Feature Article
Quotables
Two of perhaps the most crucial players in stemming suicide within the U.S. Air Force are Thomas S. Moorman, Jr., and Charles H. "Chip" Roadman II. During the mid- to late-1990s Tom Moorman was vice chief of staff for the Air Force - a four-star general and a space officer who understood the concept of community. He had a visceral feeling that the Air Force community-at-large was failing its own with each and every suicide. Then-USAF Surgeon General Chip Roadman was a three-star general who reported to Moorman and answered the general's call to action with a plan and the people to fulfill it. The result? A monumental program - the first of its kind - to show that suicide is indeed a preventable health problem. Now, both retired from the Air Force and working in high-profile positions in the civilian sector, Moorman and Roadman offer their thoughts on the life-saving program that began with them.
Thomas S. Moorman, Jr.
Former USAF vice chief of staff who initiated the USAF suicide prevention project
“What a waste. It's what you hear people say about suicide. You don't necessarily hear that in an auto accident where the cause might be bad weather, bad luck, bad driving, alcohol. But with suicide you think maybe you could have prevented it. That's a terrible feeling.”
“Here's a young person who under normal circumstances might have 60 years to go in life. And he's cut down - by his own hand. It's sad. Sad, sad. The saddest deaths of all.”
“Suicide in the military gets magnified. The ripple effect is beyond belief. The guilt is pervasive. Your military unit is just like family. A suicide has a terrible and long-term effect on the unit as well as on all family members.
This (suicide prevention) is a command responsibility. A people responsibility.”
Thomas S. Moorman, Jr., M.B.A., M.P.S., is former vice chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force from 1994-1997, and former commander of the Air Force Space Command from 1990-1992. He is currently a vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, the Washington, D.C.-based global strategic management and technology consulting firm.
Charles H. "Chip" Roadman II
Former USAF surgeon general and planning team leader for the USAF suicide prevention project
“I was assigned a task that I thought was almost unattainable by the vice chief of staff of the Air Force. I had to put a strong arm on people to get them to participate. From where we were in 1995, it was like a huge tsunami coming at us, and you think, "Good God, I can't solve this problem." But you've got to get it into manageable bites.”
“If you're healthy and engaged in life and you're challenged, then you see suicide as such an overpowering waste. It's inexplicable. You can't blame gravity or some law of nature. You wonder, "What was going through their minds?"”
“Suicide is not just about sixty-some deaths (within the USAF). Lord no, we're talking about a culture. This is your comrade in arms.The ripple effect of suicide is tremendous - for military units, families, the entire culture.”
“This is maybe the thing that astounded me the most - the decline in family violence, in accidents, homicides - the spillover effect. We began to change the culture. And it was not what we set out to do. If Gen. Moorman had said to me, "I want you to reduce family violence and homicide and accidental deaths," I'd probably have said, "Okay, let's add in world hunger too."”
Charles H. "Chip" Roadman II, M.D., CN.A., is a former lieutenant general and surgeon general of the United States Air Force. Retired in 1999, Dr. Roadman is president and CEO of the American Health Care Association (AHCA), a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization that works to attain just, equitable and compassionate long-term health care for all Americans, particularly the elderly and disabled. This includes establishment by the U.S. Congress of a comprehensive national policy that addresses the long-term healthcare needs of all its citizens. Dr. Roadman, who hails from San Antonio and now resides in Falls Church, Va., can be reached at AHCA, 1201 L St. N.W., Washington, DC 20005, (202) 898-6324 or at croadman@ahca.org.
