say it, You need to come home. You my only sister and I aint seen you in over a year.
Every time Dana called I couldnt say no to seeing her at least ONCE a year.
Now that Im in the Reserves, I can be around every day. As a Reservist, I am in control
of when I can go home. In Active Duty, I had to wait to get approved. Not knowing if I
can get away from the relentless obligations of military duties took a toll on me when I
was in the Air Force full-time. In contrast, the most stress I have to suffer with the
military is when I want to be obligated to wear the uniform; I pick my dates to contribute
to the mission.






As I progressed the ranks in the United States Air Force, I got the opportunity to
work with the Army, Marines and Navy. I noticed that their mindsets were very different
from mine. Air Force culture is so far removed from the way the other branches live.
When I sat in airports on my way to and from Temporary Duties, I would listen to the
Seamen, Soldiers and Marines talk. There were so many more of them than us. In fact,
Airmen typically reported to the same places with 3 or 5 to their 10 to 15.
A Fox News Article put the Armed Forces to the test, pushing each branch of
military to explain what their response is to the rising suicide rates (Fox News). Since
Active Duty military members dont have the freedoms to control their careers, higher-
ranking officials band together to come up with strategies to decrease the suicide rate.
Each branch has its ideas: the Armys solution was to create more opportunities
for their soldiers to connect and identify with one another. As a team, soldiers will face
suicidal thoughts and the facility for counseling treatment will be extended.
The Marines was blunt in admitting that the majority of their members deal with
substance abuse. As a solution, they feel they will attempt to minimize punishment and
maximize rehabilitation. The Navy also admitted to substance abuse as an issue in their
branch, but they also targeted the importance of family issues (Fox News).
Air Force Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Brett Ashworth suggested the poor
leadership is one of the key issues causing the suicide rate in the Air Force. As a solution,
he proposed that Airmen use a new Air Force website that includes tips on
recognizing distressed personnel (Fox News).
In the Reserves, the resolution to use the Internet can be plausible. In the civilian
sector, its easy to go online for information for fast information. The Air Force website
is like the Google for Reserves Airmen because we typically fit into the Air Force culture
once a month. However, the website has a way of neglecting Airmen who constantly live
in a world of Air Force instructions and retraining. Theres hardly anytime to think long
enough to generate a question to search for as an Active Duty Airman. Why not use
human interaction instead?
The Air Force Personnel Center is accessible to anyone. It includes links to a
variety of tools for suicide prevention. One of the main tools that tasked leadership to
confront the suicide rate in the Air Force was the Air Force Pamphlet (AFPAM) 44-160
(Christianson). The Department of Defense (DoD) approved the writing that structured a
hierarchy that would combat suicide in the Air Force. In the AFPAM 44-160, Section I
explains how the senior ranking officers will ultimately be in charge of making sure
leadership is proactive with their Airmen.
The Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CSAF) will expect numbers from each Major
Command (MAJCOM). Each MAJCOM Commander will work feed metrics to the
CSAF from Wing Commanders. Wing Commanders will rely on Group Commanders to
give accurate accounts of the moral of Airmen. Each Squadron Commander will task
with officers with ways maintain good morale amongst Airmen (Christianson). In plain
terms, the AFPAM 44-160 guides Airmen to target the issue of suicide from the very top
of leadership to the bottom, rather than from the bottom up.
As the CSAF works on a global scale to maintain countless missions, Airmen
struggle with distress. Enlisted members are hands-on in mission endeavors, while most
officers make decisions based off numbers. Very few officers get up close and personal
with the troubles of the Enlisted ranks. Of those few officers, the Chaplain Corps is the
most personal career field to work with Airmen.
Chaplains are officer only. In the Air Force, there are only two ranks, officer and
enlisted. There is a fine line between the officers and the enlisted. However, the
Chaplains job is to be a comforting service to both. It is unclear how the Chaplain career
field competes (Levy et al). Each Chaplain has a divine duty, all the while maintain
combat standards in the Air Force.
The majority of career fields are geared towards one specific mission like support
to maintain a military installation or pilot for quick transportation of mission essentials.
These jobs can also be restricted to just one branch, like the Navy with ship operations.
But as for the Chaplain has a unique responsibility; he or she is required to service all
military personnel and affiliates. This probably explains why the Chaplains are more
likely to show symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) than any other career
field (Levy et al).
The job of a Chaplain requires him or her to keep many secrets. Chaplains hold a
policy of safe secret security. In other words, military members and affiliates can go to
the Chaplain for counseling for anything and the Chaplain cannot report it unless the
client is suspected to do harm to him or herself or others. I can imagine how difficult it
has to be to stay out of code red when someone is constantly going to the Chaplain for
advise, or even just to vent.
If theres anything I learned from transferring from Active Duty, its how
important it is to be where I want to be rather than where Im told to be. The freedom to
be mobile and not being tagged with statistics is always a relief. In the Reserves, I know
whats going on with my family, and where my sister is. When I leave the base in
Charleston, South Carolina, all the Commanders Calls, surveys and suicide prevention
chats are left there. As a young Airman, Im proud of the decisions Ive made to rise
above the negative statistics.





Works Cited
Acosta, Joie, Rachel Burns, Lisa Jaycox, Christopher Pernin, and
Rajeev Ramchand. The War Within: Preventing Suicide in the U.S. Military.
Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 2011. Print.
Christianson, Paul. Department of Defense. United States Air
Force. Air Force Suicide Prevention Program. Washington: Defense Pentagon,
2001. Web. <http://dmna.ny.gov/suicideprevention/AFPAM44-160.pdf>.
Levy, H. C., Conoscenti, L. M., Tillery, J. F., Dickstein, B. D. and Litz, B. T. (2011),
Deployment stressors and outcomes among Air Force chaplains. J. Traum. Stress,
24: 342346. doi: 10.1002/jts.20646
Military Suicide Rate Down More Than 22 Percent Since Last
Year, Defense Officials Say. Fox News, 2013. Web. 17 Mar 2014.
<http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/11/11/military-suicide-rate-down-more-than-
22-percent-since-last-year-defense/>.
Snarr, J. D., Heyman, R. E. and Slep, A. M. S. (2010), Recent Suicidal Ideation and
Suicide Attempts in a Large-Scale Survey of the U.S. Air Force: Prevalences and
Demographic Risk Factors. Suicide and Life-Threat Behavi, 40: 544552.
doi: 10.1521/suli.2010.40.6.544
Stultz, Jeannie, writ. "Part 1." Adolescent Brain Development. You
Tube: 22 Apr 2010. Web. 15 Mar 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl-
R5vtERj8 >.