THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 17, 1996 TAG: 9605170493
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Suicide rarely happens in isolation, and it's usually the result of previous depression, said local psychologist and retired Navy captain Frank A. Mullins Jr.
So even though the service record of Adm. Jeremy ``Mike'' Boorda had been called into question, Boorda probably had been under intense pressure long before, Mullins said.
While the Navy has not definitely given Boorda's cause of death as suicide, a Navy official said two notes were found at the home where the chief of naval operations was shot. Newsweek said Thursday it was investigating whether Boorda had worn a combat ``V'' decoration that he was never officially awarded.
Boorda may have feared the damage that such a revelation would have caused not only to himself, but also to the entire Navy, Mullins said. ``To go that high in the service means you have to really be over-identified with the service, and that means what affects you affects the service, too.
``Many civilians don't understand that type of intense loyalty.''
Mullins and Clare Houseman, an associate professor at Old Dominion University who is a former psychiatric nurse, said suicide is the most extreme result of depression.
``Depression doesn't respect a person's position or power,'' Houseman said.
The more someone is in the public eye, the less likely he or she may be to seek help for depression, she said.
``We have a history in this country of public officials going public about having received mental health care and having it not be very acceptable,'' she said.
The apparent suicide Thursday of Boorda, and the suicide three years ago of White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster Jr., raise questions about the stresses faced by people in positions of power. Suicide, while rare, is not unknown among top Navy officials. On May 22, 1949, former defense secretary James Vincent Forrestal leaped to his death from a 16th-floor window of the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he was being treated for ``physical and mental exhaustion.'' It was his fourth suicide attempt.
``It's called the VIP problem,'' Mullins said. ``A VIP has a lot of pressures, and a lot of time they can't go to mental health because of those pressures. Unfortunately, that insulates you from getting help.''
It is often difficult for prominent leaders even to admit they need help, Mullins said. ``It's viewed in a negative way; if you're the leader, you've got to look good all the time. You can't have a down day.''
A military background may place additional stress upon a depressed person, Houseman said. ``I know that military facilities have psychiatric and mental health clinics, but I do know there is some hesitancy to using them on the part of people who have some concerns with their careers.''
She said some in the military use private mental health providers to avoid that problem.
Depression is treatable, Houseman said, particularly with today's new forms of antidepressants.
Boorda himself referred to suicide in a talk at the Naval Academy at Annapolis last month. In response to a series of scandals at the academy, Boorda called for the each service member of the Navy to have ``one leader that they can look to and say that `that person is accountable and responsible to me.'
``Can a sailor be a member of the Ku Klux Klan under those circumstances and the leader not know it? No. Can the sailor be committing sexual harassment and not have the leader know it? No.
``Can the sailor commit suicide and not have the leader know that he or she was in distress? No.'' MEMO: Staff writer Marie Joyce contributed to this report. by CNB