Soldier shoots himself in the foot.

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EagleHammer

Active member
Read in Metro yesterday, about a soldier in Sweden after becoming depressed (i guess) took off his boot during an exercise and shot himself, and his regiment asked to have him relieved, I say hang him from the highest tree, but what do you guy's think?
 
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We had a guy in our regiment did that in 1954. You could not have met a nicer guy, went through training with us, joined Ist Bn in Egypt. Very quiet, popular fellow, he was a great singer which was highly regarded amongst Glaswegians, and then into next few months - bang - shot himself in the foot and was discharged. Why - who knows? He had already shown that he could cut it.
 
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On a somewhat related note: the US DOD has confirmed yesterday that there were 108 suicides in the US Armed Forces in 2007. Most of the incidents occurred in the US after vets had been returned from Iraq. This number is up from previous years 102.


http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i6GBOG0InqxDzX_TMyxFBWQ1hhQQD90VD2CG1


Very Sad News. :-(


I was wondering if it would be appropriate if they were label 'DOW' (died of Wounds) instead of suicide, because not all serious wounds in war are physical. Whatdya all think?
 
What, only once?

Our stupid politicians do it every day, and get paid filmstar wages to do it. The really sad thing being that we keep re-electing them.

To be honest, I feel that any man who is that desperate or sick, is no use in a fighting unit anyway, he may as well be relieved. Maybe different if your country is under attack.
 
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Well, we're talking about conscripts here, in Sweden (and Norway) the service is mandatory and to refuse is a hazzle that only political activists take any pleasure in.

I'd say it takes either some degree of courage or a serious amount of desperation to shoot yourself in the foot to get out of the service.
The person in question would probably be quite determined or totally unfit for service, and in these cases any military unit would be better off without them.

I've seen several desperate attempts to avoid service, but none of such degree.
We usually get rid of them in boot camp, if not earlier.

On a second note, the ones that hang in for such long time as halfway through duty is usually over the average intelligent, but then something snaps.
I've seen that too, and it was for sure no pleasant experience...
 
We had a few suicides for various reasons.
Shooting through the foot though... don't think we had any of those. I guess we're all or nothing people.
 
Chargeable offence that......Self inflicted wounds, worth about three months in in a military prison
 
senojekips said:
What, only once?

Our stupid politicians do it every day, and get paid filmstar wages to do it. The really sad thing being that we keep re-electing them.
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The amazing thing is the case of politicians is that there are few deaths from this practice given that most of them have both feet their mouth for most of their careers.


To be honest, I feel that any man who is that desperate or sick, is no use in a fighting unit anyway, he may as well be relieved. Maybe different if your country is under attack.
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Makes sense.


84RFK said:
I'd say it takes either some degree of courage or a serious amount of desperation to shoot yourself in the foot to get out of the service.
The person in question would probably be quite determined or totally unfit for service, and in these cases any military unit would be better off without them.
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Thats the bit I don't get, it must take a hell of a lot of courage to shoot yourself or commit suicide and you would think that if you had the strength to do such a thing you would have the strength to sort out your problems.
 
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84RFK said:
Well, we're talking about conscripts here, in Sweden (and Norway) the service is mandatory and to refuse is a hazzle that only political activists take any pleasure in.


Yeah - Although I well remember the guy and his name, I can't remember if he was a 3 year regular, or a 2 year conscript, because our training squads contained both with no differentation, and in Egypt he was in B company whereas I was in HQ.
So what bearing that had in his case I cannot say. All I do know is that it came as a big surprise to me, he was not one of our usual suspects for lack of commitment. I never saw him waver in our training challenges, and he was not the sort of guy anyone messed with.

And you are correct - mostly we were all sieved during training, after that no problem with coping as a rule.

And LeEnfield is correct regarding this being a military offence. Talking of courage, our MPBDs and MCEs needed courage and strength to face anyway.
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I had a chap that worked for me, who had been awarded the MM in Anzio. He had been taken prisoner and had been put in the back of a German Half track with some other prisoners. They over powered their guards stole the half track and fought their way to their own lines. Now this chap had been at Dunkirk, had fought right through the Western desert, Sicily, Anzio, Italy, D Day and fought his way right up to Rhine and should have been on the Rhine Crossing. ~~~Well he felt that his luck was about to run out so shot him self in foot. He got away with it becuase he claimed it was an accident and with his record this accepted, but he openly admitted that he had such a sense of doom that he could not go on. Now after five years in the front lines with little or no time off between battles is it any wonder a person can get themselves to this point.
 
One of my comrades shot himself in the hand while beeing stationed in Mazhar-i-sharif (Afghanistan). But this guy always was very strange and ... kinda stupid... such things happen
 
mmarsh said:
I was wondering if it would be appropriate if they were label 'DOW' (died of Wounds) instead of suicide, because not all serious wounds in war are physical. Whatdya all think?
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Negative. There are veterans of all wars who have dealt with PTSD without offing themselves.
 
Wow, uh, shooting yourself in the boot is an open act of depseration to escape. I say that they are a coward to attempt to escape military service like that. Fight it through.
 
Cdt Matteo......For some one that has never seen combat, then just how do you call a person a coward that has fought in more battles than you will ever see. An uncle of mine spent four years in the trenches during WW1 and when he came home he was such a mess he killed him self, in those days there was no help you were just expected to get on with it.
 
Cdt Matteo said:
Wow, uh, shooting yourself in the boot is an open act of depseration to escape. I say that they are a coward to attempt to escape military service like that. Fight it through.
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Don't be like one of those people who talk about things they don't know. I'm real careful when talking about war.
 
When I read this post I did some checking around on the subject.
Since everyone here really just are guessing their arse off. (about THIS incident)

In this situation the warning signs were there.
The young man conscripted had on numerous occasions asked to be released of his duties and/or requested transfers out of this particular unit.
The responsible cadre member had reported this up the chain of command then gotten stuck, thus no action had been taken.
No talks with the conscript about what or why he now after half his term of service was so desperate to get out.

At the end of the day this young man decided his only option to get out of the unit was the drastic step to inflict a wound on himself.
(He was nowhere near any combat, he was just doing his conscription service.)

Someone screwed the pooch big time, and gave our armed forces another black eye.

I will back 13 on this one.
If you haven´t walked the walk, and all that..

"If all you have is a hammer, all your problems will start looking like nails"..

//KJ.
 
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Cdt Matteo said:
Wow, uh, shooting yourself in the boot is an open act of depseration to escape. I say that they are a coward to attempt to escape military service like that. Fight it through.
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Cdt Matteo - listen to the soldiers here, to what they have told you.
 
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