U.S. military suicide rate doubles for July

(AP) WASHINGTON - Suicides among active-duty soldiers in July more than doubled from June, accelerating a trend throughout the military this year that has prompted Pentagon leaders to redouble efforts to solve a puzzling problem.

The Army, which is the only branch of the military that issues monthly press statements on suicides, said 26 active-duty soldiers killed themselves in July, compared with 12 in June. The July total was the highest for any month since the Army began reporting suicides by month in 2009, according to Lt. Col. Lisa Garcia, an Army spokeswoman.

The Marine Corps had eight suicides in July, up from six in June. The July figure was its highest monthly total of 2012 and pushed its total for the year so far to 32 — equal to the Marines' total for all of 2011. The Marines' July figure is being posted on its website but was provided first to The Associated Press.

The Air Force said it had six in July, compared with two in June. The Navy had four in July but its June figure was not immediately available.

The Army's suicide numbers have been higher than the other services, in part because it is substantially larger than the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force. The Army also has had more members in combat over the past decade. It was the main ground force in Iraq and has a preponderance of the U.S. troops today in Afghanistan.

Military suicides grow at sharp rate
U.S. military averaging a suicide a day in 2012

(At left, watch CBS News correspondent David Martin's report from June on the steps the military is taking to combat its suicide problem.)

For the first seven months of 2012, the Army recorded 116 suicides among active-duty soldiers. If that pace were maintained through December the year's total would approach 200, compared with 167 for all of 2011.

"Suicide is the toughest enemy I have faced in my 37 years in the Army," said Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the Army's vice chief of staff, who is spearheading his service's efforts to find ways to halt the surge in suicides.

"That said, I do believe suicide is preventable," Austin added. "To combat it effectively will require sophisticated solutions aimed at helping individuals to build resiliency and strengthen their life coping skills."

Suicidal behavior in the military is thought to be related to cumulative stress from combat duty, but it also is believed to be linked to a range of other pressures such as marital and financial problems as well as health issues.

Of the 26 active-duty soldiers who committed suicide in July, all were male and only two were officers, according to figures provided by the Army's office of public affairs. Thirteen were married, 10 were single and three were divorced. A breakdown of the deployment history of 14 of the 26 showed that six had never been deployed, seven had been deployed between one and three times, and one had been deployed six times.

So far this year the number of suicides in the military has surged beyond expectations, given that the pace of combat deployments has begun to slow. The Defense Department closely tracks suicides throughout the military but releases its figures only once a year. The Associated Press in June obtained an internal Defense Department document that revealed that there had been 154 suicides in the first 155 days of the year, though June 3. That marked the fastest pace of active-duty military suicides in the nation's decade of war.

The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, a private organization that provides support for military members and their families, said counseling and other forms of care for emotionally distraught military members is often too little, too late.

"Others never seek help out of fear over how others will view seeking treatment," the group said in a statement Thursday.

[webmasteh]

.---.
As a Marine, a Sailor, or a Soldier regards their own suicide and or murder --perspectively is destruction of U.S. government property and is one in the same thing by Military law these days, illegal and what follows is fort leavenworth eligible for life in prison if caught and properly executed and charged.

I really could give a donkey poo-poo about any creature this low crawling from under a slime swamp rock.

In either perspective these are Ungodly acts by murdering your own military brother and or sister, and or murdering a any fellow military personnel and obviously making this action appear as a suicide, or any military personnel murdering themselves in the act of suicide and in all of which these actions are equally illegal, are angst heinous crimes and is morally deplorable.

Therefore, these are dishonorable terrorist acts of cowardliness by murder either self inflicted or otherwise is murder as fact, believe --true.

These are not brave troops, but in fact are unethical, immoral, dishonorable, zero-integrity, zero-dedication, zero-dignity, and zero-bravery as military personnel --heinously deplorable.

Only by these action equates acts of terrorism against U.S.citizens of military ranks and by murder is destruction of government property that is the lowest cowardliness on this face of this Earth.

Shame on all of you for not being in the image of our brave military personnel that we all so proudly honor with respect and reverence.

With this exception of military personnel murdering other military personnel and making these murders appear as suicide --deplorable.

Any military personnel commits suicide is deplorable equally so. Therefore military personnel are murdering U.S.Citizens in military ranks, horrid.

Either way --DEPLORABLE!

This is heinous to cover-up such murderous action by making such murders appear as suicide, and suicide itself the same, deplorable.

So go out now and prove yourself to this U.S. Nation and allies by not committing these heinous acts.

-shame on you for being a lowly coward!

I shun all of you deplorable cowards, I shun you all for eternity.
.---.

[debjoyce]

You are entitled to your opinion, you've been given that right by the blood of those you bash. It's ok that you've shown your ignorance on the subject. When you've been broken down and brainwashed ina military boot camp to act with agression first, don't think, follow orders, while murdering other human beings in the name of war. When you open the door of a car hit by an incendiary device, where a child was laying in the back seat and the top of his head comes off, stuck to the door, the smell of burning flesh and blood will never leave you. Wear the insides of your buddy out of a tank explosion and question why it wasn't you. Live with these and so many other things we can never imagine and if you come out able to function, you are a psychopath, but from your comment, that may well fit you. Judge not, lest ye be judged. Until you've walked a mile in those very same shoes, YOU KNOW NOTHING OF THE SUBJECT. SHAME ON YOU!!!

[KevinNiicole]

A FEW QUESTIONS
Who's hooked on prescription drugs?
Who's hooked on welfare?
The second highest high school drop out rate in the world?
Obese?
Who has been UNEMPLOYED FOR 3.5 YRS?
Who has an aging population 1 foot in the grave the other on a banana peel?
Has reverse mortgages?
Living in subsidized housing & a multitude of other Gov. Subsidies?
WHO HAS 13,000 CITIZENS DIEING ANNUALLY FROM GUNFIRE BY THEIR FELLOW CITIZENS?

WHO HAS 800 MILITARY BASES AROUND THE WORLD?
More soldiers killing themselves then dieing in action?

THE WAR HAS BEEN HERE THE WHOLE TIME!!!

Where does it cost 1 MILLION DOLLARS a year per troop & theirs100,000 troops there? AFGHANISTAN

LARGEST PRISON POPULATION IN THE WORLD?
5% of the world population 25%
of the worlds PRISON POPULATION

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK
1.25 MILLION GANG BANGERS WITH ASSAULT RIFLES ON THEIR STREETS?
Who does all the manual labor? MEXICO
Cup of coffee? INDIA
Bus ride? INDIA
TANK OF GAS? INDIA
Hotel room? INDIA
LIQUOOOOR STOOOORE?
Who delivers the USA's babies? INDIA
Who keeps their hearts beating? INDIA
Ever seen gang of Indian kids?
WHO HAS THE GREATEST UNIVERSITIES IN THE WORLD? THE USA
WHO'S IN THEM?
WHEN THE RIOTS START HERE THERE IS NO ARMY HERE TO STOP THE RIOTS
WHEN THE RIOTS START HERE THERE IS NO ARMY HERE TO STOP THE RIOTS
NICE FIXER UP PROPERTY
Hostile Citizen

[nurserobn13]

Unfortunately these soldiers are not fighting to protect our freedoms as you hear every day. They are fighting "W's" war against weapons of mass destruction-that never existed. Does anyone know what the goal is in Afghanistan? Anyone? I remember when the death toll was 500, and thought that was too much. I consider the suicide deaths the same as KIA. My sympathies go out to all the families involved.

[decotoguy]

I LOVE this WAR,This American Suicidal Mission called AFGHANISTAN.
When that GREAT American Leader of the FREE WORLD,the Honorable WAR HERO George W. BUSH deliberately plumged the American people into this WAR I knew it was the beginning of the END.
The END of the American Dream, the END of the American Working Class, and the END of FREEDOM.
I had NO illusions how this senseless WAR was going to pan out.
As for These MERCENARIES, they knew very well what they were getting themselves into.
MONEY does-not buy HEALTH.
What is The consequence of WAR ?

[WakeUpPeople001]

Ahhhh, were they suicides or "suicides"?

[Can't have soldiers with a conscience involved in incursions for the "powers that be"]

[superdem1]

I recently met a vet in a bar, he seemed like a seriously disturbed individual, he kept saying how much he loved Afghanistan, had been there four times and would go back in a minute, yet he loved it because it was so lawless and "free" - he hated all of us because we were living some kind of "cushy" life and would never know the hell he has seen. He had made our easy lives possible by fighting all the bad guys, but we were ignorant and not worthy of him. He was seriously drunk, quite loud, with a serious chip on his shoulder but no one would dare say anything. If other vets are as conflicted and messed up as this guy, I wouldn't be surprised that they can't adjust, have no perspective, and run into conflict after conflict.

[WakeUpPeople001]

Trust me--he was "a seriously disturbed individual" **before** he went to Afghanistan. He fit the military's favored recruitment profile.

[DOGGYPANTS]

Yes, they need help because Afghanistan is now worse, and Obama is not protecting his soldiers, but he can't pronouce "Corpsman," can he. Death rates have more than doubled since Obama took office:
US UK Other All
2008 155 51 89 295
2009 317 108 96 521
2010 499 103 109 711
2011 418 46 102 566
2012 231 30 36 297
Total 2095 424 625 3144