America's warrior partnership fights against the veteran's suicide through joint connection

The retired US Army, lieutenant colonel Daniel Gade, a wounded soldier who refused to have the enemy won and built up a career that helps other soldiers in the classroom.

The annual report of the National Veteran Ministry of Self -Ministry of the Ministry of Veteran Affairs (VA), published in December 2024, announced that in December 2024 47,891 suicides were among all US -grown -ups in 2022 and were on average a little more than 131 a day. The numbers comprised 17.6 veteran self -murders per day.

Gade, a two -time recipient of Purple Heart, acts as a senior consultant for America's Warrior Partnership (AWP), who has the mission to work with communities to prevent the veteran's suicide and at the same time help the communities to find out how they can provide their veterans.

Through academic research with Duke University and other institutions as well as state and local authorities, AWP found that the veterans are much higher than what is reported.

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In fact, the research carried out by AWP and its partners shows that the veterans' suicide rate is actually higher, said Gade because many deaths are not reported. The organization, he added, conducts strict research, which is “a prerequisite for suicide”, which is to some of the main causes for the veteran injury, a term used because the transfer or separation is used.

“What you look at is the separation to better prevent suicide,” he said. “So it's not about throwing money in crisis lines, because if someone calls a crisis line, it is far too late. And for many people they never call a crisis line; they just go to the weapon. And that's not good enough.”

Instead, the process is about building veterans and helping them find their place in society, said a process that the gade has personally experienced.

Gade joined the army in 1992 at the age of 17. A year later he was accepted into the US Military Academy in West Point in New York. He completed the academy in 1997 and became a armored officer in the army. Seven years later, he was put into Iraq, where he was wounded twice.

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The first time that he was wounded was in November 2004, when the tank in which he was in was hit by a rocket grenades. Gade said he was mildly wounded, although a young soldier next to him, Dennis Miller from La Salle, Michigan, was killed in the attack. Two months later, Gade was involved in another attack.

“I was hit by a bomb on the side of the road, an IED [improvised explosive device] That made me lose all my right leg. So I am a right leg, an amputator on the hip, “he said, adding that the wounds forced him to spend a year in the hospital.” During this time … I had to find a way to rebuild myself. “

The reconstruction meant that Gade had to rediscover who would be professional and personal. It also meant thinking about the type of athletics that he would do and whether he would be able to take care of his family.

“All of these were really critical questions 20 years ago when I tried to solve this problem, and since then I had a great career,” he said.

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One year until the day after the injury of Gade, he started working on his master's degree at the University of Georgia. After completion, he was invited to the White House in order to act as deputy director of the domestic policy of the White House under the administration of George W. Bush.

“I have become of a kind of wounded warrior at the user level over the highest level of government, you know, and helped to formulate guidelines that would help wounded warriors,” said Gade.

Gade withdrew from the army in 2017 and spent the last six years of his service as a professor in West Point, which he describes as a “phenomenal place”.

Then Gade worked in politics and in 2020 went on a run for the US Senate in Virginia as a republican against the democratic Senator Mark Warner. Gade finally lost, but he was able to join Glenn Youngkin's campaign for Virginia Governor as a consultant, and won as a Youngkin, Gade was the commissioner of the Department of Veterans Services.

“I have to return to my roots to serve veterans, which I have done as a personal mission for many years, basically taken since I became a wounded warrior in 2005,” said Gade.

Today Gade has a minor company that is owned by veterans named Interfuse, which is involved in chemical and biological defense products for the Air Force, the army and the marine.

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He continues to help veterans by AWP by combining veterans with their communities and giving them the purpose and value while connects them with other people. If you do that, said Gade, you will find suicide or tendency to commit suicide “a good piece”.

One of the communities with which the organization worked is the Navajo nation.

“If you think of people in society who are disadvantaged … you always think of minorities in the city center or people who were born in such a difficult situation,” said Gade. “But very few people know the need of the American Indian.”

Gade grew up in North Dakota, where the Navajo Nation has several large reservations. These reservations suffer from poverty, alcoholism, dysfunctional families, divorce and many other topics.

He explained that many people in the Navajo nation connect to the military because they are patriotic, but also because they are looking for a way to escape and improve themselves. They often do great things in the military, said Gade and pointed out the Navajo code spokesman who used their mother tongue in World War II to create secret codes.

After the tribal members served their country, they return to their communities, but according to the Gade they bring back post -traumatic stress, physical injuries or other conditions that are placed on the already difficult economic and social conditions for them.

“America's warrior partnership, through its connection with the Navajo Nation, [is] The reason for a whole approach to socially, “said Gade. In some cases, you may want to offer you resources so that you can escape this way yourself.”

Part of this community connection also gives insights into who the veterans are, not only to prevent suicide, but also to maintain better statistics about what leads to the suicide of veterans.

AWP created a project called Operation Deep Dive, which further divided into the veteran causes of death.

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While the VA reports a veteran self -mortem rate of around 17%, AWP found through Operation Deep Dive that the rate is almost twice as high.

Gade said the difference was due to non -reported suicide. For example, there can be a 25-year-old veteran who dismisses a vehicle at midnight, but it is not known why he crashed the car. The forensic doctor can only write the cause of death as an accident with a vehicle, but a deeper dive from Operation Deep Dive can examine the life of the person. The same investigation could find that the veteran was desperate, just gone through a divorce or something in this direction.

Another example in which Operation Deep Dive can help is if someone has an overdose of a prescribed medication prescribed by the VA. The forensic doctor must determine whether it is accidental or suicide, and through a deep dive, the organization notes that the deaths were more self -harm or random self -harm than just accidents.

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“The difference comes here – it expands our definition of the unnatural death with these others,” said Gade. “And then you notice, oh, man, many of them are suicides and not just accidents with a vehicle.”

“Every suicide is tragic, but every suicide, you know, is suicide,” he added. “What the America's warrior partnership does is really trying to get the roots of it and defeat suicide before it comes to the life of a person.”