During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) spoke about efforts to reduce the suicide rate among soldiers stationed in Alaska.
00:00Senator Sullivan. Thank you, Madam Chair. Gentlemen, congratulations on your nomination.
00:06Thanks for your service. You and your families, so really appreciate it.
00:12Very important that we have people with your caliber and qualifications to do this.
00:20I'd like, first of all, for you two to commit to coming to Alaska with me,
00:26seeing our great Army, the 11th Airborne Division, maybe better than the 82nd Airborne Division already.
00:34A little competition there. And to see what General Billy Mitchell called the most strategic place in the world.
00:43Have either of you been to Alaska? And will you commit to coming to Alaska with me to see our fine military forces there?
00:50Senator, my mother-in-law was a public school teacher in Anchorage for 25 years.
00:55Excellent. She said that I can only go if it's cold, during the cold months.
00:59Okay. Well, I like that answer. Good. Thank you to your mother-in-law, by the way.
01:04I visited Alaska years ago as a tourist, but I agree with my friend here. I'd like to go up in the winter.
01:11That's the time to go, so I'd like to go see it then.
01:15Great. Good. Well, we will do that in the winter. I'll take you to Eilson and Fort Wainwright, Fort Greeley.
01:23It will be 30, 40, 50 below zero, where our tough Arctic warriors train in that kind of temperature.
01:32On an issue that actually has been a real troubling one in Alaska, we have these great military members.
01:40Our Army does such a great job. You know, the 11th Airborne has now stood up in Alaska.
01:4849th Missile Defense Battalion of Fort Greeley, that's an Alaska National Guard unit.
01:56They literally protect the entire country. They have this great motto, the 300, protecting the 300 million.
02:03That's where all the ground-based missile interceptors that shoot down any incoming missiles that would hit Washington, D.C., New York City, Miami.
02:12It's all based in Alaska. That's Army as well. A lot of people don't know that.
02:16But we do have a, we've had over the last several years a very high rate of suicide among our active duty forces in Alaska, particularly the Army.
02:27Can I get your commitment, gentlemen, when, even before you get up to Alaska, to continue to work?
02:34I think the Army's done a good job. I think, I think the top leadership at OSD has done a good job.
02:41But this is a tough issue. And it's, you know, it's kind of hard to get our arms around.
02:46But, of course, it's heartbreaking. Can I get your commitment to work with me and this committee on this issue to keep,
02:52the rates are starting to come down, but, you know, they were super-duper high with regard to the active duty component of the Army in Alaska.
03:01And we need to, we need to keep the trend going down. Can I get your commitment to work with me on that?
03:07Absolutely, Senator. It's suicide, something that I think many of us in uniform have had firsthand experience with.
03:13And I think that the Army and the DOD writ large has done a great job with understanding mental health is health care.
03:20Yeah.
03:21The effects and the treatment of PTSD and then the mitigation of TBI.
03:27Good, good. Mr. O'Keefe?
03:28Absolutely, Senator. And I would compliment you. I've worked on legislation on your behalf in this area.
03:35I know that this is a focus. And I would compliment the Army. I agree with you.
03:39I think they've taken this very seriously and have reacted appropriately.
03:44I would highlight, I think, one of the perhaps the best things the Army did is they started asking people who wanted to go to Alaska to volunteer.
03:51As opposed to just sending people who had no idea what they were in for.
03:55And that's been, that's been a very effective thing, I think.
03:58Yeah, you're making a really good point. The 11th Airborne, you know, they rebranded that.
04:02That's an airborne unit. Like I said, it's always good to have competition, right?
04:0682nd Airborne maybe was getting a little too, well, they just didn't have enough competition.
04:10Now you've got the Arctic Angels, right? Great storied history, by the way.
04:13A lot of people don't know the 11th Airborne's history in World War II.
04:17Very impressive. But I think you're right.
04:19You give a unit, a mission, high morale.
04:23It's starting. But we got to get to the number.
04:25We still have numbers that we don't like, that we don't want in terms of suicide there.
04:29Let me ask one final question.
04:31I just want both of your views on recruiting, right?
04:36We went through this really bad recruiting crisis, particularly for the Army.
04:40During the Biden years, look, I have a whole host of reasons I think that happened.
04:46The Biden era Army leadership, DOD leadership took their eye off the ball
04:53in terms of what it means to recruit young men and women who want to go fight and deploy
04:59and serve their country.
05:00They kind of turned it into this social thing, ridiculous ads for recruiting.
05:05I won't mention them here.
05:06Give me your view very quickly on why you think it's already starting to turn around
05:10under the Trump administration.
05:11But what we need to do to make sure we don't have that kind of crisis
05:15that the Army had two or three years ago.
05:17We were off by like tens of thousands of recruits.
05:22And for an all-volunteer force, that's existential.
05:26If you can't get young Americans to join our military,
05:28what do you think happened?
05:31And can you commit to me to continue to work on the positive trend we've already seen
05:35during the Trump administration?
05:37Well, Senator, I'll be happy to elaborate on the record.
05:39But what I believe are our Army senior leaders, and this is specific to the Army,
05:47have to be the ones that go out and engage with local and state civic leaders.
05:53And that will make sure that our recruiters are a part of the landscape
05:56and have the access that they need to those high population areas.
06:01And I think that they can then describe the opportunities
06:04and instill a sense of pride and ownership in civil service and in military service.
06:12Good.
06:12Mr. O'Keefe?
06:14Yes, Senator.
06:14Very quickly, I think the best thing that the Army has done
06:18is they've started to imitate the Marine Corps model on recruiting.
06:20They're sending some of...
06:21That's never...
06:22By the way, in this committee, that's never a bad answer.
06:24They're sending some of their sharpest officers.
06:28Right, Madam Chair?
06:28Right, Senator Reid?
06:29I'm sorry.
06:30I think you're way over time.
06:33I'm not...
06:33Continue, Mr. O'Keefe.
06:35That's the best damn answer I've heard in this committee in a long time.
06:39It matters where you send your sharpest people.
06:41And the Marine Corps has been sending some of their sharpest officers and NCOs
06:44to recruiting for a long time, and it shows in the numbers.
