While attending my Marine Corps reunion recently with fellow Vietnam veterans of ANGLICO (Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company), we were privy to a presentation on suicide prevention by USMC Sgt. Aaron Quinonez. Known as Sgt. Q, he himself has attempted suicide in the past. Using military unit tactics, he developed an app designed to be a peer to peer tool to prevent someone from committing suicide. I immediately connected the dots, and recognized this is a tool that any community can use to help members who struggle with personal demons. Within our own Judo community, we have lost several elite athletes to suicide. How many more are on the verge of following suit?
Although this app was originally designed for members of the military, its format is easy to understand and use by civilians. Based on a military unit called a squad -usually 12 members give or take a few- the struggler surrounds himself with his support team (his squad) who communicate through the app. With the push of a button on the app, the struggler’s squad is notified, and springs into action along predetermined roles.
Why “Pop Smoke?” Having popped smoke on several occasions in Vietnam as a field radio operator, I thought the choice of the app’s name was outstanding. Here’s a little background to make you understand the significance of popping smoke. “Smoke” refers to a grenade-like canister that emits smoke rather than explodes. Smoke comes in a few different colors. Ground troops will pop smoke for several reasons. It tells aircrafts (mostly helicopters, but also fixed wing and forward air controllers) their location. It provides wind direction when a helicopter wants to land. Helicopters land against the wind. And finally, it’s a distress signal that screams, “Get us out of the hellhole before the enemy kills us,” in the case of an evacuation. When a struggler uses the app to pop smoke, he’s commanding his squad to come and get him/her out of his/her hellhole before the urge to commit suicide succeeds.
My gut feeling is that we coaches and players in Judo will become more aware of the struggles some of us are going through. and just as with the issue of concussions and head trauma, we will bring this issue to the forefront instead of ignoring it. Just yesterday, a coach at a regional training in Los Angeles brought this up to a group of teens, albeit without mentioning the “s” word.
I encourage you to check out Operation Pop Smoke on Facebook, YouTube, and their website operationpopsmoke.com. Look around to see if you can spot someone in trouble. If you’re in trouble, get your squad together, and use the app.
