Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said Wednesday that the service is investigating the suicide of an airman who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., this week to protest ongoing violence in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Department of the Air Force told Military.com that it is advocating for airmen to seek mental health resources if they need them following the death, which made front-page news across the country. The service, along with the rest of the military, has long grappled with suicide among the rank and file, with a new policy meant to get troops faster mental health treatment.
Senior Airman Aaron Bushnell, 25, a cyber defense operations specialist assigned to the 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing at Fort Meade in Maryland, recorded a video of himself on Sunday walking up to the embassy in uniform, dousing himself with fuel and setting himself on fire. He later died from the injuries.
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“We have about 100 or so suicides per year, and every year we try to get after, how do we reduce this?” said Allvin, who was speaking at the Brookings Institution think tank in D.C. “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,…
