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Recruiter suicides in Houston worry advocates

HOUSTON — Five Army recruiters from the same Houston-based battalion have committed suicide in recent years, leading veteran advocate groups to ask for more scrutiny of such stressful jobs during wartime.

The August suicides of Staff Sgt. Larry G. Flores Jr., 26, and Sgt. 1st Class Patrick G. Henderson, 35, occurred as suicides among active duty personnel are expected to set a record for the second year in a row. The Houston Chronicle reported Friday that 93 soldiers had killed themselves by the end of August. In 2007, 115 soldiers committed suicide.

The Houston battalion’s suicides are a “very loud, very bright alarm” that Army officials and politicians shouldn’t ignore, said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense.

“This may warrant changes in ... how the military addresses mental health needs for returning combat veterans placed in stressful noncombat jobs,” he said.

The Houston Recruiting Battalion’s Lt. Col. Toimu “Troy” Reeves and Command Sgt. Major Cheryl M. Broussard declined the newspaper’s request for interviews. Neither Reeves nor Broussard replied to e-mail requests by the AP for comment. But a spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion Houston said all commanders train their military and civilian personnel on suicide prevention each year.

The U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox issued a statement saying it will deploy a chaplain, psychologist and equal opportunity adviser to the battalion in October. It also plans to establish a suicide prevention board.

“The United States Army Recruiting Command is deeply concerned by the instances of suicide within the Houston Recruiting Battalion,” the statement read.

Recruiting is considered a tough job in the military. Recruiters face pressure to sign at least two “prospects” a month, which is more difficult during war. If they don’t “make mission,” recruiters can be punished with longer duty hours and threatened with losing rank or receiving bad evaluations, veterans advocates said.

“The situation you’re placed in, the expectations you are given, are lose-lose,” said Staff Sgt. Jonathan L. Heinrich, a recruiter with the battalion’s Tyler Company. “You can talk to as many people as you want to, but if people don’t want to join the Army, there’s nothing you can do.”

Many recruiters from the Houston battalion said they regularly work 12- to 14-hour days, six or seven days a week, and have long commutes to small stations far from a military base.

In the latest suicides, the recruiters died six weeks apart. Flores was found hanging in his garage in Palestine on Aug. 9. Flores had led the Tyler company’s Nacogdoches recruiting station and served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Two weeks later, police were called to Henderson’s home in an East Texas town also named Henderson. The Iraq veteran, who was posted in Tyler Company’s Longview station, was threatening suicide in what police described as a “meltdown.” He and his wife apparently argued Sept. 19, and the next morning, his stepson found him hanging in the shed behind his house.