In 1969, the McClellan Air Force Base senior Commander instructed me
to represent him on the Sacramento County Mental Health Council. At
the time, the Council was considering the establishment of a county
Suicide Prevention Service (SPS). The SPS was approved, and I became
involved as a volunteer worker. As the SPS functions and workload
became clear, I joined its paraprofessional training to certification and
when the Service became operational I took my turn on the 'hotline,'
especially those related to my McClellan responsibilities. I extended my
duties to include SPS liaison with several other military bases in the
Sacramento area. At that time, central California and Nevada had
military installations where military personnel of all Services were
stationed for training and operations, or who were in transit to or from
Southeast Asia. In effect, the Sacramento-San Francisco corridor in the
late 1960s-early 1970s was filled with military personnel on their way to
and from Viet Nam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. From the outset,
as word spread about Sacramento County's SPS hotline, increasing
numbers of calls came in from potential and selected draftees and active
duty members of the Armed Forces and their families.
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