---
title: "The Army Secretary Featured A Mass Murderer In The Service’s Suicide Prevention Campaign"
date: "2018-09-09"
modified: "2018-09-09"
authors:
  - name: "Jared Keller"
    job_title: "Former Managing Editor"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-robert-bales-suicide-prevention/"
categories:
  - "Army"
  - "Military Branches"
  - "News"
tags:
  - "scandals"
---

# The Army Secretary Featured A Mass Murderer In The Service’s Suicide Prevention Campaign

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/18990236-1.jpg>)

Former Army staff sergeant Robert Bales is serving a life sentence for murdering 16 Afghan civilians, including seven children, in a village outside Kandahar in early March 2012. Now he's the accidental new face of National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month.

- In a Saturday Facebook post, Army Secretary Mark Esper posted a (now deleted) message reminding soldiers that September marks National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month. Which would be fine, except the attached photo features Bales with a smirk on his face:

https://twitter.com/jkass99/status/1038555951081508865

- Bales, who joined the Army in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, is considered one of the [most notorious war criminals](<https://www.gq.com/story/robert-bales-interview-afghanistan-massacre>) of the Global War on Terror.
- "In the early morning hours of March 11, 2012, Bales left his base, Camp Belambay, in Kandahar, armed with an M4 carbine and M9 pistol, and headed to a nearby village, where he killed four people, including a child, and assaulted six others," according to McClatchy. "He returned to base for more ammunition before walking to another village, where he killed a dozen more, mainly women and children, in their beds."
- In June, Bales appealed to President Donal Trump to commute his sentence. The status of Bales' appeal to the White House remains unclear at this time.

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/image-placeholder-title-1548.png>)

## Author
Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications.

### Author social links  
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