U.S. Air Force Chief Treats Aaron Bushnell as Just Another Suicide

Was the Feb. 25 self-immolation of Senior Airman Aaron Bushnell an act of supreme sacrifice in the service of mankind or just another suicide resulting from insufficient mental “resiliency"? For Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, Bushnell’s death seems to have been just another suicide. “We have about 100 or so suicides per year, and every year we try to get after, how do we reduce this?” said Allvin, during remarks at the Brookings Institution, yesterday, reported Military.com. “So, right now, where we are in that case is, understanding that has a lot of political fervor attached to it, this is just one of our airmen that we lost. And we’re looking after family, looking at the unit, and really trying to understand if there’s any context behind this, what lessons can be learned; but it’s really about the individual that we lost.”