WASHINGTON – Brigadier. General Ernest Litynski has received numerous awards and decorations during his nearly three decades in the Army. But he is best known among soldiers and his superiors for his campaign to expose mental health issues among troops, slowly removing the stigma that often leads to tragedy.
In meetings with new formations of Army Reserve troops, he may first talk about fitness and training before moving on to the story of his own falling apart after returning from Afghanistan, sitting in his basement in the dark, ignoring his family and staring. nothing.
“I walked away from everyone between 2007 and 2010,” he recalled. “I would not go to family parties, events, I would not go out with my family to eat. I would turn on the television just because of the noise. I wouldn’t go to bed with my wife. The burden I put on my wife and 12-year-old daughter had to be the worst.”
His daughter did not speak to him for years, he said.
He tells his story at ceremonies and gatherings, and made a video that the Army has posted on some of its Facebook accounts, usually a repository of war memorabilia, vaccine information and images of cold-weather drills. “It’s a shame if you show weakness,” he says, his voice trembling as he recounts his struggles with post-traumatic stress. “That’s how I felt.”
General Litynski’s campaign is striking within the military, where resilience is not only celebrated, but part of the job description.
After two decades of war, the military has yet to make significant progress on what many experts, lawmakers and service members say are among its most persistent problems: unaddressed mental health issues and rising rates of suicide among the troops.
“The needle hasn’t moved much on this,” said Mark C. Russell, a former Navy commander who is now a professor at Antioch University in Seattle with a background in military trauma. He added: “So it’s weird when someone with a star on their lapel is talking.”
The suicide rate among active duty service members increased by more than 40 percent between 2015 and 2020, according to data from the Department of Defense. The military has historically lagged behind the general population in suicide rates, but in recent years it has caught up.
A report last year from the War Project Costs at Brown University found that approximately 30,177 active-duty military personnel and veterans who have served since the attacks of September 11, 2001, died by suicide, compared to 7,057 killed in military operations during the two-decade war on terror.
Over several years of writing about veterans and military issues, I’ve received dozens of emails from desperate service members, or their families, about their mental health struggles and difficulty getting help when they’re off duty. Some families have written about losing loved ones to suicide.
Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat who sits on the House Armed Services Committee and will retire when her term ends in January, said the issue was so pressing: “I can guarantee you up front that that will be the focus. from my job this year. .”
While some service members, like General Litynski, have suffered combat-related trauma or injury, others enter the military with mental health issues that don’t show up on medical exams or that later become more intense.
The problem mirrors a larger crisis in the nation, with millions of Americans lacking access to or not seeking mental health care.
“Members of the military have to perform at a very high level, and that comes at a cost,” said Sherman Gillums Jr., a retired Navy officer and former top executive with Paralyzed Veterans of America.
“They teach us to mask everything that is wrong with us, to adapt and overcome ourselves. The military culture considers asking for help a responsibility, from recruiting to training and the rest of the career.”
General Litynski was born in Chicago and joined the Army in 1994. He has multiple advanced degrees and military accolades throughout a career that has included tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has held a variety of command positions in both active and service components. booking. He is now the commanding general of the 76th Operational Response Command in Salt Lake City.
After returning from abroad in 2009, General Litynski said his work life seemed fine, but he isolated himself in his basement when he came home at night. “I didn’t do anything,” he said, other than “let time pass.”
His few interactions with his family were generally stormy. When his wife, Jennifer, dented his minivan in a parking lot, he reacted by hitting the vehicle violently and repeatedly. “This was a 180-degree turn of who Ernie Litynski was,” she said.
In 2011, his wife said she had had enough. “That’s what triggered me. In essence, that moment was an ultimatum, and rightly so,” General Litynski said.
He sought help and began to reflect on the troops he had seen die abroad and the death of his youngest daughter from a rare genetic disease less than a year after her birth.
His psychiatrist at the Department of Veterans Affairs had an idea: talk about his struggles with his unit at the time in Milwaukee instead of giving the usual PowerPoint on post-traumatic stress.
General Litynski was worried that no one would understand him and how it might affect his career. But ultimately, he said, “I went all out.”
Some in the audience revealed experiences they had previously been too embarrassed to share. “I had young soldiers talk to me afterwards, hug me and cry,” she said.
The speech became his trademark, in a way. “When he first came to our unit, he told us that he felt powerless and that he was ready to surrender,” said Scott Alsup, who served under Gen. Litynski in Iraq. “He helped me get into rehab, which probably saved my life.”
“Being a man, you don’t talk about your feelings,” he added, “and to have someone who wasn’t afraid to show that was a big, big relief.”
In 2019, after speaking at an event in Florida for the redeployment of soldiers, General Litynski caught the attention of Army brass, who encouraged him to make a video, which was posted on Army Facebook pages.
While many applaud General Litynski’s efforts, veterans who suffered from mental health problems while serving said the military needed to do much more, such as improve health screenings for new recruits. Training must change and leaders must learn to address problems before they escalate, they say.
“There is a stigma, it persists and it’s real,” said Elizabeth S. Pietralczyk, a family physician in Alaska who joined the Air Force in 2003 to attend medical school. She left the military in 2021 before receiving her annuity, she said, due to her mental health issues. “People doubt your sincerity when you’ve done an amazing job of handling everything until it implodes,” she said. “It’s a common story.”
Dr. Pietralczyk was offered a position as a flight doctor, but to get it, she needed training in case she was ever caught, she said. She refused. “A lot of training exercises can be triggers for people,” she explained. “A lot of people don’t recognize that.”
The insistence of his superiors caused panic, anxiety and depression, he said. She considered hospitalization, but she feared how it might affect her career as a doctor.
The message of resilience at all costs is necessary for fighters, but may ultimately backfire, military leaders and experts say.
“Force readiness depends on the strength and resilience of each Soldier,” said Army spokesman Simon B. Flake.
“It takes a brave and self-aware soldier to admit they need help,” he added, noting that the Army has increased support services for troops.
National Guard and Reserve members often lack health insurance or access to mental health resources. “We see so many stories when a mental health process ends in tragedy,” said J. Roy Robinson, retired Brigadier General and president of the National Guard Association of the United States. “I really think a lot of those issues are related to access.”
Mr. Gillums noted that more soldiers were sharing their experiences with sexual harassment, assault and mental health issues on social media.
“This could be an intergenerational shift,” he said, “starting with young people seeing themselves as human first beyond their uniform and gun.”
