By Meyer Moldeven
Scribe1917m

‘It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.’
– Dr. Robert H. Goddard, Rocket Pioneer

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The hope of the author in writing this essay is that readers will include youths and young adults who are contemplating their future careers and will consider opportunities that the contents suggest.

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PART ONE: OUR SOLAR SYSTEM IN THIS 21ST CENTURY:

Note: The original outline and summary of this ‘future history’ was copyright-registered in 1984 and independently published in 2000 by the author as a novel, title: ‘The Interstellar Slingshot.’ An updated edition, formatted as an e-novel, title: ‘The Universe-or nothing.’ is in the Project Gutenberg Library Archive Foundation (PGLAF) from where it may be freely downloaded at:

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/18257

~~~

(Excerpt: Inaugural Address of United States President Barack Obama, Inaugural Address of Jan. 20, 2009)

‘ . . . and to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders, . . . . . .nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.’

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‘Practice has shown us how difficult it is to establish intergenerational fairness for renewable resources, and developing such a concept for nonrenewable resources is even more challenging. To many people, sustainable development and the exploitation of nonrenewable resources is a contradiction in itself because limited resources are consumed. However, a closer examination of the paradox yields some surprising results. With human ingenuity and enough time, we as a society can find the necessary solutions for sustaining development on Earth.’ (‘Sustainable Development and the Use of Nonrenewable Resources (F.W. Wellmer and M. Kosinowski, Geotimes, December, 2003)

http://www.geotimes.org/dec03/feature_sustainable.html

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‘It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.’
– Dr. Robert H. Goddard, Rocket Pioneer

~~~

‘There is no way back into the past; the choice, as H. G. Wells once said, is ‘the universe — or nothing.’
– Arthur C. Clarke

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GLOBALIZATION: ‘… integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology. ‘

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization

~~~

U.S. Finds It’s Getting Crowded Out There. Dominance in Space Slips as Other Nations Step Up Efforts (The Washington Post, July 9, 2008)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/07/09/ST2008070900751.html?sid=ST2008070900751&pos=top

http://www.spacedebate.org/article/quotes/3564/

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GRAPHIC: Globalizing Space. Cooperation is as prevalent as competition in the new space age. (The Washington Post, July 9, 2008)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2008/07/09/GR2008070900004.html?hpid=topnews

~~~

The 2004 update of ‘The Limits to Growth’ gives emphasis to previously published (1972) evidence that Planet Earth’s reserves of nonrenewable resources are not merely being exploited, they’re being ‘consumed,’ and at a very high rate. Include irreplaceable resources from the wars of the 20th century and just the first decade of the 21st, plus mitigating the effects of an approaching ‘climate change’ and repair or replacement of what may well be destroyed and otherwise ‘consumed’ and (phase) ‘Globalization’ transforms into its successor ‘Beyond Globalization.’

http://www.mnforsustain.org/meadows_limits_to_growth_30_year_update_2004.htm

~~~

Globalization has provided humankind a tiny mincing step into the space realm. ‘Beyond Globalization’ has to reach out boldly to where we can replenish the nonrenewables that we ‘consumed’ and carelessly wasted since the Industrial Revolution. The nearest place with the stuff we need is the Asteroids, and robotics can get us there and do the mining and the logistics. It may take a century or so, and time’s a wastin’.

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The early decades of the 21st Century (Common Era 200x) increasingly focused the world’s governments, private sectors, industry, media, scientific, academic and other institutions, and humankind generally on:

a. increasing the crowding and debris-generation by sub-orbital and orbital man-made objects in space, and globalization by participants utilizing the space environments,

b. exploitation of ‘space’ beyond ‘globalization,’

c. the Earth’s steadily diminishing sources of accessible nonrenewable metals, ores, and other natural nonrenewable substances that are essential to sustain civilization’s industrial base into the future; the more immediate adverse effects of ‘climate change’ on trends in the planet’s reserves of essential renewable and non-renewable resources,

d. initiatives and commitments toward creating the means by which humankind will transform into realities its vision of evolving into spacefaring societies.

e. How America Can and Why America Must Now Become a True Spacefaring Nation. Spacefaring America at:

http://mikesnead.net/

and

f. http://spacefaringamerica.net/2007/10/11/16–the-space-show-appearance-talking-points.aspx

g. progress toward broadening and deepening human capabilities and technologies to search for, find, access, identify, process and acquire essential industrial-base substances from ever-deepening wells in the Earth’s crust, and confident that, in time, from elsewhere throughout the Solar System and beyond. NASA Release 06-361 Dec. 4, 2006: NASA Unveils Global Exploration Strategy and Lunar Architecture, at:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/dec/HQ_06361_ESMD_Lunar_Architecture.html

h. studies and dialogues by the world’s peoples toward spacefaring objectives, deeper ventures and exploration, and security. Highlights in Space 2006 (PDF; 2.53 MB) Source: United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, at:

http://www.spacesecurity.org/SpaceSecurityFactSheet.pdf

i. the 1972 Report to the Club of Rome: The Limits to Growth and subsequent 2004 edition ‘Limits to Growth-The 30-Year Update at

http://www.clubofrome.org/docs/confs/meadows_abstract_21_08_04.pdf

and

Earth System: History And Natural Variability, Non-Renewable Resources,

http://www.eolss.net/ebooks/Sample%20Chapters/C12/E1-01-02-11.pdf

j. exploratory evidence that, within the next century or so, unless worldwide corrective changes are made in time to change traditional physical, economic, or social relationships, society will run out of the nonrenewable resources on which the industrial base depends. According to the Report, when the world’s reserves of nonrenewable resources are exhausted, a precipitous collapse of the economic system, manifested in massive unemployment, decreased food production, and a decline in population will occur.

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Spacefaring Societies and Space Logistics

a. Scientists, engineers, philosophers and other experts speculate on humankind’s future in the light of Planet Earth’s diminishing reserves of nonrenewable ‘industrial-base’ resources and an increasing threat of serious changes in the Earth’s climate. Vigorous technologies throughout the world’s industrialized nations suggest encouraging options, including replenishment from along ever-expanding frontiers in interplanetary space and, eventually, the interstellar realm.

b. ‘Spacefaring’ is obviously based on ‘seafaring’, which, according to Merriam-Webster, is defined as: ‘the use of the sea for travel or transportation.’ Thus, a simple definition for ‘spacefaring’ would be: ‘the use of space for travel or transportation. ‘The term ‘spacefaring nation’ appears, however, to imply much more. The Aerospace Commission linked this national capability to ‘our freedom, mobility, and quality of life.’ Simple travel and transportation capabilities appear to be insufficient for ensuring our freedom and quality of life.’ (Note: The following link will open the complete text (320-pages) of the ‘Final Report of the President’s Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry Commissioners’ and requires 20.4MB disk space. The report’s ‘Executive Summary’ precedes the full Report and is 20 pages.)

http://www.aia-aerispace.org/pdf/commission_media.pdf

c. ‘Space Logistics:’ is the science of planning and carrying out the movement of humans and materiel to, from and within space combined with the ability to maintain human and robotics operations within space. In its most comprehensive sense, space logistics addresses the aspects of space operations both on the earth and in space that deal with:

‘- Design and development, acquisition, storage, movement, distribution, maintenance, evacuation, and disposition of space materiel

‘- Movement, evacuation, and hospitalization of people in space

‘- Acquisition or construction, maintenance, operation, and disposition of facilities on the earth and in space to support human and robotics space operations

‘- Acquisition or furnishing of services to support human and robotics space operations.’

http://www.aiaa.org/tc/sl/index_files/SLTC_page0009.htm

http://mikesnead.net/resources/spacefaring/white_paper_america_needs_to_become_spacefaring.pdf

~~

d. ‘Nonrenewable Resources’

‘An ore is a mineral deposit containing a metal or other valuable resource in economically viable concentrations. Usually, it is used in the context of a mineral deposit from which it is economical to extract its metallic component. Ores are mined. Ore bodies are formed by a variety of geological processes. ‘Mineral ore bodies have been formed in Earth’s crust by the action of erosion and plate tectonics. These ore bodies form concentrated sources for many metals and other useful elements.

‘Characteristics of nonrenewables: fixed endowment of given quality, stock declines over time. For minerals: costly process of discovery, costly process of extraction, technical change decreases costs of exploration and extraction over time. Key Results: physical stocks decline over time, price eventually increases with time, and technical change may cause prices to decrease initially.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=nonrenewable resources&fulltext=Search

~~

e. From the ‘Background’ section of ‘U.S. Space Transportation Policy Fact Sheet, January 6, 2005′ at:

http://corport.hq.nasa.gov/launch_services/Space_Transportation_Policy.pdf

‘For over four decades, U.S. space transportation capabilities have helped the Nation secure peace and protect national security, enabled the Nation to lead the exploration of our solar system and beyond, and increased economic prosperity and our knowledge of the Earth and its environment. Today, vital national security, homeland security, and economic interests are increasingly dependent on United States Government and commercial space assets. U.S. space transportation capabilities – encompassing access to, transport through, and return from space – are the critical foundation upon which U.S. access to and use of space depends.’

So humankind has been to the Moon and returned and is preparing to go again, and we’ve got hi-tech robots exploring Luna, Mars, Venus, the Asteroids and the Outer Planets. When Mars is ready, it will be the stepping-stone to the Asteroids and their potentially enormous reserves of resources to replenish Earth’s depleted supply, perhaps for millennia. Well established in the Asteroids Belt explorers will likely prepare to explore and exploit the interstellar realm.

http://www.spacedebate.org/article/quotes/3564/

http://www.spacedebate.org/blog/

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FUTURE HISTORY: ‘Future History [includes]: ‘. . . stories or whole books purporting to be excerpts of a history book from the future and which are written in the form of a history book – i.e., having no personal protagonists but rather describing the development of nations and societies over decades and centuries.’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_history

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PART TWO: FUTURE HISTORY: The Colonized Solar System a couple or so millennia into the future.

In the centuries that followed humankind’s giant leap to Luna, scientists, engineers and scholars in almost all of Planet Earth’s disciplines probed ever deeper into space. Explorers studied and charted the surfaces, depths and atmospheres of each of the Solar System’s bodies, and scrutinized the dynamics and constituents of space matter into the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. Their probes searched the void for useful nonrenewables beyond the aphelion of Dwarf Planet Eris – but not yet the stars.

The first landing on Luna in Year 1969 of the then Common Era was judged to be among humankind’s grandest achievements. At the Luna landing’s Tercentenary a universal calendar was ordained to commemorate the Event as the first day of Interplanetary Year 1, opening a new era for humankind.

Explorers became teachers and mentors. Initially in Earth orbit, later in lunar space and on Luna itself, they guided settlers in developing new lifestyles and colonizing skills, and showed them how to wrest and refine usable elements and minerals from nearby sources. They devised and tested methodologies to convert raw space matter into forms with which to create and integrate surface and sub-surface structures, and manufacture and operate machines and integrated networks of things that would sustain contiguous space and inter- satellite and interplanetary navigation and logistics systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining

Well-colonized Luna and Mars, by then, were well established. Human and robot construction cadre’s had ventured into and beyond the Asteroids. Their experiences, surface and strata tests and studies influenced the selection, creation and management of sites and traffic lanes for mining operations and strategic outposts along the space frontiers. Advance construction battalions built basic habitat and, having attained ‘shirt sleeve’ environments, conceptualized, planned, gathered and often converted local materials, and designed and built infrastructure and industries that, in time, blossomed into enormous encapsulated cities, social orders, cultural adjustments, and civilizations. Space mining throughout the Asteroids and transport of semi-refined product to Mars, Luna and Earth orbit was operational and economically reasonable, considering the few alternatives.

The emigrants procreated and populated their cities in the void. Their disparate ancestries blended through a natural vitality that accelerated human evolution so as to survive in a radically new environment. In so doing, they turned away from traditional conventions still deeply ingrained in their common species.

Adjusting over time to the novel experience of space, they conceived new ways or adapted their ancient qualities and prospered in wholly enclosed artificial worlds. General acceptance of tissue and organ modifications, genetic engineering and cloning gave impetus to the speed of human transformation. Instinctively, humankind-in-’solar’-space prepared for an eventual voyage into the interstellar realm.

In the final centuries of the Second Interplanetary millennium that shaped and launched The Great Migration to Space the original emigrants’ progeny had become an indigenous population. Seven centuries into the Interplanetary Era’s second millennium the Solar System included more than five hundred populated colonies and outposts, and more than three times that number of robot stations for interplanetary and inter-satellite dynamic ‘space lane’ navigation, communication relay, and space rescue. Populated by humans and their robots, colonies extended from the voids above Mercury and Venus through the Asteroids, the satellites of the gas planets, to Dwarf Planets Eris and Pluto and generally throughout the Kuiper and Oort zones.

As colonies multiplied and spread across the vast interplanetary realm the solar community became impatient with time consumed in normal point-to-point space communications and transport. The excessive transmission and portage time was especially irritating for space communications, priority cargo, and human travel across distances from bodies orbiting along on opposite sides of the Sun. Hyperspace technology solved the problem.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/research/warp/ideachev.html

http://www.gdnordley.com/KL_Glossary.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_travel

‘Spunnels’ in the public’s jargon, came into being, the term compressed from the phrase ‘hyperspace tunnels,’ a universal phenomenon once suspected and eventually confirmed. In the centuries preceding The Great Migration the phenomenon had been generally referred to as a ‘wormhole’, an archaic and irrelevant expression, even in those ancient times.

Spunnel networks reduced transmission time between the most widely separated points in the system from hours to real-time. Successful in communications, scientists and engineers concentrated on the technological leap from spunnel communications to spunnel teleportation, a capability urgently and clearly essential to move raw materials, finished goods, machines, and eventually, humans, across interplanetary distances.

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technovel_teleport_041103.html

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The flood of emigrants to space colonies and outposts exceeded tens of thousands each year over several centuries, leaving behind a still over-crowded Earth that had long since cried ‘enough.’ Among the migrants were artisans and technicians, minimally to highly skilled administrators, sociologists, medical and mental health professionals, teachers, scientists and engineers and, scattered among them, contemporary philosophers who preached the metaphysical. Together, they represented all of Earth’s peoples and a cross-section of their cultures.

Technology, Mining and Resources

Technology, however, imposed constraints. The insatiable appetite for metals, minerals, precious earths and other nonrenewable substances increased inexorably. They remained the foundation for the Solar System’s industries, driven by the constant clamor of indulgent lifestyles. Fully aware that vital nonrenewable minerals and other substances were beyond replenishment from within the Solar System, the solar community nevertheless squandered its rapidly diminishing resources. In time, reserves of nonrenewables dropped from residue to gleanings.

http://isdc2.xisp.net/~kmiller/isdc_archive/fileDownload.php/?link=fileSelect&file_id=399

Recycling, salvage, ever-deeper tunnels, and mine shafts repeated sweeps of the Earth’s sea beds and planetary and satellites’ crusts, trenches, beds and craters offered ever diminishing returns. Scouring the Asteroid Belt, sifting the Kuiper-Oort regions, and intense competitions for substitutes provided inadequate and merely temporary relief. The solar community’s population, on Earth and in space, had exploded to more than twelve billion people. The search for substance to support humankind’s needs ranged throughout; there were no more sources, nor were there sanctuaries. Certainly, there would not be enough for voyages to the stars.

~~

At long last, humankind confronted its reality. Net yields from nonrenewable reserves, residues and substitutes had dwindled until exhaustion was certain and a timeline predictable. The choice among grim options could no longer be postponed. In the end, there were two:

- Remain in place, ration, recycle and redistribute minerals, metals, ores and other usable substances and substitutes with Draconian discipline, and take the consequences, or

- Chance the most awesome venture in humankind’s long history: reach out to a distant star and tear from it the raw matter that would preserve and perpetuate the grandeur of the human experience.

The second option would be the ultimate gamble: winning would bring the cornucopia sought throughout the ages. Failure, even at an early stage, would dissipate what little remained. Vitality drained, humankind would slip back into the pits and the mud from which it had so laboriously crawled.

The decision was to reach for the stars.

~

Interstellar Teleportation

The Concept: Program Definition for an Interstellar Mining and Teleport System, henceforth referred to as: ‘Slingshot.’

The Objective: To draw from Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system, 4.35 light-years distant, its minerals, metals, elements and whatever useful substances could be moved across space, and store them nearby in the Solar System, accessible to all humankind.

The Task: Increase the Solar System’s spunnel range, capability and capacity to teleport matter across interstellar space in a continuous stream and in sufficient quantities to satisfy the purpose of the Objective:

Construct and dispatch an advance fleet of drone scouts to the Alpha Centauri star system at the earliest possible time to survey, sample, analyze and report via spunnel on the availability, locations and accessibility of resources specified generally in the Objective;

Concurrently, design, construct and position an interstellar spunnel portage system consisting of two terminals, each of which would include an integral, fully self-sufficient facility for command-and- control, self-service and repair, logistical and other operations essential to its unique mission. Designate the terminal at ‘star’ destination the Extractor and the terminal that remains fixed along the solar rim, the Collector:

- The Extractor selects and draws usable non-organics from the Alpha Centauri star system, and collects, converts and channels the product into its teleport processing center for point-to-point spunnel transfer to the Collector.

- The Collector receives the product, converts it to original form, (or refines it) and classifies, identifies and ejects the product for storage along the solar rim or at a point Authority determines to be more appropriate.

Construct the terminals four million kilometers beyond the orbit of Dwarf Planet Pluto (henceforth ‘Pluto.’) During construction, secure the terminals to each other and separately, to Pluto, employing mass attractors and position stabilizers, as required.

Disengage the Extractor from Pluto at launch employing Pluto’s outbound orbital momentum in a manner that the combined fleet retains its integrity in perpetuity.

Deploy the Extractor to include a ‘velocity boost’ from Dwarf Eris, if necessary, and on to Alpha Centauri. Position the Extractor in orbit above a point commensurate with data provided by the drone scouts. Maintain constant surveillance and exercise control over operations and maintenance via spunnel analyses of the Extractor’s functions, structures and equipment.

Position the Collector along the solar rim, or elsewhere as determined by Authority, and orient it to receive and process Extractor shipments consistent with the Extractor’s position and operations in the Alpha Centauri star system.

6. Stages

The Extractor, in position at destination, analyzes, selects and draws up substance from proximate asteroids, comets, satellites, planetoids, swarms, star surface and wells and other accessible bodies and strata, reduces the substance to spunnel-teleportable constituents, loads the mass into the spunnel capability and dispatches the product.

The Collector, positioned in the Solar System oriented to the Extractor, receives and converts the Extractor’s transmissions, processes substance into its original or a refined state, classifies and ejects the mass for positioning in the storage zone. Maintains accountability of product receipts and distribution.

Schedule

The Task requires an estimated six Earth centuries to design, construct, equip, test, deploy and activate. The millennia of delay in initiating the Task impose inescapable hardships on the Solar Community.

Accordingly, when justified as essential to the Objective, solar governments divert work forces, systems, and material resources from throughout their jurisdiction to the Task. The consequences of these diversions are expected to significantly curtail construction, activities, lifestyles of Earth and space colony populations, the distribution of the solar system’s residual resources and, possibly, the independence of governments, organizations, and individuals throughout the solar realm.

Critical to the program’s success is timing the Extractor’s launch. Piggy-backed to Pluto during construction and tests, the Extractor exploits the planet’s orbital momentum for launch. This factor applies should an en route ‘velocity boost’ from Dwarf Eris become vital to the mission. The window for each, if it presents itself, is precise and short- lived along outbound orbits of both Pluto and Eris; there will be only one mission launch opportunity for the Extractor.

Disengaged initially from Pluto, the Extractor fleet accelerates along its course to optimum velocity through integrated thrust of multiple thermonuclear burst-propulsion systems or other, more advanced propulsion systems, that are or become available for the Task.

Political and Socio-economics of the Times

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty

The Interplanetary Era’s second millennium was tumultuous. The harsh austerity imposed by the increased deficits in metals, minerals and other industrial-base materials and their substitutes created one set of problems; human cloning augmented with genetic engineering and their societal and cultural effects, especially beyond the Asteroids created others. Human survival in scores of widely scattered and unaffiliated space colonies, loosely called ‘tank towns,’ encouraged scientific and social experiments that altered traditional cultures as well as human physiological and psychological characteristics. Cumulative genetic and accelerated evolutionary alterations to the human body along with the effects of unique, often hostile, environments plus sheer distance from the familiar transformed humans-in-space into something else. The unifying forces that had survived the Great Migration withered. In time, the once shared interests of peoples, and allegiances to a home planet, sundered.

Varied and increased rates of change among populations, widely separated by interplanetary distances, opened doors to pretenders among a colony’s populace. Opportunists promoted a multitude of causes, often self-serving. Anticipating advantages to themselves, the pretenders, in time, combined forces and became influential advocates for disengagement from political, cultural and judicial dominance by the totally foreign ‘open sky’ government of Earth, billions of kilometers distant.

Disengagement, the opportunists agitated, was long overdue; Earth inhabitants would never really understand what life in deep space was about. The crisis came in the middle centuries. Bureaucrats representing the central government on Earth were isolated from the affairs of the colonies they administered. The indigenous populace ignored their authority, their credentials were challenged, and they were invited to return to their home planet – with no options.

The central government on Earth, weakened by shortages and distracted by agitators at home and in space, was neither vigilant nor prepared. Early in the second millennium of the Interplanetary Era, several colonies in the Outer Region declared their independence of the original United Planetary System and of each other. Other colonies and outposts joined, formed groups, and within a decade, proclaimed themselves as newly constituted nation-states. Each reserved exclusive rights to negotiate with other nation-states of their common (natural) satellite or planetary Region. New agreements were implemented on matters of common interest, such as credits, industry, a judicial system, trade and commerce, science and technology, space traffic control, education and cultural exchange, and creation and management of infrastructure and management of life-support resources within their territories and jurisdictions.

The Outer Region’s proclamations panicked the central government. On the one hand, Earth ethicists argued, were the rights of the inhabitants of the space colonies. As members of distant societies they had modified their bodies, their environment and their cultures, therefore, they had a right to seek their own destiny unfettered by well-intentioned, but obviously impotent laws that originated on Earth.

The advocates of this philosophy emphasized the Outer Region’s right to their own physical, technological and cultural development and evolution. As unique civilizations, evolving at an unprecedented rapid pace, they were already radically different from the humankind that had remained on distant Earth.

On the other hand, claimed others, the Solar System-wide scarcity of natural nonrenewable sources vital to the survival of the species was a shared crisis. The crisis would be solved, if at all, only through the most concerted application of humankind’s intellectual and collective genius. In one context, they were indeed unique civilizations: robust, sophisticated and divergent, nevertheless, on the other, instinctively taking nourishment from a common fealty to humankind’s ultimate destiny among the stars. Humankind would be far stronger and effective together, they argued, than it would be, divided within a common species.

The debate raged across the System. The separatists won. Earth’s General Assembly acceded to the demands for self- determination. The new status of the outer and inner regions was confirmed in The Treaties on the Separation of Jurisdictions for the Planets and Satellites of the Inner Region and the Independent Nations of the Outer Region.

The outer periphery of the Asteroids Belt became the boundary. The United Planetary System was dissolved and reconstituted as the United Inner Planetary System (UIPS). The natural and artificial colonies that orbited the planets and satellites of the Outer Region, or the central sun, retained their original identities (Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, etc.) The former colonies beyond the Belt formed a loose federation: Independent Nations of the Outer Region (INOR).

The United Inner Planetary System insisted that Dwarf Planet Pluto, its moons and its contiguous space remain within the UIPS Slingshot Special Zone of Operations until the Extractor and the Collector were both safely away from Pluto’s jurisdiction, as so judged by the UIPS. The Plutonian government refused. The other INOR nations, immersed in their own problems, were indifferent. The issue was left to the UIPS and the government of Dwarf Planet Pluto to resolve.

The UIPS continued, without prior consultation with INOR and Planet Pluto, to construct and operate Slingshot logistics sites and facilities on Pluto’s surface, in contiguous space, and within and along the Planet Pluto orbit. The UIPS, interpreting traditions and treaties that had evolved from Earth’s ancient Laws of the Seas and Space, exercised and defended free and unencumbered travel and passage by its citizens and vessels in deep space and throughout the INOR claimed jurisdictions.

The UIPS took steps to ensure the security of Slingshot construction and logistics support sites and space-ways.

~

Slingshot

The Slingshot Advance Cadre arrived in the Neptune-Pluto orbit- crossing sectors in the fading Interplanetary Era, and before the breakup of the old United Planetary System. Colonizing Pluto and constructing space construction kits that would be transformed into surface habitat and supply depots had been under way centuries earlier when Planet Pluto was barely past aphelion but within economical range of deep space transports. The cadre’s vessels carried and towed communications gear, specialized construction rigs, platforms and infrastructure kits which had been fabricated or assembled in the industrial tank towns above Luna, Venus and Mars, and by cooperating governments of satellites in the outer region. Spunnel capabilities had not yet developed sufficient to teleport the massive loads and dimensions of Slingshot infrastructures.
~
The Cadre’s primary mission was to establish a base of operations on Pluto. The program called for the planet to support a colony of forty thousand specialists and construction workers – and their families – for the assembly, construction and testing phases, plus ten thousand transients and temporary residents. The latter would comprise ‘rest and relaxation’ visitors, liaison and special missions staff from a nearby logistics depot and the construction sites, and agricultural and food processing-robot overseers from Planet Pluto’s moon Charon. Also expected were cargo handlers and ship’s personnel from transports entering and departing Pluto from-and-to points throughout the system.

About eighty percent of Pluto’s permanent adult population would work on the two terminals. The specialized professions for the initial phase ranged from scientists and engineers to artisans, skilled and semi- skilled workers in all of the disciplines and industrial skills required to construct and operate a complex station in space and service and maintain a permanent habitat and population on Pluto’s surface.

Children would be born on Pluto, natural or cloned. They, as well as the general population, would be cared for and supported by a host of administrative, health care, educational, recreational, life support and community services.

The Cadre’s mission was in phases. The first task of the initial phase was to land on Pluto’s surface, seek out stable surfaces or create them by fusing subsurface strata to sufficient depth for support of massive structures.

Gravity enhancement surface panels and their energy sources would be installed wherever enclosed communities or special purpose structures were to be constructed. A detachment of the Cadre would land on Charon, Planet Pluto’s moonlet, and fuse and seal sections of the moonlet’s surface and subsurface same as on Pluto, but tailored for agriculture and protein production.

On the solidified, stabilized surfaces of Pluto and Charon the Cadre would erect a tank town dome. The dome would have a ten-kilometer radius on Planet Pluto and a one-kilometer radius on Charon. Construction would proceed concurrently on surface and subsurface utility and life support facilities essential to human habitation. When enclosed areas were shirtsleeve ready for occupancy, the Cadre would erect essential life support, residential and recreational facilities. These would be followed by technical, communications and transport networks for Slingshot scientists, industrial technicians, and staff, followed by enclosed living areas for the remainder of the general populace that would train and do the work during the subsequent phases.

The tanktown on Planet Pluto would be named Coldfield; its counterpart on Charon would be Lamplight.

An On-site Project Management Team (OPMT) directed the Advance Cadre. The OPMT formed the nucleus of upper level managers, scientists and engineers, and other experts charged with organizing and guiding the functional task groups. The functional staffs would bring into being the on-site technical and administrative support facilities, install and operate its equipment, and govern the communities within which the populace worked and resided.

The OPMT was organized into three groups: Group One: Planet Pluto: Group Two: Charon, and Group Three: Logistics Depot. Each Group had its mission:

Group One (Dwarf Planet Pluto) Mission

Construct and operate a sophisticated fusion-based energy generating and power transmission system to provide sufficient output to support all anticipated power and network requirements of the planet and its support entities; Beneath and adjacent the Coldfield dome, construct, organize and operate encapsulated surface and subsurface laboratories, manufacturing and overhaul plants, space and surface transport and traffic routes and controls, surface roadways, utility and communications systems, landing and mooring facilities, energy hubs for gravity enhancement grids, and other essential utilities and facilities;

Acquire and encapsulate water from Neptune’s moons to meet Slingshot requirements and store it proximate to Pluto, Charon and the Slingshot Logistics Depot and the Slingshot Construction Site.

Establish and administer activities for law enforcement, judicial, public health, education and other community affairs.

Group Two (Charon) Mission

Convert the satellite into a food growing and processing plant capable of feeding the entire Plutonian permanent and transit populations, and on-site personnel at the Logistics Depot and the Terminals Construction Site. Encapsulate the surface in an impermeable radiation-resistant plastic membrane and introduce and maintain constant temperature and air- moisture and other agriculture-supportive atmosphere and environment that meet prevailing deep space colony or equal standards;

Install, maintain and operate a capability to divert, neutralize, or destroy natural objects, such as meteors, comets, etc., determined to be a threat life and property in the Special Zone.

Constructively use Slingshot surplus by-products, and human waste generated throughout the Pluto and near space sectors. Conduct research and develop drip, hydroponics and other agricultural stimulant systems, protein synthesis and manufacture, and ship to Coldfield, the Slingshot work site and the Logistics Depot high-quality foodstuffs suitable for storage and consumption. Charon operations are fully automated and robotically maintained.

In support of the Charon agricultural mission, Planet Pluto, the Slingshot Logistics Depot, the Terminals’ construction site, and ships moored or in transit within the Special Zone constitute an integrated ecological entity. All organics and all mineral and chemical plant growth stimulants, such as discarded or excess food and fluids, bio- waste, usable industrial and community waste, and cadavers are committed to processing as fertilizers or for specialized application to the creation of foodstuffs. Organic waste and cadaver parts unsuitable for constructive purposes (fertilizer) on Charon will be fully sterilized and reduced as close as practicable to zero residue.

Group Three (Logistics Depot) Mission

Construct a space station to specification above Coldfield and designate it ‘Slingshot Logistics Depot.’ Arrange for the depot to serve for central receiving, warehousing and shipping center for materiel committed to the Slingshot Terminals, and for processing materiel through all active Planet Pluto surface and sub-surface technical and servicing facilities;

Provide the Depot with facilities and train its personnel for emergency backup in manufacturing and servicing capabilities redundant to those on Pluto;

Create a highest level technical capability to synthesize materials, and manufacture, fabricate, test and calibrate those precision parts, tools and accessories which are best made in the micro-gravity and pollution-free conditions of deep space and/or safely distant from Pluto’s and Charon’s surfaces and their gravitational influences; Augment the Depot’s security with a gated force field that fully encapsulates and protects the Depot and all vessels engaged in loading and off-loading personnel and materiel; patrols contiguous space and keeps the Slingshot Logistics Depot and UIPS citizens and property optimally self-sufficient and safe from disease, harassment and harm;

Install on the Logistics Depot and at the Terminals Construction Sites independent communications, cargo, living organism teleport centers, each capable of receiving and dispatching authorized cargoes, passengers, dispatches and communications via conventional, spunnel, and specified non-conventional channels.

~

The Terminals’ Construction Site is the focal point of UIPS operations. The Construction Site’s mission is to research, design, fabricate, test, assemble and, ultimately, launch, position at destinations and operate, monitor and maintain the Slingshot Extractor and Collector terminals en route and at destinations.

Governance

Slingshot planning did not anticipate the dissolution of the United Planetary System, the creation of independent and estranged Regions in their place, and indifferent or hostile governments throughout the Outer Region.

Military forces had been non-existent for more than fifteen hundred years when the colonies of the Outer Region seceded from the United Planetary System. Weapons of mass destruction had been an anathema and outlawed since the birth of the first World Federation in the fourth century of the Interplanetary Era.

In place of an organized military, the succeeding World Federation had created an Interplanetary Constabulary to protect lives and property, investigate crimes, control traffic, and maintain general order. Their charter extended to all planets, satellites, colonies, outposts, stations, and all places throughout the void into which humankind had ventured.

The mission of the Constabulary remained unchanged during political reorganizations within the first World Federation and its successors. Its agents ranged the Solar System, and performed their duties quietly and efficiently. Few dared challenge their authority. When challenges did occur, they were quickly and ‘objectively’ adjudicated.

War, and the effects of war on people and things were forgotten. It was inconceivable, in those times, that the region beyond the Asteroids would become politically and culturally alienated from the unified community that humankind had created to guide them into the future. History, the citizens of the world concluded, had demonstrated the impotence of the ancient, long-discarded array of adversarial nation-states and come-by-chance leaders to govern an intellectually advanced species.

No one expected a return to the old, long-discarded ways. When separation of the Inner and Outer Regions became inevitable, scholars in both Regions explored the possible and the probable relationships that might develop under the new order. The studies predicted that politically independent nation-states would create multilateral alignments and conflicting societies, lifestyles and philosophies.

They took into account evolving technological and industrial capabilities, prevailing energy and declining reserves of industrial metals, minerals, and other usable substances and related them to the Solar System’s demographic trends and resources predictions. In time, he United Planetary System dissolved, and the successor UIPS had no choice but to assume and continue the Slingshot program.

The conclusions of humankind’s most distinguished scientists and philosophers suggested that two independent orders in space would bring with them a heightened likelihood of social and technological dislocations and disruptions. There would be interregional and, within INOR, international competition that would increase the rate of depletion in resources. There would be a multitude of disputes, often intentionally misinterpreted, to resolve territorial and jurisdictional differences that were already caught up in and molded by the dynamics of orbiting planets, their satellites, and constantly changing laceworks of space-ways.

The effects on Slingshot could be catastrophic. Stability and security of space infrastructure were paramount. Immediately following separation of the two Regions the President of the newly constituted UIPS directed the creation of a powerful Military Space Force.

~

The UIPS scrounged the ancient archives of Earth’s military history and designed weapons of defense and offense. Ships of war and their supporting systems were brought back into being, and spunnel gateways expanded to accommodate them. A militant phoenix rose from its ancient ashes.

The Military Space Force was charged with patrolling the space-ways beyond the Asteroids to protect UIPS’ vital interests. Their responsibilities included protecting the lives of UIPS citizens and private and government property throughout INOR wherever they happened to be, in space or on the surfaces of planets and satellites.

The role and intent of the UIPS military was explained to all INOR governments. ‘The Military Space Force,’ proclaimed the President of the UIPS, ‘would remain until INOR’s member Nations were sufficiently stabilized to participate in ensuring peaceful coexistence and passage along space-ways and at moorings throughout the Outer Region, and separately and collectively agree to participate in and support the Slingshot Program.’

INOR, as a Federation, interpreted the formation of the UIPS Military Space Force and the President’s proclamation on its role as contemptuous of their social and political maturity. The outcome was predictable.

Local INOR Defense Forces were hastily organized and equipped. Dozens of ships of war were built and many space transports were converted into armed vessels. Each INOR government, using self- defense as justification, established controlled corridors extending hundreds of thousands of kilometers into its contiguous space, often far beyond their legitimate jurisdictions. Passengers and crews of foreign space transports, passenger liners, and utility and pleasure craft, whatever their points of foreign origin or destination, required visas, local pilots, and armed escorts upon arrivals and departures. Suspicions festered on all sides.

It was an era of international and interregional political tensions and harassment, and military, technological and industrial sabotage and espionage. The history of Earth’s ancients had returned to haunt the solar community. The rates of depletion in the Solar Community’s reserves of vital, nonrenewable substances rose rapidly.

~~

8. DRAFT: Principles to Govern Relationships Among the Independent Nations of the Solar Community (INSOC)

~~~~~~

(Author’s Note:)

Added April 6, 2009) An early draft of an ‘in principle’ conceptual framework for a future united solar civilization’s direction, governance and oversight of construction, acquisition, collection, transport/teleport, accounting, storage, distribution control and other internationally recognized processes and powers exercised by nations and other ‘recognized’ solar system entities governing nonrenewable minerals and other substances, and resources that will be eventually acquired by spacefaring governments and other recognized entities from the interplanetary/interstellar realms to replenish the Solar System’s diminished reserves.

Source: ‘Remarks of President Barack Obama’
Hradčany Square
Prague, Czech Republic
April 5, 2009

http://prague.usembassy.gov/obama.html

Excerpt: [from President Obama's remarks] ‘And we should build a new framework for civil nuclear cooperation, including an international fuel bank, so that countries can access peaceful power without increasing the risks of proliferation. That must be the right of every nation that renounces nuclear weapons, especially developing countries embarking on peaceful programs. No approach will succeed if it is based on the denial of rights to nations that play by the rules. We must harness the power of nuclear energy on behalf of our efforts to combat climate change, and to advance opportunity for all people.

We go forward with no illusions. Some will break the rules, but that is why we need a structure in place that ensures that when any nation does, they will face consequences. This morning, we were reminded again why we need a new and more rigorous approach to address this threat. North Korea broke the rules once more by testing a rocket that could be used for a long range missile.

This provocation underscores the need for action – not just this afternoon at the UN Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons. Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something. The world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons. Now is the time for a strong international response. North Korea must know that the path to security and respect will never come through threats and illegal weapons. And all nations must come together to build a stronger, global regime.’

[End Excerpt]

~~~~~~

Preamble

In order to:

Create and foster political, societal, economic, and cultural environments throughout the Solar Community, which will preclude or minimize acts of international and inter-regional aggression, economic warfare, cultural disruption, and other forms of active hostility between or among the Independent Nations of the Solar Community;

We hereby establish and agree to the following:

This framework for peaceful coexistence within which all Nations respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of each other;

Recognize the mutuality of interests among all peoples and Governments of the Solar Community in sharing the benefits of The Interstellar Mining and Teleport System,

and to

Prepare for and extend the human experience into interstellar space and toward the coming Interstellar Era,

ARTICLE ONE

We reject and renounce economic, cultural, military and any other warfare, and the threat of warfare to attain regional, national and cultural objectives. We will settle all disagreements and disputes through peaceful means.

ARTICLE TWO

We affirm that the peoples of all nations, states, colonies, settlements, communities, howsoever they may be designated now and in the future throughout the Solar System and, eventually throughout the Interstellar Realm, have ecological unity. Their harmony is such that none are truly independent of the others.

ARTICLE THREE

We affirm that the Solar System is the common heritage of humankind, and all the resources of the Solar System, now and in perpetuity, are part of that common heritage. We agree that each Government representing the people of a planet, satellite, independent space entity or a legally constituted part and/or collective thereof, is entitled to its fair share of the natural resources originating within the Solar System or acquired from other star systems. Such resources will be available, proportionately, from the Common Reserve in conformance with a nation’s, government’s, or people’s verified needs and technological capabilities to utilize the resources for peaceful and beneficial purposes.

ARTICLE FOUR

In furtherance of ARTICLE ONE, we most solemnly declare that continuance of organized military forces by any Government or other entity within the Solar Community can serve no useful purpose. We manifestly recognize that the existence of military mass destruction weapons and their supporting agencies and facilities increase the likelihood of their utilization to resolve differences or jurisdictional disputes, with consequent harm to human life, properties, societies and civilizations.

We, independently and collectively, agree, without reservations except for the EXCLUSION stated in this ARTICLE, to the phased reduction of all military spacecraft, weapons, facilities, human or robot training and other support systems and technologies to the point of their complete elimination not more than five Solar Standard Years from the date affixed to this Declaration of Principles.

EXCLUSION

We exclude from this ARTICLE specified accords which are, or will be, required by a legally constituted Government to exercise normal internal constabulary powers and authority on, and in space contiguous to, their planet, satellite, independent community or zone, and between and among Governments, as mutually agreed to among the Parties concerned. All signatories to this Declaration will be kept informed of such constabulary agreements prior to implementation and their views considered.

ARTICLE FIVE

We recognize that precise delineation’s of spatial jurisdictions are essential for the orderly processes of government. We agree that jurisdictions to be defined and delineated include:

a. the outer limits of any one nation’s spatial control and administration. Such delineation shall take into account the irrevocable right and obligation of any Government which exercises legitimate influence or control over a non-hazardous natural or artificial planet, satellite, planetoid, space station, outpost, spunnel node, link, net or booster; transiting comet, asteroid, meteor swarm, planetary or satellite ring, or other astrophysical body to ensure absence of human interference to that body’s or phenomenon’s free and unencumbered passage through that Government’s spatial jurisdiction.

b. control and operation of space communications booster, relay, and terminal stations and their supporting research, development, manufacturing, and logistics systems and technologies. The intent of this delineation is standardized and economically operated and serviced conventional and hyperspace communications systems throughout the Solar System and in interstellar space.

c. traffic control, flight safety, and management of UIPS and INOR approved inter-regional, interplanetary, inter-satellite and other space- ways. Acceptance of responsibilities shall not exceed the Party’s existing technologies, resources and capabilities.

ARTICLE SIX

History:

http://www.iaass.org/pdf/IAASShq9.pdf

We commit our Governments to accept financial, fiduciary, material and technological assessments for our utilization of the common space-ways. We agree that these assessments are for the purpose of defraying the expenditures of any one Government or entity toward maintaining and upgrading those common space and traffic management systems that fall within their borders, or other mutually agreed upon jurisdictions, and for performing such services for the common good as:

a. removal of hazards to innocent passage;

b. traffic control;

c. search and rescue;

d. acquisition, deployment, operation and servicing of communications and navigational aids;

e. construction, operation and maintenance of space and surface ports of entry and departure for the common use of all spacecraft;

f. trained, equipped and ready investigation teams to assist Governments of Primary Concern in determining the facts of ‘incidents- in-space’ which occur in proximate international areas, and

g. emergency logistical support capabilities for performing urgent essential repairs to damaged spacecraft of other Nations in peaceful transit. Such repairs shall be to internationally accepted standards that will permit the craft to continue its flight to a location designated by the Government having legal ownership, or authority to repair or dispose of the spacecraft.

h. We agree that spacecraft, spacecraft parts, man-made or otherwise artificial bodies and parts thereof greater than [to be determined] in size/mass, pollutants, or otherwise potentially hazardous, shall be stipulated in an amendment hereto not later than_(to be agreed upon), wreckage, and generated excess materials and human waste, will not be discarded or abandoned in space. Derelicts and unattached parts thereof, rubbish, waste matter, and all human-made objects in space are considered to be hazards to traffic or are unsafe for other reasons. They will be collected or tagged with an active signal and towed or transported to where they will not be a hazard to traffic or may pollute the space environment. The Government of the nearest surface or human habitat to initiate and follow up on actions for the objects’ reduction to harmless residue or its temporary or permanent removal to a location where it will not cause harm to people or things.

i. Deliberate destruction of a natural or artificial body or object anywhere in space in a manner that creates new debris of which components, shards, bits-and-pieces, residue that escape the collection/control of the party that caused the ‘destruction’ may have caused or may [likely] yet become a serious hazard to traffic or habitat. The creator of such destruction shall expeditiously justify the ‘act of destruction’ within the Regional judicial system.

ARTICLE SEVEN

We announce the formation of an international apparatus, with representation from all Governments, colonies, or other populated entities to assemble within three Solar Standard months from the date affixed hereto. The primary purpose of this Assembly is to facilitate implementation of this Declaration. They shall also create and ensure support for an interplanetary citizen’s volunteer group to review and resolve complaints and suggestions from the populace that may lead to recommendations toward improvements to this Declaration that
will:

a. promote the free and unencumbered passage of transports, vessels, people and commerce between and among the Nations of the Solar System;

b. encourage cultural, economic, and scientific research, and exchanges of scholars, students, and information for the benefit and betterment of humankind;

c. enhance the understanding of all peoples regarding the positive values, which have evolved over the millennia since the beginning of the Great Migration from Planet Earth,

and,

d. organize and begin the planning for humankind’s exploration and migration into the Interstellar Realm.

ARTICLE EIGHT

We declare and affirm we act in concert with the spirit and letter of this Declaration of Principles in the interests of international cooperation, interplanetary peace and security, mutual understanding among our far-flung peoples, and the survival of our species.

ARTICLE NINE

We encourage all Parties to expand on these accords through their initiatives and agreements for mutual benefits to themselves and to all Governments and peoples in the peaceful use of space.

~~~~~~~~~~

Context for this essay:

a. In the post-Sputnik 1950′s and at the height of the Cold War, the United States Air Force invited the nation’s leading aerospace contractors to present ‘pre-program definition’ proposals on a study ‘Space Logistics, Operations, Maintenance and Rescue’ (PROJECT SLOMAR). An Air Force preliminary review of the contractors’ proposals was conducted in 1961 at Headquarters, Air Force Logistics Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

b. I was at that time the Chief of the Plans Branch, Plans and Programs Division of the Directorate of Materiel Management, [of the then designated] Sacramento Air Materiel Area (SMAMA), McClellan AFB, California. SMAMA was the focal point for managing USAF worldwide logistics support to specific weapons and support systems, commodities, and equipment that were unique to the ‘systems’ that they (SMAMA) managed and specific Air Force property sub- classifications of standardized and cataloged parts and assemblies.

c. SMAMA was one of eight U.S. Air Force major logistics centers in the continental United States, each of which performed generally comparable management functions for their assigned weapons/support systems, commodities, equipment and parts unique. SMAMA’s major command was the Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC), Wright- Patterson AFB, Ohio. Research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) responsibilities were assigned to another major command, the Air Force Systems Command (AFSC). Hqs AFLC had assigned to SMAMA responsibilities for logistics support to AFSC and contractors engaged in the RDT&E of space systems.

d. Among my responsibilities as Chief of the SMAMA Materiel Management Plans Branch was to participate in the ongoing analysis of Hqs AFLC’s mission and workload assignments to SMAMA in terms of the McClellan AFB evolving strategic location, airfield facility, industrial capabilities, and manpower resources. In addition to SMAMA’s worldwide logistics management functions, the installation on which the SMAMA Hqs was situated (McClellan AFB), was also a major USAF supply and maintenance depot capable of highest level (fourth echelon) overhaul of aircraft and support systems, major repair of aircraft, equipment, electronics, and other commodities; and supply storage, warehousing, packaging and shipment of a wide range of materiel to U S Air Force, other Department of Defense and U. S. government entities, and allied military assistance programs worldwide.

e. Consistent with my responsibilities, I was one of several logistics (civilian) analysts assigned to the Hqs AFLC SLOMAR logistics panels to analyze and report on the logistics support implications of the ‘private sector industry’ pre-program definition proposals for a possible future U.S. Air Force in space. My interest at the SLOMAR review was to analyze implications in contractors’ SLOMAR proposals in the context of SMAMA’s logistics management functions and McClellan AFB industrial depot-level maintenance and supply capabilities. SMAMA and McClellan AFB managers would consider the analyses in meeting higher headquarters requests for input toward Command decisions on assigning, balancing, and accomplishing future workloads.

f. It had become evident by the early-1950s that the Department of Defense was considering extensive consolidations of military ‘logistics’ missions, mission assignments, and their existing, programmed and long range workloads in order to reduce the number of government installations and corresponding military and civil service personnel. Out-sourcing to the private sector had become an increasingly influential option.

g. A civilian or military moon base did not follow the enormous investment of the nation’s resources toward the Apollo Program’s successful landing of humans on the Moon and returning them to Earth. During one of my subsequent business trips to Hqs AFLC in the early-1960s I met one of the headquarters logisticians that had served on one of the SLOMAR review panels. He mentioned that, as far as he knew, the SLOMAR archives had been passed along to the Lunar Expedition Project (LUNEX). By then, LUNEX was a private sector extension of the International Space Station (ISS).

h. Further Internet search for the Air Force SLOMAR study as a ‘link’ in this essay was unsuccessful. Relevant indirect background on the reassignment of civilian and military space systems to NASA and DOD is included in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library Oral History Collection, Transcript: James E. Webb Oral History Interview, Space Program, Pages 9-12, I, 4/29/69, by T. H. Baker at:

http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/Johnson/archives.hom/oralhistory.hom/WEBB-J/webb.pdf

also

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/2005/MR1649.pdf

i. The May 1961 declassified lunar expedition plan (LUNEX) is at:

http://www.astronautix.com/articles/lunex.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Edited and material added 5.8.09)

NOTE: The author of this blog was a volunteer ‘hotline’ worker in a county suicide prevention service during the Viet Nam War. His paraprofessional certification has lapsed and he is no longer qualified or authorized to offer ‘suicide prevention’ advice. If you are depressed, self-destructive and/or thinking of suicide get professional help without delay. If you are in an emotional crisis and don’t know to whom or where you can turn for help phone/contact your physician, therapist, community ‘suicide prevention’ service or hotline, or phone the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-talk. Content of this blog is for your information only (FYI).

~~~~~~

Preface: Based on notes I made in the late 1970s at a suicide prevention conference I attended in San Francisco: Dr. Edwin Shneidman, a pioneer and leader in ‘suicide prevention’ and one of the founders of the American Association of Suicidology was the Speaker. Reconstructing from my notes: ‘ … people are acutely bent on self-destruction for relatively brief periods in their lives. The most accurate temporal unit would be hours, perhaps days. A person is rarely highly lethal for a long period of time. Either there are some changes or he/she is dead. So the moral question has to be asked. Why in the total span of life would you resonate to a tiny fraction of an individual’s life span? When a man/woman says (ambivalently) ‘I want to kill myself.’ for a few days of his/her life, why disregard the rest of his/her existence? If he/she can be given some sanctuary or surcease, he/she would not be suicidal after that period.’

~~~

Introduction: Mental health experts have come to accept paraprofessional-level suicide intervention and prevention workers as among those in the forefront of primary resources. The view is that their intervention might reduce the lethality of a person contemplating suicide, and even influence someone who has actually initiated an act of suicide.

Dr. Calvin Frederick, a past President of the American Association of Suicidology wrote (quoting):

Dealing with suicidal behavior, that is, suicide prevention) differs from more classical diagnostic and treatment procedures in the following respects:

1. suicidal behavior covers a broad range of disturbances and personalities and is, therefore, not a unitary concept;

2. it possesses a unique life or death quality;

3. intervention does not utilize traditional therapy methods;

4. the problem is multidimensional and multidisciplinary, often involving social and cultural attitudes, the law, medical intervention, and innovative psychological approaches;

5. the use of indigenous volunteers as stable and sensitive crisis workers is greater than that found in most aspects of therapeutic endeavor.

~~~

Context: There is a general observation among experts in suicide and suicide prevention that official statistics on the number of suicides and suicide attempts in any identified population are like the tips of icebergs. They do not reveal to a casual reader the reality of how many individuals in that population killed themselves intentionally and separately, how many tried to kill themselves, failed, and might try again. Authoritative estimates occasionally appear in both professional and popular media that there are about eight suicides in fact for each certified as a suicide for the official record, and about fifteen unsuccessful attempts at suicide for each classified as such, again for the official count.

At this writing, according to figures compiled by the Centers of Disease Control (CDC), suicide rates are rising for teenagers while declining or holding steady in other age groups. Between 1980 and 1993, the suicide rate rose 120 percent for 10 to 14-year olds, and almost 30 percent for 15 to 19-year olds. In part, this rise can be attributed to the increasing availability of firearms, but, in addition, (according to the American Association of Suicidology) ‘there are more depressed kids.’ And while the actual number of suicides remains quite small – in 1993 there were 315 students in the age group 10 to 14-year old and 1,884 students in the age group 15 to 19-year old who committed suicide. A 1993 study of 16,000 high school students conducted by the CDC found that an astonishing 1 in 12 said that he or she had attempted suicide the previous year.

Camouflage is not unusual: suicide preparations may be arranged so that the act will appear as an accident. An ailing individual might suddenly stop taking life-saving medication; or family members, friends, or ‘significant others’ might goad or exert harsh psychological pressures on an emotionally distraught person so that suicide becomes the only escape. Ironically, ‘suicide statistics’ do not examine the impact of a suicide on the victim’s family and friends, nor do they note the traumatic and often permanent effects of the failed attempt on the victim. Further, they ignore the financial burden of subsequent home or institutional and health care for victim and family as well as paying for precautions against further attempts.

~~~

Relevant background of the writer:

Before I retired from the federal civil service in 1974 I was the civilian deputy to the Inspector General (IG) at McClellan Air Force Base, a large military installation near Sacramento, California. I was and am a civilian and a non-professional/lay person in all mental health disciplines. I attribute my involvement in ‘suicide prevention’ to circumstances of the ‘Viet Nam’ years. Accordingly, this memoir is presented ‘FYI (For your information only.)

During ‘Viet Nam’, many military medical and mental health professionals, support staff, and others in healthcare disciplines were on duty at medical and mental health facilities in Southeast Asia, at stations along routes for military personnel returning to the U S, and at medical and other facilities in the U. S. where Armed Forces wounded received care.A general shortage of mental health specialists and staff existed at military installations in both the field overseas and throughout the continental U. S. According to reports in the media, the same situation prevails where comparable requirements are urgent in current Middle East conflicts where the U. S. Armed Forces are active. During ‘Viet Nam’, existing staff, including untrained civilian employees, were often assigned ‘additional duties’ to fill gaps.

In 1968, the McClellan Air Force Base senior Commander directed me to represent him on the Sacramento County mental health council. At the time, community leaders were considering creating a Suicide Prevention Service (SPS) to meet urgent needs within the area. The SPS was approved, and I was invited to train for and join the SPS volunteer staff. As the SPS functions and workload became clear, I took paraprofessional training to certification and when the Service became operational took my turn on the ‘hotline,’ especially calls related to needs of the Armed Forces military and their families. I extended my duties to include SPS liaison with several military installations in the area.

At that time, central California and Nevada had military facilities where military personnel of all Services were stationed for training, support, and operations, or who were in transit to or from Southeast Asia. In effect, the Sacramento-San Francisco corridor in the late 1960s-early 1970s was filled with military personnel on their way to and from Viet Nam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. From the outset, as word spread about Sacramento County’s SPS hotline, increasing numbers of calls came in from potential and selected draftees, active duty, and retired members of the Armed Forces and their families.

USAF Inspector General Complaints Program

http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/airforce/a/afig.htm?p=1

~

One of my McClellan AFB Inspector General responsibilities was to organize and operate McClellan AFB’s support to the Air Force Inspector General Complaints System. A basic principle of the IG System holds that, as a last resort within their organizations, active and retired military personnel and members of their families, and civilian employees have the right to address a grievance or an appeal to the installation’s Inspector General.

The installation Inspector General represents the installation’s senior Commander in these matters. An appeal to the IG may be for information and explanations concerning status and duties, to describe perceived unreasonable conditions under which the appellant works, to report on inadequate support to themselves or their dependents or, for other reasons to seek relief from what the grievant considers an intolerable and unjustifiable situation.

The IG, or deputy IG, acting for the senior Commander hears complaints and appeals and conducts such inquiries and investigations that may be required to resolve the matters. In the context of this memoir, when hearing (or reading) a complaint, there were occasions when a complainant hinted at suicide as the only remaining option should he or she not be given what they considered a reasonable resolution of the problem they presented.

Shortly after the SP service became operational a significant number of phone calls came in from active duty military, military veterans and retired military of all Services, and from members of their families. Many, if not most, such calls (to the SPS) required information or actions from a military or other government entity.

The SPS policy was to not disclose a caller’s identity: Protecting a caller’s identity is (or was at the time) generally practiced by most crisis intervention centers unless the situation was an imminent life-death crisis.

Organized, volunteer-staffed, telephone suicide prevention ‘hotline’ services were beginning to appear in the larger cities throughout the U.S. in the late ’60s; less than a hundred were in operation across the U.S. at the time. In order that I might better understand the ‘suicide’ phenomenon and to accomplish my duties in support of the USAF IG Complaints System, I became a regular volunteer at the SPS, attended their ongoing paraprofessional upgrade training, and worked a shift on the hotline. I served with the SPS Speakers Bureau, Executive Board and other committees and gave talks about the community program at staff, non-commissioned officers’, military dependents’, and civilian community meetings.

I compiled an information kit on suicide myths, and the signs that would generally indicate that a friend or family member might be thinking of suicide. I sent copies of whatever literature I acquired from the SPS and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to my counterparts at other military bases. The USAF Inspector General printed an article about the information kits in the USAF TIG BRIEF (The Inspector General Brief) an IG administrative newsletter distributed to USAF facilities worldwide and to the Hqs of the other Services. The TIG Brief newsletter was also distributed in Viet Nam. The item resulted in more than 150 requests from Southeast Asia for the information packet, which we forwarded.

During talks I gave to military and general audiences I was occasionally asked for examples of what ‘hotline’ exchanges with military callers were like. Two of the 3 summaries that follow were related to the Viet Nam conflict. The third is a problem all too common, regardless of the times; it happened and continues to happen as often in the civilian world as it does in the military. I’ve screened my recollections so as to honor my commitments to confidentiality. The narration reflects a tiny sample of the effects of stress that can surface in military life and is not intended to represent major emotional, behavioral, or physical indicators toward suicide ideation. My regular work shift at the SPS brought me as much of a military-civilian mix of callers as the other hotline workers, so I’ve seen both sides.

The contacts were all by telephone, and in two of the three cases led to a number of quick follow-on calls to several parties on and off the base. Each caller had the potential for violence, either to self or another. If intervention, at a high point in the interaction failed, the situation might well have deteriorated, possibly with tragic results.

Draftee

While on the job in the McClellan IG office, a phone call came in from the SPS Director who told me he needed my help right then. A young Army draftee was on the SPS hotline and he was threatening to commit suicide. He was supposed to be on his way to Viet Nam but he had gone AWOL instead. He was far from home and felt lost and confused. He said he had one question before deciding whether to kill himself: ‘What’ll they do to me if I turn myself in?’ He wouldn’t identify himself or say where he was.

The SPS Director said that he didn’t have the answer. He told the soldier he had a contact at a nearby military base that could check it out. Holding him on one line he called me on another and gave me the facts. I immediately called the Staff Judge Advocate – who was part of my on-base network – and had him phone the SPS Director immediately to review the ramifications of military justice as it might apply. The SPS Director passed the information to the soldier and then talked to him for about an hour. The guidance provided by the Staff Judge Advocate gave the soldier options that might reduce potential charges he faced, not ruling out desertion. We never found out what the soldier decided; he never called back.

This call, and how it was handled, demonstrated teamwork between a community suicide prevention resource and military and civil service administrators on a military base. Comparable groundbreaking was going on in other military-civilian communities and contexts.

Family Problem

The Base Chaplain called me at home late one Sunday night and said he’d had a phone call from a hotline worker at the community SPS. The SPS worker had asked for his help in a call that had come in from an airman’s wife. She had phoned the SPS from her home off base and threatened to kill her husband and then commit suicide.

The caller to the SPS had impulsively terminated the call to the SPS after a few minutes, but in her responses to questions at the outset of the interview, had given her phone number to the crisis worker. After she hung up, the crisis worker judged the woman was more than moderately lethal, and also that she might listen to a military Chaplain. That brought on the call to the Base Chaplain.

After getting the specifics from the crisis worker, the Chaplain phoned the woman and talked to her for about 10 minutes before she hung up on him too. His conclusion, also, was that she was highly lethal for both homicide and suicide. He phoned the Base Security Police and then the Director of Personnel. The Chaplain was leaving that day for Viet Nam; the Director of Personnel suggested he call me.

The Chaplain asked me to follow up. I called the woman. The conversation was heavy, and lasted for more than 2 hours. The problem was in marital relations, finances, and spouse abuse. We finally got around to talking about on-base resources that might ease the load she was carrying: the Staff Judge Advocate, Family Services and Medics. Just listening, and then talking about potential on-base resources helped to lower the pressure. She finally agreed to wait until morning, now only a couple of hours distant, so that the resources we had discussed could be consulted.

First thing that morning, I got the base Family Services people into the act. They moved in fast, took control, got the airman’s wife around to talk to the right people, and did a lot themselves. I checked back later. Family Services had her under their wing. She wasn’t talking about murder-suicide any more. It was going to be one day at a time for her for a while. She now had somewhere on-base where she felt she could turn, and people in whom she had some confidence.

Why hadn’t the woman tried Family Services on her own? I don’t know. She chose the civilian community’s suicide intervention resource. She had other options, and she might have tried them too. What’s my point? Another instance in which military and civilian resources collaborated and made the system work.

Returnee

At about 11 PM one night, I was working my shift at the SPS hotline desk. A call came in from the switchboard supervisor at the city’s telephone company. The supervisor said she had a man on-line and he was in a fury. She couldn’t handle him. Would I take him? I told her to let me have him, and he was on.

It took a while to get him down to where he could speak coherently. He was an enlisted man in from Viet Nam, making his way to the East Coast. His problem wasn’t suicide, it was homicide. He was in a barroom, he said, drinking and minding his own business. Shortly before his call, another patron had ridiculed his uniform and his Service. He had a weapon in his bag and had an almost overwhelming urge to use it.

A stranger in town, passing through, he felt he’d better divert and talk to someone. Searching for some means to vent his rage other than assault, he had, on impulse, picked up the barroom phone and dialed the operator. He must have come down real heavy on her and her supervisor; he found himself of a sudden switched to a hotline worker at the local SPS.

We talked for more than three hours. At the outset he was openly hostile, demanded to know who I was, and how the hell I had been loaded on to him. When I told him, he said he didn’t know what ‘suicide prevention’ was about and wanted no part of it. But he didn’t hang up, and we never hung up on anyone.

In our give-and-take, when he realized he was talking to someone who had more than a passing knowledge of the military, who could respond in his jargon and relate to his lifestyle and to his feelings, his hostility eased off. Other feelings began to surface.

He admitted that he had been deeply shaken and enraged by his experiences during border crossings into Cambodia, and he still carried the same, almost overwhelming, anger. Without my bringing it up, he confided that he’d had intense thoughts about self-injury, even suicide, and that the feelings had been strongest before taking off on missions. The rage, and the thoughts of suicide, were still with him and, looking back at them in calmer moments, he said that he was alarmed by their intensity. After a while, he admitted, reluctantly, that he might need help. He said he would think about seeking it out when he got to his permanent station.

At the close, he was much calmer. He phoned back a few hours later and told the hotline worker on duty that he was at the bus depot, and would soon leave for the east. He said to pass the word to me that he was OK.

Collaboration

Eventually, it became evident to me from my IG and SPS experiences, that much could be accomplished through a carefully designed system for collaboration between military bases (or other federal agencies) in any given geographic area and the crisis intervention/suicide prevention (ci/sp) resources of adjacent civilian communities. The potential for good was enormous, not only for and within the military community, but national as well. I learned in time that I was not alone; many others, professionals and lay, were thinking and active along similar lines.

I was convinced that the time was long past for both military and civilian managers and supervisors, in both the public and private sectors to acquire basic indoctrination in ci/sp as it pertained to the people that they commanded or supervised. I wrote numerous letters on the issue, recommending specific actions, and continued doing so after I retired in 1974. My appeals went to the Federal Executive, Congress, and the media. I stressed the urgent need for proactive command (or agency)-wide training and motivational programs to confront the suicide phenomenon, and get organized to reduce suicide attempts and deliberate self-destructive behavior among military personnel, members of their families, and DoD and other Departments’ employees.

The essence of my appeal was, first, for a set of formal objectives for the federal military and civil services to move them toward collaboration with community resources that were engaged in grass roots suicide prevention; in essence, collaboration and teamwork between the federal government, as an employer of people, and the communities in which their people lived and worked. If the concept could get a foot in the door at the federal level, then state and county governments might hitch a ride on the system, and ultimately, so would private sector employers. In made no difference which level took the initiative, cross feed and human nature would eventually get the others interested. The suicide trend, the way I read the Public Health Service’s statistics of the early and mid-70s, was heading up.

Many government and private sector employers already had in-house programs for stress management. They also had employees who, although lay persons, had been trained and qualified to give emergency CPR and other forms of first aid at the work site. So why not someone in the shop or office who was basically trained in suicide prevention and crisis intervention? As with other on-site emergency services, this person, who would have been trained and qualified to recognize discernible and professionally recognized signs that might precede a suicide attempt, would consult with a supervisor, and exercise his/her judgment in getting the person-in-distress ASAP to professional help.

Community suicide prevention programs (certified SP Centers, informal hotlines, Community Mental Health Centers, etc.) had by that time become a fact of life: they existed, and were part of the system, organized or ad hoc. Proactive ‘suicide prevention,’ would generate its own force for being: it would not get canceled like an aircraft, ship, or construction program, to the contrary. With oversight by reasonable and conscientious leaders, managers, and supporters, suicide prevention would become ingrained, omnipresent, and a way of life in which everyone would play a vital role. Naive? Maybe, maybe not.

What is vital to sustain ‘suicide prevention’ is to spread the idea, and make it ‘everybody’s business.’ Making the idea acceptable as ‘everybody’s business’ would be ‘everybody’s job.’ The ‘everybody’ would include parents and teachers and counselors of children and youth, police officers and rescue workers on the street, and supervisors, staff, and union officials in the workplace. It would be where people played, in their neighborhoods, and go along with each age group to where they would spend their retirement years.

For the elderly (among whom depression and suicide rates are very high) crisis intervention resources, and suicide prevention and risk-reduction depends on leaders and staff of health care institutions, administrators and staff in retirement residence and convalescent communities, senior centers, AARP chapters, and anywhere the elderly gather. The reality would also depend on the elderly themselves, individually and collectively, e.g., to get past the long history they inherited of bigotry, superstition, and ignorance when it comes to mental health, suicide, and helping survivors of suicide. Emphasis on adult education, support group discussions, and motivational training can help to reduce such barriers among middle year’s adults (parents of school age children) as well as the elderly.

An article I wrote in 1984 Suicide Prevention Must Be Everybody’s Business, was published in the January 14, 1985 issue of the Army, Navy and Air Force Times. I advocated an organized suicide prevention program within the military, which would include training and involvement of all active duty military, not confined to those in the medical and mental health fields. I posed the questions:

‘a. Does your base have a program whereby supervisors and co-workers who might be confronted with suicidal people are trained to recognize the warning signs and refer potential suicides to professionals?

‘b. Are any base personnel, especially security police, social actions or family support workers, trained in crisis intervention techniques? Are any of them volunteer workers in the local community’s suicide prevention program?

‘c. Does your base have any sort of arrangement with local suicide prevention centers or hotlines so that a civilian crisis worker can contact the base for information or assistance? Do civilian volunteers know exactly whom to call for help when a military person or dependent threatens suicide?

‘d. Do your base officials routinely check with local crisis clinics to find out the number and types of distress calls being received from military people? Is this information analyzed to determine trends or patterns?

‘e. Do your base mental health workers give talks to active duty and dependents’ groups on this subject? Are civilian experts in suicide prevention brought on base to explain their services?’

The following month (February 22, 1985), the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff issued a Memorandum for Major Commands and Staff Agencies which stated in part, ‘The Department of the Army has developed a Suicide Prevention Strategy designed to help commanders deal with this problem. Commanders must use this plan and complement it with initiatives tailored to specific needs.’ Over the following months the Army issued implementing Departmental, major command, and subordinate level Regulations, programs, and guides.

Later that same year (1985), I secured copies of studies, plans, directives, motivational guides and other documents published by NIMH, the American Association of Suicidology (AAS), and the Army on their in-house suicide prevention programs and which they provided to me in response to my appeals. I compiled and self-published in book form the material that I received, and marketed it on a not-for-profit basis to cover my printing and related costs. My initial report, printed on Feb 26, 1971 (during Viet Nam) was ‘Summary and Commentary on the Institute in Suicidology in Los Angeles January 23-27 1971′) and had limited distribution within the Air Force, and the next compilation was in June 1985, ‘Military-Civilian Teamwork in Suicide Prevention.’ A subsequent update was published in 1988 ‘Suicide Prevention Programs in the Department of Defense’, and the last update, in 1994, returned to the original title ‘Military-Civilian Teamwork in Suicide Prevention.’

Portions of the 1994 edition may be freely downloaded from the Project Gutenberg Archive Library (PGLAF) at:

http://preprints.readingroo.ms/suicide/

(Project Gutenberg Description: ‘Military-Civilian Teamwork in Suicide Prevention, by Meyer Moldevan. Published in 1994, contains documents and analyses of policies, practices and outcomes related to suicide prevention. Separate scanned PDF files, which include news clippings and other difficult-to-format items.’)

~~

My intent, in collecting and disseminating to the general public the suicide prevention programs and practices of the Armed Forces, NIMH, and other contributors. In effect, I joined the many lay military personnel and private citizens like myself who had become involved toward improving the system. Wide distribution might also promote cross feed and disclose conflicting policies and procedures. The process, itself, I felt, would encourage collaboration among professionals, paraprofessionals, and administrators and directors of suicide prevention entities in neighboring civilian communities. Further, I hoped that publicizing the Armed Forces’ plans, procedures and practices for organized ‘suicide prevention’ and mental health generally would encourage other government departments and agencies to explore their need for comparable programs, and that potentially beneficial methodologies might spin off to the private sector.

My continuing interest in proactive and organized suicide prevention efforts in the Armed Forces led me to write to then Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, and to Senator Sam Nunn and Congressman Ronald Dellums in their responsibilities as Senate and House chairmen, respectively, of committees charged with the oversight of military affairs. A copy of my letter to and the response from the Office of the Secretary of Defense is included in this memoir.

Programs

A monumental medical, mental health, and social initiative was created in ‘suicide prevention’ by the original U S Army Suicide Prevention Plan, (Feb. 1985) prepared by the Directorate of Human Resources, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel. The Plan called on each U.S. Army base to develop and publish an installation Suicide Prevention Plan. The plan would provide for Army active duty units, Army families, the Army Community, and civilian employees of the Army. Among its many parts were several concerned with Armed Forces’ collaboration with civilian communities and other public and private sector mental health suicide prevention and crisis intervention resources (police, fire fighting, rescue services, etc). The Navy issued its program in 1987, and the Air Force issued formal policy guidance in 1997 on implementing their suicide prevention programs.

~~

The U. S. Army Suicide Prevention Program components links to relevant sites and contacts in effect at the time this memoir was posted online is at:

http://www.armyg1.army.mil/HR/suicide/default.asp

~

The U. S. Navy/Marine Corps counterpart site is at:

http://www-nmcphc.med.navy.mil/hp/suicide/index.htm

~

The U. S. Air Force counterpart site is at:

http://afspp.afms.mil/idc/groups/public/documents/webcontent/knowledgejunction.hcst?functionalarea=AFSuicidePreventionPrgm&doctype=subpage&docname=CTB_018094&incbanner=0

~~~

The following is quoted from the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Healthy People 2000 Report-Citizens Chart the Course, a separate volume of Healthy People 2000 that records the testimony and suggestions of citizens interviewed by the Public Health Service in the development of year 2000 national health objectives. The quote is from the section: Violent and Abusive Behavior, page 137):

‘Meyer (Mike) Moldeven of Del Mar, California, says that volunteer training is an important component of successful suicide intervention for all ages: ‘A community’s suicide intervention and prevention resources – of which the suicide prevention center, crisis center, and hotline are elements – depend to an enormous degree on local paraprofessionals and trained volunteers.’ In the workplace, employers already provide programs for stress management, as well as cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first-aid training. Thus , ‘why not a lay worker on the job site who is trained to function in an emergency suicide situation?’ asks Moldeven. ‘The United States Armed Forces have established formal suicide prevention programs, and their foundations may comparable programs for other employers.’

~~

The largest single federal department, formally recognizing suicide as a critical challenge to the good and welfare and the lives in general of their people, took a great leap forward by institutionalizing suicide prevention. With the foresight and efforts of advocates and caring managers, comparable initiatives, both formal and informal, can be expected from other government entities. When top-management directed – and supported – suicide intervention and prevention policies do take root throughout the federal system, as they inevitably will, they will merge or interact with adjacent Regional, State and community programs. The United States Armed Forces’ everybody’s business approach to crisis intervention and suicide prevention for their military and civilian populations has great potential for the public good.

Public and private sector employers and schools benefit from their awareness of policies, resources, and standard operating procedures for suicide intervention and prevention practiced by institutions and other employers in their area. Where such cross feed and mutuality does not prevail, employer-community initiatives can explore them and evaluate the results for their employees, their clients and customers, and the common good. Such efforts contribute to the well being of workers and their families; parents, teachers, counselors and students; encourage and improve industrial and community safety, and generally enhance esteem and mutual respect among employers and the community of which they are a part.

In order that sp policies, practices, and training can move forward with effect, information that will help the ultimate recipient of suicide prevention services needs to be disseminated to all levels and throughout all functions of the military and civilian communities: the line and the staff and their families; the civil services, academic and business communities, the domain of the elderly, and the general public. Readily accessible in public, institutional, and industry libraries, adapted to and ingrained into the system, the procedures and delineation of who-does-what in crisis intervention/suicide prevention will help to coordinate and improve plans, methods, and collaboration across the board. It would be a true win-win.

The news media and the Internet can alert employers that do not as yet have their own programs, and keep them informed of opportunities to participate.

~~~

STIGMA

(See ‘Why Marines May Not Seek Help’ in ‘References’ 2)

~~

Following is the text of a letter that I sent to the Secretary of Defense and the SecDef Office response

(from)
Meyer Moldeven
April 26, 1993
To:
Secretary of Defense
The Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301
Honorable Secretary:

(The opening paragraph in the original letter cited a number of suicides in a military organization. Identifying the activities involved is not relevant to the focus of this copy and has been omitted.)

There is one aspect of organizing around (suicide intervention and prevention)-all-services-that deserves review at command level and, if a covering policy or management system exists, that it be publicized throughout the services and in civilian communities adjacent military installations.

Normally, a military person with an intolerable personal problem tries to get relief from within the system of which he or she is part, e.g., a buddy, family support services, chain-of-command, personnel staff, the IG, etc. Many personal problems are not job related, but because of the victim’s inability to cope, spill over and affect ‘job.’ When the person is in a suicidal crisis, realizes that help is urgently needed, and wants such help, he or she will not hesitate to contact whomever can provide it, if not from within the system then from outside.

Unless the military administrative system has changed on this point, a suicidal military person, or a suicidal member of his or her family who seeks help from within the system, believes that a record of the contact will be made. The ‘record’ transforms to stigma and a potential threat to present job and future career. ‘Records,’ more often than not, compel the person in a suicidal crisis to look elsewhere. Elsewhere includes the adjacent civilian community’s crisis intervention resources, specifically, the suicide prevention telephone hotline where callers need not provide identification – they’re as safe from being identified as anywhere they can be under their circumstances. The hotline worker does what can be accomplished quickly to keep the caller from slipping deeper into crisis and acting out a threat to suicide. They listen, offer nonjudgmental feedback, and together with the caller, explore options.

Almost invariably, when a civilian community crisis worker (telephone hotline or face-to-face) needs information on options unique to military life to help a suicidal military member or someone in his or her immediate family, the source is the nearest base’s health care, personnel, or other administrative functions. Very often, when contacts with base officials occur and the worker has the name of a suicidal caller, confidentiality is literally vital; being tagged in the base’s records as someone who phoned an off-base crisis center carries almost certain exposure to military authority, and might well add the final straw.

If it’s accepted that the military base and its adjacent civilian community should cooperate in suicide intervention, then the civilian and military agencies need mutually accepted procedures to do the job. If a community’s crisis resource has one set of procedures for cooperation from the Navy, another for the Marine Corps, and still others for the Army and the Air Force, confusion mounts and collaboration suffers. This is especially true when the situation is tight and there isn’t much time to keep a suicide threat from becoming an act. To the telephone hotline worker in suicide prevention center it makes no difference whatsoever if the person on the other end of the line is a soldier, sailor, airman, marine – or civilian. On the other side of the scale, however, is the we-take-care-of-our-own turf, and that, to the suicidal person, is meaningless.

I hoped that, by now, military bases would have been further along in collaborating with adjacent civilian suicide prevention resources and that such teamwork would be reflected in base and community media. How else would a military person or a member of his or her family on the edge of a life-death decision for themselves know where to go or whom to phone, especially where their privacy and confidentiality would be respected – if they decided to take a chance to continue living? Is a city telephone directory listing for the local crisis center enough?

Agreements, procedures and contact points for military-civilian teamwork in suicide prevention deserve to begin on a county, metropolitan, or other regional basis, rather than in single-base to community understandings, especially where the area has bases representing different services. When all the services in an area have maximum understanding among themselves about collaborating with community suicide intervention resources, it will optimize the support that they and their people as individuals can ask for from that resource, and the help that the hotline worker can offer to them. In effect, when a civilian suicide hotline has been appealed to for help by a military member/family member, the crisis worker will have clearly written, mutually agreed upon procedures for communications and actions with each base in the area. All concerned will have been trained, tested, and know to the greatest degree possible who is going to do what. With present computer networking capabilities the resources indices in such guides can be readily maintained current and widely disseminated throughout a region and on and among military installations.

The opinions in this letter are my own, and are based on my experiences as a civilian IG-analyst and suicide prevention hotline volunteer in the late ’60s/early 70s (and hassling the bureaucracy on this issue into the mid-80s.) I am not now associated with any mental health profession or military organization-strictly a private citizen. It may be that what I’ve suggested already exists or, conversely, that it isn’t justified; I don’t know, but I would be remiss not to present my views for your consideration.

Respectfully,
s/Moldeven

~

Reply

(From) Office of the Secretary of Defense
Washington D. C. 20301
(Force Management and Personnel)

1 June 1993
(To) Mr. Meyer Moldeven
Thank you for your letter of April 26, 1993 to Mr. Les Aspin, regarding suicide prevention programs in the Department of Defense.

Your letter prompted a review of policy in the Department of Defense on suicide prevention. The Department of Defense does not address suicide prevention in its directive on Health Promotion. That directive was published March 11, 1986, and is in need of revision. The Department is reviewing and revising that directive and a suicide prevention section will be added. We will address in the development of that section the issues you raised in your letter to Mr. Aspin.

Thank you for your interest and continued concern in this important mental health area.

S/Nicolai Timenes, Jr.
Principal Director
(Military Manpower and Personnel Policy)
(added, hand-written: ‘Thanks!’)

~~~~~

REFERENCES

1. Armed Forces Suicide Prevention Act introduced for stronger suicide prevention programs in the DoD.

http://webb.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=291726

Quoted, first 2 paragraphs: ‘With new reports this week showing a steady rise in U.S. Army suicides among its active-duty personnel since the invasion of Iraq, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) and several of his colleagues introduced a bill that would direct the Department of Defense to enhance its suicide-prevention programs. The legislation, Webb said, ‘places greater emphasis on the well-being and welfare of our troops.’

‘The ‘Armed Forces Suicide Prevention Act’ mandates an evaluation and enhancement of the military’s suicide prevention programs to ensure that they address the combat stress faced by troops today. The bill also establishes an outreach campaign to soldiers and families to reduce the stigma associated with mental health problems and to encourage those needing help to seek it.

~~~

2. Leaders Guide for Managing Marines in Distress

http://www.usmc-mccs.org/leadersguide/Emotional/Suicide/generalinfo.cfm

Excerpt: Why Marines May Not Seek Help

• Fear that seeking help will negatively impact their careers.
• Fear of commander having complete access to mental health records.
• Belief that mental health information is entered into their military record.
• A command climate that discourages getting help.

Marines may be reluctant to seek help because of fears that such help will negatively impact their careers. Unfortunately, this often means a Marine in distress delays seeking help until the problem becomes so big that it affects their behavior both on and off work until, ultimately, they begin to collect Page 11 counseling entries, Letters of Reprimand, and NJPs. The consequence of waiting too long to seek help is what damages their career. Getting help early does not. As leaders, you must combat the myth that seeking help early damages careers.

Another fear Marines have is that their Commander will have complete access to their mental health records. In fact, however, for most of those who self-refer to Mental Health, confidentiality is maintained. In cases where information is released, the cases either involve mandatory reporting or the unit leadership was solicited to be a resource for the member (with the Marine’s consent).

Some Marines incorrectly believe mental health information is entered into their Military Record. Mental health clinical information is recorded in the outpatient medical record and the appropriate mental health file but not the Military Record unless they are found unfit or unsuitable for duty.

~~~

3. First paragraph in an article ‘ Preventing Suicide’ in the National Journal: Formulating a Plan’ at:

http://www.preventsuicide.net/articles/feb04.html

Formulating a plan. When Lt. Gen. Charles “Chip” Roadman II convened a diverse team of military and civilian experts in summer 1996 to consider how to reduce skyrocketing suicide rates in the U.S. Air Force, he never imagined the program they would develop could have such prominent and far-reaching effects.

With that program – the first of its kind to suggest that suicide is a preventable public health problem – in place service-wide, USAF rates plummeted to just 2.2/100,000 in the first eight months of 1999. Quite a decrease from a high of 16.4/100,000 in 1994.
David Litts, O.D., Colonel, USAF, was a member of the team and remembers well June and July of 1996 when he and about 75 others gathered to consider how best to attack soaring suicide rates in the Air Force.

~~

4. (CNN Report: Excerpt) Pentagon: Military’s mental health care needs help

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/15/military.mental.health/index.html

• A new report says the military is unable to provide adequate psychological care

• Insufficient funding, prejudices toward mental illness are part of the problem

• Long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have made mental health a major issue

(CNN) — A Pentagon report released Friday says the military’s mental health services need some serious therapy.

‘The military health system lacks the fiscal resources and the fully trained personnel to fulfill its mission to support psychological health in peacetime or fulfill the enhanced requirements imposed during times of conflict,’ according to ‘An Achievable Vision,’ a report from the Pentagon’s Task Force on Mental Health.

The task force members reviewed information in public testimony from ‘experts and advocates’ and people at military installations across the world.

Here are some of the findings.

‘A stigma attached to mental health problems among service members ‘remains pervasive and often prevents service members from seeking needed care.’

‘Existing processes for psychological assessment are insufficient to overcome the stigma inherent in seeking mental health services.’

‘Mental health professionals are not sufficiently accessible to service members.’

‘Leaders, family members, and medical personnel are insufficiently trained in matters relating to psychological health.’

‘Some Department of Defense policies, including those related to command notification or self-disclosure of psychological health issues, are overly conservative.’

‘Significant gaps in the continuum of care for psychological health remain, specifically related to which services are offered, where services are offered, and who receives services.’

‘Family members have difficulty obtaining adequate mental health treatment.’

The military lacks ‘enough fiscal or personnel resources to adequately support’ psychological help of service members and their families.

Military treatment facilities don’t ‘provide a full continuum of psychological health care services for active duty service members and their families.’

The number of active duty mental health professionals is insufficient and likely to decrease without substantial intervention.

The network benefit addressing psychological health ‘is hindered by fragmented rules and policies, inadequate oversight, and insufficient reimbursement.’

The task force wants to correct these deficiencies by working to dispel biases against mental health care, making professionals accessible and embedding ‘psychological health training throughout military life.’

It calls for changing ‘policies to reflect current knowledge about psychological health, making ‘psychological assessment procedures an effective, efficient, and normal part of military life,’ and ensuring that the military health network’s provisions ‘fulfill beneficiaries’ mental health needs.’

With U.S. troops fighting long, grueling wars this decade in Iraq and Afghanistan, mental health has emerged as a major issue.

A Pentagon survey last month that assessed the mental health of troops in Iraq found one-third of soldiers and Marines in high levels of combat report anxiety, depression and acute stress.

According to that report, soldiers who were deployed more than six months or multiple times were more likely to screen positive for a mental health issue.

~~

5. Where There’s Hope, There’s Help

The National Mental Health Awareness Campaign at

http://www.nostigma.org/

…is a nationwide nonpartisan public education campaign launched as part of the 1999 White House Conference on Mental Health organized by Tipper Gore. The Campaign’s aim is to accomplish its mission by utilizing three programs; youth outreach, Mental Health Media Partnership, and Roundtable discussions on various topics.

What is Stigma?

Stigma goes far beyond the misuse of words and information, it is about disrespect. Stigma is commonly defined as the use of stereotypes and labels when describing someone. Stereotypes are often attached to people who are suffering from a mental illness. The simple fact is that no one fully understands how the brain works and why, at times, it works differently in different people. Our society tends to not give the same acceptance to brain disorders as we do to other organ disorders, say, heart trouble. The stigma surrounding these misunderstandings can limit opportunities, it can stand in the way of a new job, it can increase feelings of loneliness, and it can cause many other unfortunate outcomes. Stigma must, and can, be exposed and overcome. Everyone must know that it is not their fault and that it is OK to ask for help.

What can you do?

If you know someone that seems extremely upset, maybe someone who displays extreme mood changes, or maybe even you yourself feel emotionally out of place at times … the time is now to act, help, assist, notify, inform and get better. You just might be surprised on how much you can accomplish through understanding, hope, and friendship.

~~

6. Army Releases Suicide Data, Promotes Prevention Programs

http://www.armymedicine.army.mil/news/releases/20070816suicidereport.cfm

~~

7. Mental Health Consumers’ Experience of Stigma (by Otto K Wahl) at:

http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/25/3/467

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8. ‘Hearing’ disabilities (This Reference added as relevant to the mental health and well-being of the troops and their families.)

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11443

Troops Return with Alarming Rates of Hearing Loss. Noise-induced hearing loss is on the rise among U.S. servicemen and women …

(First two paragraphs) quote:

Troops Return with Alarming Rates of Hearing Loss
As printed in Hearing Health, volume 20:3, Fall 2004

‘War is obviously a highly hazardous endeavor for military personnel. And although weapons that pose the greatest hazards change over time, one thing remains the same: war is dangerously loud.

‘The headline of this article undoubtedly applied to any number of past conflicts. It certainly did when hundreds of thousands of Americans returned from World War II. In fact, their need for hearing help contributed to the emergence of audiology as a new field of healthcare. It should be a matter of great national concern, however, that the current situation is so severe despite six decades of advances in methods of hearing conservation.’

Book (title) ‘Noise And Military Service: Implications For Hearing Loss And Tinnitus’

Larry E. Humes, Lois M. Joellenbeck, and Jane S. Durch, Editors, Committee on Noise-Induced Hearing Loss and Tinnitus Associated with Military Service from World War II to the Present. 338 pages, 6 x 9, 2005, National Academies Press.

Context

The Institute of Medicine carried out a study mandated by Congress and sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide an assessment of several issues related to noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus associated with service in the Armed Forces since World War II. The resulting book, Noise and Military Service: Implications for Hearing Loss and Tinnitus, presents findings on the presence of hazardous noise in military settings, levels of noise exposure necessary to cause hearing loss or tinnitus, risk factors for noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus, the timing of the effects of noise exposure on hearing, and the adequacy of military hearing conservation programs and audiometric testing. The book stresses the importance of conducting hearing tests (audiograms) at the beginning and end of military service for all military personnel and recommends several steps aimed at improving the military services prevention of and surveillance for hearing loss and tinnitus. The book also identifies research needs, emphasizing topics specifically related to military service.

(The Website Home Page for this book, under the heading ‘Free Resources’ includes the note: ‘Full Text. Jump to this book’s table of contents to begin reading online for free. Related Items’

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9. Bush signs bill boosting veterans mental illness screening and treating

http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_veteranssuicide_071106/

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10. Suicide Prevention Programs (List)

http://usmilitary.about.com/sitesearch.htm?TopNode=99&terms=suicide+prevention+programs&pg=2&SUName=usmilitary&ac=&cs=

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11. Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery, RAND Corporation, 2008. (Section on ‘Suicide’ begins on page 128 of Report’s text.)

http://www.rand.org/multi/military/

The RAND Corporation conducted a comprehensive study of the mental health and cognitive needs of U.S. service members returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, the costs associated with mental health and cognitive conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder, depression, and traumatic brain injury, and the care systems available to deliver treatment. The study is the first of its kind to consider mental health and cognitive problems associated with deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq from a broad societal perspective.