Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
According to all the reports (the CDC recently put out some new statistics) Oklahoma is one of the top locations for people (native born or transplants) to feel despair. I'm assuming from how these reports lay it out, the reason is so much hoopla over how nice it is, how much it has to offer and all the wonderful new opportunities when in reality, it's nowhere close to the hype. It's not just OK, as DOD expressed wide concerns over the suicide rate amongst military members and their family in places like Wyoming and Montana. In the end, these top locations for military depression centers on facilities (regardless of size of the locale) is they are just plain old blah.
If you're going to make that claim, providing a link would be very useful.
The current OK governor and state legislature have cut services to ODMHSAS in the past few years only to realize it's a problem and now they're reinvesting in mental health.
I asked someone I know who's with the 507th at Tinker, and the majority of the deaths are, from what he's heard, older contractors and GS employees at the logisitics center. Don't know why there's less transparency at Tinker than at Vance or Altus, both of which also have sizable contract populations.
The current OK governor and state legislature have cut services to ODMHSAS in the past few years only to realize it's a problem and now they're reinvesting in mental health.
I asked someone I know who's with the 507th at Tinker, and the majority of the deaths are, from what he's heard, older contractors and GS employees at the logisitics center. Don't know why there's less transparency at Tinker than at Vance or Altus, both of which also have sizable contract populations.
That tracks with what I have experienced in the past as well. I’m an older contractor myself, and I see colleagues who just don’t take their health seriously. They continue to live the same lifestyle they did as a young service member. Not eating right, drinking too much, no exercise.
I am very disciplined about exercise and eating right, plus I don’t drink alcohol. I don’t want to be a statistic.
I really enjoy my job and I want to keep working as long as I can. So maintaining your health is important. I have a good friend of mine, also a contractor, who is 75 and in perfect health. He loves his job and wants to keep going, too.
Tinker is ok. For the bulk of the 90s I was stationed at a high ops tempo northern tier base along with being tagged with PRP (fun stuff), so I am a little confused with the stress at Tinker.
Tinker is ok. For the bulk of the 90s I was stationed at a high ops tempo northern tier base along with being tagged with PRP (fun stuff), so I am a little confused with the stress at Tinker.
I agree. An assignment to Tinker would be so much better than a northern tier base assignment.
If for nothing else but the fact that they don’t have -80 windchills in the OKC area.
But also, even being at Tinker the Ops Tempo would be tough too. They have AWACs flying all over the world.
To be honest, the highest Ops Tempo I’ve dealt with in my career would be a tie between Kadena Air Base and Hurlburt Field. In both places, I’ve went many weeks in a row without a single day off.
We would joke around and tell the airmen that complained that if they wanted a day off, they could always volunteer to go to Bagram or Kandahar. They normally only make you work 72 hours per week there, ha!
But I’m not sure these deaths are even due to stress and ops tempo. They seem to be mostly lifestyle health problems for the older folks.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
