Ares Ops Manual 2011-2018: Fill & Download for Free

Q. Did more Vietnam vets kill themselves after the war?A. The suicide rate among Vietnam veterans in the five years after they were discharged was 34.5 per 100,000. For ex-military personnel who served after that war ended, the equivalent number was just 20.1.Epidemiologists for the Department of Veterans Affairs looked at U.S. veterans who'd returned from Iraq or Afghanistan, and found that 21.9 per 100,000 veterans committed suicide—not much higher than the control group in the previous study.United States military veteran suicide - WikipediaOver 100,000 US Vietnam Vet Suicides To Date! (2007) BestThe Myth And Reality Of Vietnam Vet Suicides (1999)How Many Suicides by Vietnam Vets? (1991)Opinion | Why do so many veterans kill themselves? Here are four theories. (2018)Are more veterans killing themselves today than after Vietnam? (2011)Suicide Rate Spikes in Vietnam Vets Who Won't Seek Help (2012)New VA Study finds 20 veterans commit suicide each day (militarytimes.com) (2016)We Lose Too Many Vietnam Veterans to Suicide: Here’s How You Can Help (2017)29 of the Best Politically Incorrect Vietnam War Slang TermsOver 100,000 US Vietnam Vet Suicides To Date!TOTAL COST TO THE UNITED STATES:$925 BillionEdward Tick sources. United States: Disabled American Veterans; The New York Times; Hell, Healing and Resistance by Daniel Hallock; The Vietnam War: A History in Documents, by Young, Fitzgerald & Grunfel; Webster's New World Dictionary of the Vietnam War. Viet Nam: Army Museum, Ha Noi; Hong Ngoc (Rosy Jade) Humanity Center, Sao Do; Research Center for Gender, Family, and Environment in Development, Ha Noi; Women's Museum, Ha Noi; War Remnants Museum, Ho Chi Minh City.Five Great Books About the Vietnam War for Middle ReadersThe Myth And Reality Of Vietnam Vet Suicides (1999)September 12, 1999 |By Michael Kelley, Special to the Washington PostSince returning from the Vietnam War, 160,000 veterans have committed suicide. Or so reported one reputable veterans' publication.If true, that's nearly three times as many as died in the war itself.I called the editor and asked, “What was your source?''His reporter found a mention of 150,000 suicides in a 1990 book, he explained to me, “and then added 10,000 to reflect the probable increase between 1990 and 1995.''“Great science there,'' I said. “But what would you say if I told you there is absolutely no scientific evidence to support 150,000, or even as many as 20,000, suicides?''At the time, I thought he and other veterans would be overjoyed to learn that the suicide myth was untrue, and that they would share my relief at finding that we are not, after all, such a twisted, tormented and damaged group that 15 or so of us have taken our own lives every single day for the past 30 years. Since then, I have learned that a substantial number of veterans want to believe the myth. Some veterans and veterans organizations have simply enshrined it as fact, institutionalizing the Vietnam veteran as victim, promoting the idea that after losing 58,000 men in the war we had lost that many again - or two or three times that many - who fell into such desperation after coming home that they killed themselves.What became a protracted and stupefying journey into this fantasy world of wholesale veterans suicides began for me with the realization that what I was hearing and reading did not square with my experience.I thought about the infantry unit I served with for 11 months: Delta Company, 1st Battalion of the 502nd Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. About 45 men from that company were killed in action during its four and a half years in Vietnam. If as many vets killed themselves later as died during the war, then 45 of the company's approximately 800 veterans would have committed suicide - or 135, if suicides were three or more times the number of wartime deaths.But in fact, as far as the unit's association can determine, not a single one of those veterans have died by suicide. Struck by the huge discrepancy between the supposed suicide statistics and my knowledge of the veterans community, I went to a local library and spent a few hours thumbing through bibliographies related to veterans' mortality. What I found then and in subsequent research left me reeling.The first surprise was that there already existed a substantial body of scientific literature on the subject. The second surprise was that none of it remotely supported the numbers I saw being published as fact.What on earth brought this plague upon us?The assertion of 58,000 suicides appears to have drawn its first breath in a 1980 manual titled ``Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders of the Vietnam Veteran.'' Published by the Disabled American Veterans, the manual was used widely throughout the Veterans Administration. Its first edition (but none after) noted that ``more Vietnam combat veterans have died since the war by their own hands than were actually killed in the war. That statement was credited to an unpublished paper written in April 1979 by Tom Williams, who also was the editor of the manual. Curiously, his claim came a full eight years before the first comprehensive study of Vietnam veterans' mortality was published.Just where Williams divined his data remains a mystery. (I have made several attempts to find out, but he has never responded to my queries.)From there the suicide story, with numbers ranging up to 200,000, spread to news reports, books, television documentaries and news magazines, and the World Wide Web.Actual mortality studies tell a completely different story.No one knows precisely how many Vietnam veterans have committed suicide. Nor does anyone know how many have died from all causes. We do have information, though, that points to what is possible and what is not.Approximately 3.1 million Americans served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. On average, suicides have accounted for just over 1.1 percent of all U.S. male deaths during the last half of this century. According to research done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the 1980s, suicides were somewhat more elevated for Vietnam veterans than for non-veterans in the same age group during the veterans' first five years after discharge. After five years, though, the differences disappeared.A projection based on the CDC findings shows suicides would represent a shade over 1.2 percent of veterans' deaths from 1967 to 1996. Veterans Administration data indicate that total postwar deaths among Vietnam vets had reached roughly 305,000 by January 1996, so if the percentage suggested by the CDC data is correct, the number of suicides during those 30 years would have been about 3,750.Vietnam War: A Tribute to Our VetsHow Many Suicides by Vietnam Vets? (1991)To the Editor:Although the case Tom Brokaw cites in "Michael Creamer, a Casualty of Two Wars" (Op-Ed, Feb. 18) is tragic, a study of suicides among Vietnam veterans would be in order."Postservice Mortality Among Vietnam Veterans," a Centers for Disease Control study (Journal of the American Medical Association, Feb. 13, 1987, pages 790-95), indicated 1.7 suicides among Vietnam veterans for every one suicide by non-Vietnam veterans for the first five years after discharge. Beyond five years, there were fewer suicides in the Vietnam veterans' group than in the non-Vietnam veterans' group."Proportionate Mortality Study of U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps Veterans of the Vietnam War" by Breslan, Kang, Lee and others (Journal of Occupational Medicine, May 1988, pages 412-19) found that suicides were not higher among Vietnam veterans compared with non-Vietnam veterans.Suicides among Vietnam veterans have been said to be 50,000 to 100,000. At any time during the Vietnam conflict, there were 37 million males aged 18 through 35. Of this group approximately 2.6 million served in Vietnam. Of the entire 37 million male population there have been approximately 152,000 suicides.If 50,000 to 100,000 Vietnam veterans committed suicide, that would mean that between one-third and two-thirds of all the suicides in the 37 million population came from the 2.6 million subgroup. There is no factual evidence to support this assertion.The best estimate of suicide among Vietnam veterans, from the Centers for Disease Control in 1988 Congressional testimony, is 9,000.As a Vietnam veteran who regularly visits veterans' hospitals, I fully understand how war wounds the mind as well as the body. However, the problem of veterans of all wars should be considered without sensationalism, and not to make political points. BERNARD A. HEENEY Bayonne, N.J., Feb. 20, 1991The Poetry of the Vietnam WarOpinion | Why do so many veterans kill themselves? Here are four theories.By Thomas E. Ricks April 4Thomas E. Ricks is the author of five books about the U.S. military. He writes “The Long March” column for Task & Purpose, a veteran-oriented website.Why do so many soldiers continue to take their own lives at a higher rate than their civilian counterparts, whether young or old? I’ve spent a lot of time stewing about this over the past few days.It began Monday morning, when I got a note from a vet in a very dark place and contemplating the act. He’d served in Vietnam. His risk of suicide is about 22 percent higher than that of his non-veteran peers, according to a report last year from the Department of Veterans Affairs.That afternoon, I learned that an Army captain who had been featured a while back in my old “Best Defense” column on the Foreign Policy website had gone out in the middle of the night and sat on railroad tracks near Fort Carson, Colo., and a train ran over him; police are investigating the death. He was still in the military but may have been thinking of leaving. People getting out are at the highest risk in the year after they leave — about 1½ to two times as likely to kill themselves as those still on active duty.A friend of his wrote to me, “He was always a high-performing and intelligent guy. He had deployed to Afghanistan with 10th Mountain, then to Kuwait with 4th ID prior to Atlantic Resolve where it looks like you met him. He was on deck to teach Military Science at West Point. He had a wife and daughter. Nothing about his death makes sense. The only indicator I had that he was unhappy was his deep frustrations with the conventional military, the high op tempo for support roles and exercises, and the impact on his family.”Last month, the commander of the Marine 4th Reconnaissance Battalion was found dead in his home. He also had deployed several times to Iraq and Afghanistan.Also recently, I read that a retired major who had served in military intelligence in Iraq had killed himself and his wife.The suicide rate for veterans has gone up 35 percent since 2001, in part because of increases in post-9/11 veterans killing themselves.I know what I am seeing around me is anecdotal. But it just doesn’t feel right to me. What is going on here?Here are four possibilities, specific to the conditions of our recent war:A lost war: My initial thought was that perhaps people are feeling empty and lost as the Middle Eastern war winds down and we don’t have a lot to show for it, besides Iran being more powerful than ever. But a friend who did several tours in Vietnam said he also knew that feeling but didn’t see any rash of suicides in the ’70s among his former comrades.Death by rotation: Another theory is that everyone is born with just so much to give and that repeated deployments drain that reserve, without replenishment. At some point, a person might just decide they can’t do this anymore, that this is too painful and look for the fastest exit.Brain injury: A third theory, related to the extensive use of roadside bombs in the Middle East, suggests that the human brain can, at best, withstand only one or two nearby explosions and cannot heal the deep damage inflicted by repeated blasts.More to come: Or is it that depressed vets are responding to the whiff of another possible war on the horizon, with North Korea?Whether it is one of these, or a combination, or something else, it worries me deeply.A Vietnam War Reading List, Brought to You by the War HallAre more veterans killing themselves today than after Vietnam? (2011)Have military suicides increased?Writing in Slate last week, economist Joseph E. Stiglitz named the rate of suicides among veterans of recent wars as a "social cost of 9/11." He cited stats from a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs study that looked at the years 2005-07 and found 18 suicides per day among American ex-servicemen. In light of these numbers, and in honor of National Suicide Prevention Week (which began Sunday), the V.A. has posted a toll-free crisis hotline and a link for online chats to its website. Is the suicide rate among veterans any higher now than it has been in the past?It's hard to say because there aren't many reliable data from before the 1960s. But what evidence we have suggests that those who were recently discharged from service in the Vietnam War were more likely to kill themselves than veterans of today's campaigns.A 2004 study by a team led by researchers from the National Center for Environmental Health looked at numbers going back to 1965, and found that the suicide rate among Vietnam veterans in the five years after they were discharged was 34.5 per 100,000. For ex-military personnel who served after that war ended, the equivalent number was just 20.1. A few years later, epidemiologists for the Department of Veterans Affairs looked at U.S. veterans who'd returned from Iraq or Afghanistan, and found that 21.9 per 100,000 veterans committed suicide—not much higher than the control group in the previous study. It's possible that rates will go up in years to come, as more soldiers are discharged after multiple deployments.No one tracked military suicide rates carefully prior to the Vietnam War. Post-traumatic stress disorder wasn't officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association until 1980, when the psychological fallout from an unpopular war was becoming more visible in the mental-health community.There's evidence that suicides are getting more common among soldiers who remain actively involved in the military. According to a recent study by the Rand Corporation, active-duty personnel killed themselves at a rate of 16.3 per 100,000 in 2008, up from 10.3 in 2001. Repeated exposure to combat zones may account for this increase. Some soldiers are sent back three or four times before they're off the hook.Maura Kelly is the author of Much Ado About Loving, about what classic novels can teach you about mating, relating, and Internet dating.What were major Battles of the Vietnam War? - The Vietnam WarSuicide Rate Spikes in Vietnam Vets Who Won't Seek Help (2012)Joe Amon/Denver Post/Getty ImagesVietnam Veteran Harold Evans stands with Martin Omafray at the Wall that Heals at Iron Horse Park at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs June 10, 2011.Every Christmas Rudi Gresham, a former combat soldier in Vietnam, gets a Christmas card from a fellow veteran who was nearly pushed to the brink of suicide because of despair."The guy was in his late 50s and his wife had left him and he came down with cancer from Agent Orange, he was broke and he had to move in with his mom and dad--he didn't know where to go from there," said Gresham, who was then serving as senior advisor to the Department of Veterans Affairs under the George W. Bush administration."Everything had gone to hell," said Gresham. "But I communicated with him."Now 68 and retired in South Carolina, Gresham was able to get the veteran the 10 years of back pay he deserved by authenticating his service with a commanding officer. Today, the man's cancer is under control and he has a new woman in his life.Gresham said getting that thank you card for saving the veteran's life was "the most gratifying moment" in his eight-year career with the VA. "I tell my kids, this is the reward for my work."But three other depressed friends were not so lucky and took their own lives, becoming statistics in a rising tide of suicides among baby boomers, many of them Vietnam War veterans.Just this week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its latest statistics on suicide rates among Americans, finding that the number of middle-aged Americans who took their own lives was up more than 28 percent.Annual suicide rates among U.S. adults aged 35 to 64 increased from 13.7 to 17.6 suicides per 100,000 people between 1999 and 2010.The greatest increases in suicide rates were among people aged 50 to 54 years (48 percent) and 55 to 59 years (49 percent).For the whole population, the national rate was 12.4 per 100,000 in that decade, according to the CDC. The most common mechanisms were suffocation or hanging, poisoning and firearms. Increases were seen among both men and women.The CDC cites the recent economic downturn, a "cohort effect" among baby boomers who had unusually high suicide rates during their adolescent years, and a rise in intentional overdoses because of increased availability of prescription opioids.But suicide rates among Vietnam veterans are the highest of any particular group, according to John Draper, project director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.Eight million Americans report suicidal thoughts, and 1.1 million will attempt suicide. An estimated 38,000 will succeed in killing themselves, according to the CDC. Most are male, by a four to one margin, and are single and lack a college education.The suicide rate jumped higher for women (32 percent) than for men (27 percent)."Men tend to be more lonely and have a harder time maintaining and replacing relationships than women, especially when they get into middle age," said Draper. "Men are busy working or tie their relationships to work and when they lose their job, they lose their relationships."Those who are less stable in their personal lives are also less stable in the workforce, he said."I don't have all the answers," said Draper. "But we know about suicide prevention and people who are more socially connected and have a sense of belief and self-worth and are valued at work and in their relationships are way more protected and generally happier people."Post-traumatic stress disorder and associated mental health problems are to blame for many of the suicides among war veterans, according to Draper."The most important thing to remember is we can do something to stop this," said Draper, who, like Gresham, said that communication and support from others can help to prevent suicide.Since 2001, more than two million service members have been deployed to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The cost for treating veterans of all eras and conflicts is estimated at $48 billion, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.PTSD was not even recognized until after the Vietnam War, according to Gresham, who recognized at the onset of his government career in 2000 the importance of increasing the VA budget after predicting the staggering number of cases that were to follow. "I knew mental problems would exceed the physical," he said."I feel sorry for the younger soldiers," he said. "They are now married, got a wife and kids and suddenly come back and they can't find a job. These things all compound."As for the Vietnam veterans, they found less support in the 1960s and 1970s, when they returned from combat service. "The older veterans don't trust the government and they don't go for help," said Gresham.Unlike World War II soldiers who were hailed as heroes, these servicemen returned to "feel a bit outcast and rejected," according to Gresham, who sits on the Vietnam Veterans Foundation.Many of that generation refused to acknowledge they had PTSD and are suffering the consequences later in life. "Believe me, we have a real problem," he said."These guys were the first generation not to trust the guys in the white coats, and they didn't trust the government," said Gresham. "A lot of the Viet vets with PTSD held it in."They didn't want to let their family know their dark secret. They wanted to be in the workforce and be productive like the generation of World War II, but they were not respected by society."The VA in the 1970s was not responsive to the needs of these veterans, he said. "I've seen what has happened to a lot of these older vets."At a town meeting in Los Angeles several years ago, Gresham said he told a group of Vietnam vets. "You know Hollywood was correct when they did the movie the 'Fourth of July' with Tom Cruise. The VA did a lousy job of taking care of vets."But today, according to Gresham, "The VA has made "tremendous efforts to spend lots of money on [PTSD]," he said.In 2007, the VA partnered with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to create a dedicated line manned by veterans on the National Suicide Lifeline.The so-called Veterans Crisis Line has fielded more than 250,000 calls a year from veterans and active members of the military, according to Lifeline director Draper."It's a brilliant idea and it's saved taxpayers money and saved lives," he said.Draper said it is too early to see the impact of this collaboration but predicts that CDC suicide numbers will eventually drop, at least among veterans.Gresham, who was involved in the creation of the hotline, is also hopeful. "It's so much better for veterans to get help from other veterans," he said. "There is a strong bond.""If you have suicide thoughts and there's another veteran on the line, you trust your brother, whether it's a man or a woman," he said. "If they have been in combat, there is someone who understands you.""They didn't trust the VA for a long time and now the VA has its arms open," said Gresham. "They do very good work now. They understand the problem."In 1971 speech, John Kerry spoke of the monster created by the Vietnam WarNew VA Study finds 20 veterans commit suicide each day (militarytimes.com) (2016)Pedestrians walk in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs building in Washington, Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)Roughly 20 veterans a day commit suicide nationwide, according to new data from the Department of Veterans Affairs — a figure that dispels the often quoted, but problematic, "22 a day" estimate yet solidifies the disturbing mental health crisis the number implied.In 2014, the latest year available, more than 7,400 veterans took their own lives, accounting for 18 percent of all suicides in America. Veterans make up less than 9 percent of the U.S. population.About 70 percent of veterans who took their own lives were not regular users of VA services.The new data, being released publicly today, is the most comprehensive suicide study ever conducted by the department.For years, the department has estimated the veterans suicide toll nationwide at around 22 individuals a day, but veterans groups noted numerous gaps in how that estimate was constructed. Most notably, the numbers were based on information from only about 20 states and did not contain full military records from the Defense Department.The new study includes more than 50 million veterans’ records from 1979 to 2014, including every state. The data, compiled over the last four years, also comes from the Centers for Disease Control.VA officials said in a statement that the information will allow them to "inform our suicide prevention programs and policies, especially for groups at elevated risk for suicide, including older and female veterans."Together, the numbers point to a significant mental health risk for individuals who served in the military, though the specific reasons remain unclear.Researchers found that the risk of suicide for veterans is 21 percent higher when compared to civilian adults. From 2001 to 2014, as the civilian suicide rate rose about 23.3 percent, the rate of suicide among veterans jumped more than 32 percent.The problem is particularly worrisome among female veterans, who saw their suicide rates rise more than 85 percent over that time, compared to about 40 percent for civilian women.And roughly 65 percent of all veteran suicides in 2014 were for individuals 50 years or older, many of whom spent little or no time-fighting in the most recent wars.Providing support and assistance to suicidal veterans has proven difficult, in part because of the lack of data on the scope of the problem.In recent years, VA has hired 5,300 mental health providers and support personnel and upgraded its Veterans Crisis Line in response to the problem. It has also elevated the profile of its suicide prevention office within the department and launched new partnerships with community health providers to offer counseling to veterans.Officials hope to use the data to further expand those offerings, targeting specific regions and populations within the veterans community to more effectively deliver care.Veterans groups hailed the new research as a critical step ahead in addressing the problem."Of course, this is still 20 [deaths] too many," said Joe Chenelly, executive director at AMVETS. "But we are grateful for the deeper, more accurate data analysis. Much still needs to be done, and this gives us a better idea where to focus."Full year-by-year and demographic breakdowns of the data are expected to be released by the department by the end of July.Leo Shane III covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He can be reached at [email protected] Kime covers military and veterans health care and medicine for Military Times. She can be reached at [email protected] the Vietnam War, 42 Years After US Troops WithdrewPSYCHOLOGY BENEFITS SOCIETYWe Lose Too Many Vietnam Veterans to Suicide: Here’s How You Can Help (2017)By Meg Lacy (Doctoral Student, Palo Alto University)As our Vietnam veteran population ages, many may become increasingly vulnerable for death by suicide. Despite the fact that the Vietnam war occurred approximately 40 years ago, the moral injuries sustained are still felt by many who served our country. It is not unusual for Vietnam Veterans to have coped with difficult times by staying busy at home or at work. As retirement looms, it is not unusual for Vietnam era veterans to experience additional age-related risks such as social isolation, a feeling of burdensomeness, and changes in health status.These changes can coalesce to hamper coping strategies that previously worked to manage mental distress, such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. Alcohol and substance use increases the risk of suicide as the abuse of substances, particularly alcohol, is strongly associated with both suicide attempts and deaths. So what should friends and family watch out for and what could be done in response to warning signs?Warning signs:In general, individuals most at risk of suicide are white older adult males who have health issues. As risk factors associated with veteran status converge on risk factors associated with later life, there are a few specific things friends and family should be aware of.What’s going on in their life?A major change in routine including retirement or loss of a jobThe death of a spouseA new medical diagnosisA break-up, separation or divorceNot having a stable place to liveInadequate family incomeHow are they behaving?Increase in drinking or drug useSleeping considerably more or lessA loss of interest in things they typically enjoySocial withdrawalImpulsivity – engaging in risky behavior (running red lights, driving recklessly, looking like they have a “death wish”)Becoming aggressive- examples of this are punching holes in walls, seeking revenge, getting into fightsAnxiety- worrying excessively about things they cannot controlAgitation and mood swingsPutting affairs in order such as giving away prized possessions or making out a willSeeking out firearms access to pillsNeglecting personal welfare including deteriorating physical appearance or hygieneWhat are they saying?A sense of hopelessness: “I have no purpose”, “I have no value”, “Nothing is ever going to get better”Rage or anger: expressed toward people or thingsExpressed feelings of excessive guilt, shame or failure: “My family would be better off without me”Feelings of desperation: “There is no solution”, “I just feel trapped”What do they have access to?Familiarity and access to a firearm make suicide by firearm more likely. Any means by which a suicide can be attempted, including pills, is something that should be asked about. Veterans are more likely to own a gun and are comfortable using one making death by firearm a common means of suicide among this population.How can you help?Social support is one of the most effective protective factors against suicide (Cummings et al., 2015). However, many veterans have isolated themselves and their friends and family struggle to talk to them. Inviting them to an event, writing them a letter or participating in a shared activity (building something, fishing, walking, etc.) are great ways to get things started.Talk about it. Suicide is an uncomfortable topic but its best to be direct. Ask overtly if they are planning on killing themselves or have had thoughts about killing themselves. Just because they say no doesn’t mean that they don’t still have suicidal intentions so be sure to have additional information to provide such as a suicide hotline number for veterans, apps they could utilize (PTSD Coach), or a therapist’s contact information.If your loved one has a plan or tells you they are going to kill themselves, call 911. It's better to put their safety first. Demonstrating your support by seeking additional help is always best. If you can, include them in the process of seeking immediate help. Calling 911 or visiting the ER does not have to be a one-sided decision.These by no means are the only risk factors, signs or solutions for suicidality. However, engagement with friends and family has shown to be extremely effective against suicide. Demonstrating your support with regular calls or visits is an important step toward safety for many veterans.Related Resources:Veterans Crisis LineAPA Psychology Topic: SuicideResources for Caregivers of Service Members and VeteransWhen Will We Face the Facts about Suicide in Older Men?References:Chronic PTSD in Vietnam combat veterans: Course of illness and substance abuse (1996). American Journal of Psychiatry, 153(3), 369–375. doi:10.1176/ajp.153.3.369Conner, K. R., Britton, P. C., Sworts, L. M., & Joiner, T. E. (2007). Suicide attempts among individuals with opiate dependence: The critical role of belonging. Addictive Behaviors, 32(7), 1395–1404. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.09.012Conwell, Y., Van Orden, K., & Caine, E. D. (2011). Suicide in older adults. The Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 34(2),. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3107573/Cummins, N., Scherer, S., Krajewski, J., Schnieder, S., Epps, J., & Quatieri, T. F. (2015). A review of depression and suicide risk assessment using speech analysis. Speech Communication, 71, 10–49. doi:10.1016/j.specom.2015.03.004Identifying signs of crisis. Retrieved February 26, 2017, from https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/SignsOfCrisis/Identifying.aspxLambert, M. T., & Fowler, R. D. (1997). Suicide risk factors among veterans: Risk management in the changing culture of the department of veterans affairs. The Journal of Mental Health Administration, 24(3), 350–358. doi:10.1007/bf02832668Lester, D. (2003). Unemployment and suicidal behaviour. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 57(8), 558–559. doi:10.1136/jech.57.8.558Military Suicide Research Consortium (MSRC) Newsroom. (2017, January 28). Retrieved February 26, 2017, from https://msrc.fsu.edu/news/study-reveals-top-reason-behind-soldiers-suicidesNademin, E., Jobes, D. A., Pflanz, S. E., Jacoby, A. M., Ghahramanlou-Holloway, M., Campise, R., Johnson, L. (2008). An investigation of interpersonal-psychological variables in air force suicides: A controlled comparison study. Archives of Suicide Research, 12(4), 309–326. doi:10.1080/13811110802324847Price, J. L. (2016, February 23). Findings from the national Vietnam veterans’ readjustment study. Retrieved February 26, 2017, from http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/research-bio/research/vietnam-vets-study.aspUnited States Department of Veterans Affairs. (July 2016) VA Suicide Prevention Program: Facts about Veteran Suicide. Retrieved from https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/factsheets/Suicide_Prevention_FactSheet_New_VA_Stats_070616_1400.pdfVan Orden, K. A., Witte, T. K., Gordon, K. H., Bender, T. W., & Joiner, T. E. (2008). Suicidal desire and the capability for suicide: Tests of the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior among adults. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76(1), 72–83. doi:10.1037/0022-006x.76.1.72Van Orden, K. A., Witte, T. K., Cukrowicz, K. C., Braithwaite, S. R., Selby, E. A., & Joiner Jr, E. (2010). The interpersonal theory of suicide. Psychological Review, 117(2), 575.Warning signs of crisis. Retrieved February 26, 2017, from https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/SignsOfCrisis/Biography:Meg Lacy is a first-year doctoral student at Palo Alto University. She is interested in researching early intervention to trauma in combat soldiers and amongst first responders. Additionally, she is interested in the veteran population and suicide prevention.Image source: Flickr user Elvert Barnes via Creative CommonsStoned in Combat: Weed Smokers in the Vietnam War

As of 2018, technically, there are no “combat arms” jobs in the US Army.Over the decade from 2001 to 2011, many changes were made to organization, doctrine, operational concepts, and terminology.The Army continues to transform; this transformation process is ongoing and continuous in nature. As part of the Secretary of the Army’s Human Capital Reform Initiatives, key Army stakeholders continue to modernize the Army’s assignment and professional management systems to meet the Army’s needs, now and as the Army adjusts to changing end strength and mission demands.(See par. 1–8.b. of: DA Pamphlet 600–3 of 3 December 2014, at https://www.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/376665.pdf)The traditional taxonomy of various jobs within the Army into “combat arms,” “combat support” (CS), and “combat service support” (CSS) was replaced by new doctrine and terminology.Here were the “traditional” definitions, as contained in the now-superseded and obsolete FM 1–02, Operational Terms and Graphics, published as a joint Army/Marines Field Manual/Marine Corps Reference Publication (FM/MCRP) in September 2004, found at: FM 1-02 Operational Terms and Graphics :: Military Publications - Field Manuals - USAHECcombat arms – Units and soldiers who close with the enemy and destroy enemy forces or provide firepower and destructive capabilities on the battlefield. (FM 3-90)combat support – (DOD, NATO) Fire support and operational assistance provided to combat elements. (Army) Critical combat functions provided by units and soldiers in conjunction with combat arms units and soldiers to secure victory. Also called CS. (FM 3-90) (See page 5- 15 for symbol.)combat service support – (DOD) The essential capabilities, functions, activities, and tasks necessary to sustain all elements of operating forces in theater at all levels of war. Within the national and theater logistic systems, it includes but is not limited to that support rendered by service forces in ensuring the aspects of supply, maintenance, transportation, health services, and other services required by aviation and ground combat troops to permit those units to accomplish their missions in combat. Combat service support encompasses those activities at all levels of war that produce sustainment to all operating forces on the battlefield. Also called CSS. See also combat support. See FM 4-0. (See page 5-20 for symbol.)FM 1–02 (of September 2004) itself superseded the (even older) older FM 101-5-1/MCRP 5-12A, from 30 September 1997.While in daily usage, the terminology remains extant but is slowly receding as the doctrinal foundation continues to be superseded by new generations of professionals schooled in more current Army operational concepts, such as the application of “transformation” and “modularity” to “unified land operations,” which largely broke the Division-based structures of combat arms units, supported by CS and CSS provided by the Division. Under the Army’s current brigade combat team modular structure, combat arms, CS, and CSS are embedded together in organic units (although specialized CS and CSS are still available and required for certain military tasks and operations).Fast forward to 15 February 2017, with Army Directive 2017-08, titled “Army Directive 2017-08 (Competitive Categories for Commissioned Officers and Warrant Officers Serving on the Active Duty List and the Reserve Active Status List): https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/AD2017-08_Final.pdfAfter several iterations of functional alignment, and some semantic gyrations (“maneuver, fires, and effects” vs. “operations”), the Army came to this organization, using:“Operations,”“Operations Support,”“Force Sustainment,”“Information Dominance,”“Health Services,”and the “special branches” of the Chaplains and JAGs.It ends up laying down something like this, with the traditional combat arms and most CS clustered into “Operations,” while “Operations Support” and “Force Sustainment” provide specialized and very necessary support formerly known as “CS” and “CSS.”In addition, as of 2017, the Army introduced the new functional category of “Information Dominance,” into which the new Cyber field, and Electronic Warfare and Information Operations jobs, were placed:1. Operations (OPS)a. Armor (AR)b. Infantry (IN)c. Aviation (AV)d. Field Artillery (FA)e. Air Defense Artillery (AD)f. Corps of Engineers (EN)g. Military Police (MP)h. Chemical (CM)i. Special Forces (SF)j. Psychological Operations (PO)k. Civil Affairs (CA)2. Operations Support (OS)a. Cyber (until 1 April 2017)b. Signal Corps (SC)c. Military Intelligence (MI)d. Functional Area (FA) 26 (Information Networks Engineering — consisting of: FA 24 Telecommunication Systems Engineering, and FA 53 Information Systems Management)e. FA 29 Electronic Warfare (until 1 April 2017)f. FA 30 Information Operations (until 1 April 2017)g. FA 34 (Strategic Intelligence)h. FA 40 (Space Operations)i. FA 46 (Public Affairs)j. FA 47 (Academy Professor)k. FA 48 (Foreign Area Officer)l. FA 49 (Operations Research/Systems Analysis)m. FA 50 (Force Management)n. FA 52 (Nuclear and Counter-proliferation)o. FA 57 (Simulations Operations)p. FA 59 (Strategist)3. Force Sustainment (FS)a. Transportation (TC)b. Ordnance (OD)c. Quartermaster (QM)d. Adjutant General Corps (AG)e. Finance Corps (FI)f. Logistics (LG)g. FA 51 (Research, Development, and Acquisition)4. Information Dominance (ID). Category composition will be effective 1 April 2017.a. Cyber (CY)b. FA 29 Electronic Warfare (remains in OS until 1 April 2017)c. FA 30 Information Operations (remains in OS until 1 April 2017)5. Health Services (HS)a. Medicalb. Dentalc. Veterinaryd. Nursee. Medical Specialistf. Medical Services6. Chaplain Corps (CH)a. Command and Unit Chaplainb. Clinical Ministries Supervisor7. Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JA)a. 27A Judge Advocateb. 27B Military JudgeFINAL ANSWER: in traditional jargon, a “non-combat arms” soldier would provide any of a huge number of combat support or combat service support capabilities, although they might personally be either permanently or temporarily assigned directly to a “combat arms unit,” e.g., an infantry battalion, or a tank battalion, etc., because most units at the battalion size and larger have at least some organic CS/OS, CSS/FS, and HS personnel assigned.Army “Transformation” simply reorganized many units, especially combat units, into mini-combined arms task forces with greater organic CS/OS and CSS/FS (as well as enhanced capabilities for task organization at the brigade and battalion command elements).Thus, the “non-combat arms” soldier might very well serve their entire career in units far from any combat action, in logistics, training, recruiting, postal, finance, health services, etc., fields. Or, in spite of having a “non-combat arms” MOS, they might very well serve most or all of their career in a “combat arms unit,” which today means in a Brigade Combat Team, for the most part, whether they were a mechanic, human resources specialist, signals or cyber, supply, MP, or medic.

4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, 4chan hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, music, literature, fitness, politics, and sports, among others.Registration is not possible, and the site's users generally post anonymously; threads receiving recent replies are "bumped" to the top of their respective board and old threads are automatically deleted as new ones are created. As of June 2020, 4chan receives more than 22 million unique monthly visitors, with approximately 900,000 posts made daily.The site was created as a counterpart to the Japanese imageboard Futaba Channel, also known as 2chan,and the first boards were created for posting images and discussion related to anime. 4chan has been described as a hub of Internet subculture, with 4chan's community being influential in the formation and spread of prominent Internet memes, including lolcats, Rickrolling, and rage comics, as well as activist and political movements, such as Anonymous and the alt-right.4chan has often been the subject of media attention as a source of numerous controversies, including the coordination of pranks, harassment, attacks against other websites and Internet users and the posting of illegal content, threats of violence, misogyny and racism. The Guardian once summarized the 4chan community as "lunatic, juvenile ... brilliant, ridiculous and alarming".BackgroundChristopher Poole, 4chan's founder, at XOXO Festival in 2012The majority of posting on 4chan takes place on imageboards, where users have the ability to share images and create threaded discussions.The site's homepage lists 70 imageboards and one Flash animation board, divided into seven categories: Japanese Culture, Video Games, Interests, Creative, Other, Misc. (NSFW), and Adult (NSFW). Each board has its own set of rules and is dedicated to a specific topic, variously including anime and manga, video games, music, literature, fitness, politics, and sports, among others. As of 2019, the /pol/ (Politically Incorrect), /v/ (Video Games), /vg/ (Video Games Generals), and /b/ (Random) boards receive the most daily posts.4chan is the Internet's most trafficked imageboard, according to the Los Angeles Times.4chan's Alexa rank is 1042 as of June 2020 though it has been as high as 56.It is provided to its users free of charge and consumes a large amount of bandwidth; as a result, its financing has often been problematic. Poole has acknowledged that donations alone could not keep the site online, and turned to advertising to help make ends meet.However, the explicit content hosted on 4chan has deterred businesses who do not want to be associated with the site's content.In January 2009, Poole signed a new deal with an advertising company; in February 2009, he was $20,000 in debt, and the site was continuing to lose money.The 4chan servers were moved from Texas to California in August 2008, which upgraded the maximum bandwidth throughput of 4chan from 100Mbit/s to 1Gbit/s.Unlike most web forums, 4chan does not have a registration system, allowing users to post anonymously.Any nickname may be used when posting, even one that has been previously adopted, such as "Anonymous" or "moot".In place of registration, 4chan has provided tripcodes as an optional form of authenticating a poster's identity.As making a post without filling in the "Name" field causes posts to be attributed to "Anonymous", general understanding on 4chan holds that Anonymous is not a single person but a collective (hive) of users.Moderators generally post without a name even when performing sysop actions. A "capcode" may be used to attribute the post to "Anonymous ## Mod", although moderators often post without the capcode.In a 2011 interview on Nico Nico Douga, Poole explained that there are approximately 20 volunteer moderators active on 4chan.4chan also has a junior moderation team, called "janitors", who may delete posts or images and suggest that the normal moderation team ban a user, but who cannot post with a capcode. Revealing oneself as a janitor is grounds for immediate dismissal.4chan has been the target of occasional denial of service attacks. For instance, on December 28, 2010, 4chan and other websites went down due to such an attack, following which Poole said on his blog, "We now join the ranks of MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, et al.—an exclusive club!"HistoryThe site was launched as http://4chan.net on October 1, 2003 by Christopher Poole, a then-15-year-old student from New York City using the online handle "moot".Poole had been a regular participant on the Something Awful subforum "Anime Death Tentacle Rape Whorehouse", where many users were familiar with the Japanese imageboard format and Futaba Channel ("双葉ちゃん♪").When creating 4chan, Poole obtained Futaba Channel's open source code and translated the Japanese text into English using AltaVista's Babel Fish online translator.After the site's creation, Poole invited users from the ADTRW subforum, many of whom were dissatisfied with the site's moderation, to visit 4chan, which he advertised as an English-language counterpart to Futaba Channel and a place for Western fans to discuss anime and manga.At its founding, the site only hosted one board: /b/ (Anime/Random).Before the end of 2003, several new anime-related boards were added, including /h/ (Hentai), /c/ (Anime/Cute), /d/ (Hentai/Alternative), /w/ (Wallpapers/Anime), /y/ (Yaoi), and /a/ (Anime). Additionally, a lolicon board was created at /l/ (Lolikon),but was disabled following the posting of genuine child pornography and ultimately deleted in October 2004, after threats of legal action.In February 2004, GoDaddy suspended the http://4chan.net domain, prompting Poole to move the site to its current domain at 4chan. On March 1, 2004, Poole announced that he lacked the funds to pay the month's server bill, but was able to continue operations after receiving a swarm of donations from users.In June 2004, 4chan experienced six weeks of downtime after Paypal suspended 4chan's donations service after receiving complaints about the site's content.Following 4chan's return, several non-anime related boards were introduced, including /k/ (Weapons), /o/ (Auto), and /v/ (Video Games).In 2008, nine new boards were created, including the sports board at /sp/, the fashion board at /fa/ and the "Japan/General" (the name later changed to "Otaku Culture") board at /jp/.In January 2011, Poole announced the deletion of the /r9k/ ("ROBOT9000") and /new/ (News) boards, saying that /new/ had become devoted to racist discussions, and /r9k/ no longer served its original purpose of being a test implementation of xkcd's ROBOT9000 script. During the same year, the /soc/ board was created in an effort to reduce the number of socialization threads on /b/. /r9k/ was restored on October 23, 2011, along with /hc/ ("Hardcore", previously deleted), /pol/ (a rebranding of /new/) and the new /diy/ board, in addition to an apology by Poole where he recalls how he criticized the deletion of Encyclopedia Dramatica and realized that he had done the same.In 2010, 4chan had implemented reCAPTCHA in an effort to thwart spam arising from JavaScript worms. By November 2011, 4chan made the transition to utilizing Cloudflare following a series of DDoS attacks. The 4chan imageboards were rewritten in valid HTML5/CSS3 in May 2012 in an effort to improve client-side performance.On September 28, 2012, 4chan introduced a "4chan pass"that, when purchased, "allows users to bypass typing a reCAPTCHA verification when posting and reporting posts on the 4chan image boards"; the money raised from the passes will go towards supporting the site.Hiroyuki Nishimura, the owner of 4chan since 2015On January 21, 2015, Poole stepped down as the site's administrator, citing stress from controversies such as Gamergate as the reason for his departure.On September 21, 2015, Poole announced that Hiroyuki Nishimura had purchased from him the ownership rights to 4chan, without disclosing the terms of the acquisition.Nishimura was the former administrator of 2channel between 1999 and 2014, the website forming the basis for anonymous posting culture which influenced later websites such as Futaba Channel and 4chan;Nishimura lost 2channel's domain after it was seized by his registrar, ex-US Army officerJim Watkins,after the latter alleged financial difficulties.In October 2016, it was reported that the site was facing financial difficulties that could lead to its closure or radical changes.In a post titled "Winter is Coming", Hiroyuki Nishimura said, "We had tried to keep 4chan as is. But I failed. I am sincerely sorry", citing server costs, infrastructure costs, and network fees.On November 17, 2018, it was announced that the site would be split into two, with the work-safe boards moved to a new domain, 4chan, while the NSFW boards would remain on the 4chan domain. In a series of posts on the topic, Nishimura explained that the split was due to 4chan being blacklisted by most advertising companies, and that the new 4channel domain would allow for the site to receive advertisements by mainstream ad providers.Christopher PoolePoole kept his real-life identity hidden until it was revealed on July 9, 2008, in The Wall Street Journal. Prior to that, he had used the alias "moot".In April 2009, Poole was voted the world's most influential person of 2008 by an open Internet poll conducted by Time magazine.The results were questioned even before the poll completed, as automated voting programs and manual ballot stuffing were used to influence the vote.4chan's interference with the vote seemed increasingly likely, when it was found that reading the first letter of the first 21 candidates in the poll spelled out a phrase containing two 4chan memes: "mARBLECAKE. ALSO, THE GAME."On September 12, 2009, Poole gave a talk on why 4chan has a reputation as a "Meme Factory" at the Paraflows Symposium in Vienna, Austria, which was part of the Paraflows 09 festival, themed Urban Hacking. In this talk, Poole mainly attributed this to the anonymous system, and to the lack of data retention on the site ("The site has no memory.").In April 2010, Poole gave evidence in the trial United States of America v. David Kernell as a government witness.As a witness, he explained the terminology used on 4chan to the prosecutor, ranging from "OP" to "lurker". He also explained to the court the nature of the data given to the FBI as part of the search warrant, including how users can be uniquely identified from site audit logs.Notable imageboards/pol/Main article: /pol//pol/ ("Politically Incorrect") is 4chan's political discussion board. A stickied thread on its front page states that the board's intended purpose is "discussion of news, world events, political issues, and other related topics."/pol/ was created in October 2011 as a rebranding of 4chan's news board, /new/,which was deleted that January for a high volume of racist discussion.Media sources have characterized /pol/ as predominantly racist and sexist, with many of its posts taking an explicitly neo-Nazi bent.The Southern Poverty Law Center regards /pol/'s rhetorical style as widely emulated by white supremacist websites such as The Daily Stormer; the Stormer's editor, Andrew Anglin, concurred./pol/ was where screenshots of Trayvon Martin's hacked social media accounts were initially posted.The board's users have started antifeminist, homophobic, transphobic, and anti-Arab Twitter campaigns.Many /pol/ users favored Donald Trump during his 2016 United States presidential campaign. Both Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr., appeared to acknowledge the support by tweeting /pol/-associated memes. Upon his successful election, a /pol/ moderator embedded a pro-Trump video at the top of all of the board's pages./b/Main article: /b/The "random" board, /b/, follows the design of Futaba Channel's Nijiura board. It was the first board created, and was described in 2009 as 4chan's most popular board, accounting for 30% of site traffic at the time.Gawker's Nick Douglas summarized /b/ as a board where "people try to shock, entertain, and coax free porn from each other."/b/ has a "no rules" policy, except for bans on certain illegal content, such as child pornography, invasions of other websites (posting floods of disruptive content), and under-18 viewing, all of which are inherited from site-wide rules. The "no invasions" rule was added in late 2006, after /b/ users spent most of the summer "invading" Habbo Hotel. The "no rules" policy also applies to actions of administrators and moderators, which means that users may be banned at any time, for any reason, including no reason at all.Due partially to its anonymous nature, board moderation is not always successful—indeed, the site's anti-child pornography rule is a subject of jokes on /b/. Christopher Poole told The New York Times, in a discussion on the moderation of /b/, that "the power lies in the community to dictate its own standards" and that site staff simply provided a framework.The humor of /b/'s many users, who refer to themselves as "/b/tards",is often incomprehensible to newcomers and outsiders, and is characterized by intricate inside jokes and dark comedy.Users often refer to each other, and much of the outside world, as fags.They are often referred to by outsiders as trolls, who regularly act with the intention of "doing it for the lulz", a corruption of "LOL" used to denote amusement at another's expense.The New York Observer has described posters as "immature pranksters whose bad behavior is encouraged by the site's total anonymity and the absence of an archive".Douglas said of the board, "reading /b/ will melt your brain", and cited Encyclopedia Dramatica's definition of /b/ as "the asshole of the Internets [sic]".Mattathias Schwartz of The New York Times likened /b/ to "a high-school bathroom stall, or an obscene telephone party line",while Baltimore City Paper wrote that "in the high school of the Internet, /b/ is the kid with a collection of butterfly knives and a locker full of porn."Wired describes /b/ as "notorious".Each post is assigned a post number. Certain post numbers are sought after with a large amount of posting taking place to "GET" them. A "GET" occurs when a post's number ends in a special number, such as 12345678, 22222222, or every millionth post.A sign of 4chan's scaling, according to Poole, was when GETs lost meaning due to the high post rate resulting in a GET occurring every few weeks. He estimated /b/'s post rate in July 2008 to be 150,000–200,000 posts per day.Internet cultureEarly internet memesMany early memes that originated at 4chan have gained media attention. This included "So I herd u liek mudkipz" [sic], which involved a phrase based on Pokémon and which generated numerous YouTube tribute videos, and the term "an hero" [sic] as a synonym for suicide, after a misspelling in the Myspace online memorial of seventh grader Mitchell Henderson.4chan and other websites, such as the satirical Encyclopedia Dramatica, have also contributed to the development of significant amounts of leetspeak.A lolcat image using the "I'm in ur..." formatA lolcat is an image combining a photograph of a cat with text intended to contribute humour. The text is often idiosyncratic and grammatically incorrect. In 2005, the meme was widely popularized by 4chan in the form of "Caturday". Every Saturday, users posted pictures of cats with image macros relating to that day's theme.In 2005, a meme known as the "duckroll" began, after Poole used a word filter to change "egg" to "duck" across 4chan. Thus, words such as "eggroll" were changed to "duckroll". This led to a bait-and-switch in which external links disguised as relevant to a discussion instead led to a picture of a duck on wheels.[90]An unidentified 4chan user applied the concept of the duckroll to a 2007 post relating to the video game Grand Theft Auto IV. In March of that year, the game's trailer had been released, and the game's immense popularity caused publisher Rockstar Games' website to crash. The user posted a YouTube link that purportedly led to the trailer, but in reality directed users to the music video for Rick Astley's 1987 song "Never Gonna Give You Up". Thus, the "rickroll" was born.In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Astley said he found the meme "bizarre and funny".A link to the YouTube video of Tay Zonday's song "Chocolate Rain" was posted on /b/ on July 11, 2007.The Age reported that 4chan posters urged each other to "swarm" the video on YouTube and thus increase its ranking.The video became an immensely popular Internet meme, resulting in cover versions by John Mayer and Green Day drummer Tré Cool.The portion of the song in which Zonday turns away from the microphone, with a caption stating "I move away from the mic to breathe in", became an oft-repeated meme on 4chan and inspired remixes.The character of Boxxy is portrayed by Catherine "Catie" Wayne, an American Internet celebrity known for her highly energetic vlogs.Her rise to exposure began in late 2008 and early 2009, surrounding self-made videos that were initially made to be posted to her Gaia Online profile.They then spread to 4chan and other sites, resulting in a large online following.In his American incarnation, Pedobear is an anthropomorphic bear child predator that is often used within the community to mock contributors showing a sexual interest in children.Pedobear is one of the most popular memes on non-English imageboards, and has gained recognition across Europe. In February 2010, a photoshopped version of Pedobear appeared along with mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics in an article on the games in Gazeta Olsztyńska, a Polish newspaper. This was done accidentally; due to the image being used from Google Images, the authors were unaware of the joke.Similarly, the Dutch television guide Avrobodeused one of the images. It has been used as a symbol of pedophilia by Maltese graffiti vandals prior to a papal visit.Anonymous and anti-Scientology activismProtests against ScientologySee also: Anonymous (group) and Project Chanology4chan has been labeled as the starting point of the Anonymous meme by The Baltimore City Paper,due to the norm of posts signed with the "Anonymous" moniker. The National Post's David George-Cosh said it has been "widely reported" that Anonymous is associated with 4chan and 711chan, as well as numerous Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels.Through its association with Anonymous, 4chan has become associated with Project Chanology, a worldwide protest against the Church of Scientology held by members of Anonymous. On January 15, 2008, a 4chan user posted to /b/, suggesting participants "do something big" against the Church of Scientology's website. This message resulted in the Church receiving threatening phone calls. It quickly grew into a large real-world protest. Unlike previous Anonymous attacks, this action was characterized by 4chan memes including rickrolls and Guy Fawkes masks. The raid drew criticism from some 4chan users who felt it would bring the site undesirable attention.My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandomThe adult fandom and subculture dedicated to the children's animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic began on the "Comics & Cartoons" (/co/) board of 4chan. The show was first discussed with some interest around its debut in October 2010.In an article published on the animation website Cartoon Brew, titled The End of the Creator-Driven Era in TV Animation, the writer Amid Amidi referenced the then-recent debut of the show as an example of how the talent of creators such as Lauren Faust was being used to work on behalf of an established toy-centric property rather than original ideas developed by creators themselves.The article was shared on /co/, where the alarmist tone of the essay provoked heightened interest in the show, resulting in praise for its plot, characters, and animation style.The moderation of My Little Pony related topics on 4chan became controversial; discussion of the show extended to the /b/ board, reaching a volume and intrusiveness that was eventually met with hostile reactions from other 4chan users. This resulted in intervention from a moderator, with an introduction of automatic one day ban on the use of the word "pony", to prevent discussion of the show. Discussion of the show began to spread to communities external to 4chan in reaction, including the establishment of the fan news website Equestria Daily, causing the show to reach a wider audience across the internet. These events were described as a "civil war" internal to 4chan.The site administrator moot eventually settled the matter by creating the board dedicated to discussion of the show, "Pony" (/mlp/), and apologised on behalf of the moderation team for neglecting "one of the largest subcultures in 4chan's history".There is a ban on discussion of the show globally on the site outside of this board.