WASHINGTON, March 5, 2009
Soldier Suicides Continue Alarming Rise
Army Believes 18 Took Their Lives In February; That Follows 24 Suspected In January
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(AP / CBS)
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The increase continues a four-year rise in an Army under stress from two wars.
"It's a very high number, it's very disturbing," Col. Thomas Languirand, head of the Army suicide prevention program, said of February's toll. "We're taking every effort we can think of" to try to bring it down.
The Army normally releases figures on self-inflicted deaths only once a year. But due to the large number of 24 suspected in January, officials decided to announce monthly figures to focus attention on the problem and on prevention programs available.
Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said there were two confirmed suicides in February and 16 suspected but still being investigated - compared with 11 confirmed deaths in the same month of 2008.
Usually the vast majority of suspected suicides are eventually confirmed, but the investigations can take months. For instance, when January figures were first released last month, officials said there were seven confirmed and 17 pending, a figure updated Thursday to 12 confirmed and 12 pending.
Speaking by telephone to a group of bloggers, Chiarelli noted that officials already have bolstered suicide prevention programs and are having special training sessions this month and next, but he said no one thing can solve the problem.
The military has added mental health staff, operates hotlines for troops to call, and has programs to counter stress on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no breakdown on how many of the suicides happened at the warfront.
Amid unprecedented stress on the military in fighting the wars, troops are having difficulty keeping their marriages and personal relationships together and are suffering financial, legal and work problems. Officials over months have pointed to these as main reasons for the increased suicides, and Chiarelli said Thursday that unemployment also seemed a factor in February suicides among National Guard and Reserve members. Members of the National Guard are part-time soldiers who can be mobilized for active duty.Click here to read CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian's 2008 report on whether the VA department tried to cover up an epidemic of suicide among veterans.
Chiarelli updated figures for 2008, saying 138 suicides had been confirmed and five deaths were still being investigated. He said it appears the Army will see a rate of 20.5 suicides per 100,000, surpassing the civilian rate for the first time since record keeping began in 1980.
The civilian rate is about 19.5 per 100,000 when adjusted to mirror the gender and age mix in the Army.
© MMIX The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Add a Comment See all 38 Comments
- Hell, I'd commit suicide too, if Obacarama was my boss.
Posted by luke_4u
Please go ahead, i'm waiting. - Reply to this comment
- Hell, I'd commit suicide too, if Obacarama was my boss.
- Reply to this comment
- So, you do your four or six year enlistment and get out and start up a career as a network engineer or dentist or housing contractor or real estate agent. You marry, buy a house, have a few kids and one morning you receive a letter reactivating you. You are thirty four years old and your reservist status has been two weeks a year and one weekend a month playing soldier and poker. You figure this will be six months, maybe a year and you pack up, maybe send the kids to live with relatives if both spouses (very likely) are guardmen or reservists. Six years and three deployments later, you are still in uniform, your job is gone, your house is gone, your kids are pixelated faces on short video teleconferences, your neighbor emailed to say they had to put your GSD down for sarcoma, you hear rumors that your spouse, deployed elsewhere, is having an affair and you have heard that your unit is going to get redeployed for a fourth time....
What was just a bad dream with a sunrise at the end of it has become a never ending nightmare punctuated by bathroom breaks as they send you home for thirty days now and then to rehydrate. A new President gets elected and even though you know a draw down is not an overnight event, the fact that it looks to be late in 2010 before the amount of troops is actually reduced is disheartening. The fact that the military won't meet the final station count of 50K is a night terror. This weekend gig has become the eternal tour of hell.
This is why the suicide count is so high. - Reply to this comment
- mjvwsr - You clearly have not served in the military or if you did at a fairly low level. The logistics alone of moving US forces out of Iraq will take time. To accelerate the schedule beyond what it is would not only jeopardize the lives of American forces over there but would also most likely cause a disintegration of the Iraqi civil infrastructure. After all the blood and money spent over there not a very good legacy for us.
- Reply to this comment
- how many more
young American's can you murder on your war to nowhere
Posted by pythoncharly
and what are we doing to bring them home? nothing. Our Liar and Chief is leaving 50,000 "non combatants" I suppose Iraq is going to protect them. Figure the odds. - Reply to this comment
- It's more then meets the eye or what the American people are being told. Being a combat veteran and know people the took their life, I would say it;s moe complex then just being a veteran. Treatment in the military, little hope geting a job when returning home,moral standards decline in relationships(dearJohns/Jane).The way rank is handed out to miniorty in the military would make me question what race is taking their life more. Most officers never take their life because their treated like little Gods in the service.Compare officers suicide to enlisted suicide. Maybe people are just given up on life in general in society. I am sure not all are suicides. Seems as if suicide has went up after taken the bible out of schools(Christian). MY POINT IS IT"S MANY THINGS NOT JUST A MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE.
- Reply to this comment
- As a 20-year Army veteran, it's hard to believe that any real soldier would take their own life. As a 10-year Army drill sergeant, I did not teach or imply that giving up was an option. Society unfortunately has taught and led to the "I am entitled" generation and the "I cannot possibly take responsibility for my own actions" generation. We live in a greedy, materialistic society. We have more "things" that are taken as an expectation rather than a privilege or reward than what exceeds all basic needs. When basic training cannot be conducted in a realistic, non-stressed situation without the recruit being able to "call a congressman", how can we expect that soldier to react in real life war? And suicide is an option? Give me a break.
- Reply to this comment
- Well, guess their finding out once back home with their famalies, what they were really fighting for,, and over there for, and how they were lied too in the 1st place, now once back home, they see their country has been slowly Destroyed by the very individuals who sent them off to war, those in Washington, they see their famalies losing their homes and their jobs, their towns in utter choas and destroyed, their neighbors they once knew- gone, the hopes of going back to the job they had with that company- Gone too, and now they too are losing their homes because everyone is laid-off, and last summers ridlicious gas prices of $4.25 a gallon, what a Joke, so what did they really go over there and Fight for, they ask, because of Patriotism, to honor America, to protect this Country, and for what, so they could come back home and see what the very politicians who sent them off to War, actually did to this Country while they were away, and now their losing everything they've had, it appears the real enemy was right here all along located at 1600 pennsylvania avenue, in a Big White House - Compliments of George W Bush and Dick Cheney - Carl Rove , John Yoo, so the Truth Be Told !
- Reply to this comment
- yeah, but the war will only last 6 months, cost maybe 6 billion and it'll all be paid for with Iraqi oil
and besides, they were behind 9/11 and had all kinds of weapons of mass destruction....
oh...wait....never mind.
support out troops ( with a yellow ribbon bumper sticker and by supporting the policies that result in this kinda thing)
morons.
right wing radical (not conservative by any definition you can find...oh, they're against abortion, never mind, we'll support 'em )
morons.
THESE SOULS ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU
Sounds to me like you are another of these jerks sitting around b#^%hin about the problems, but you do NOTHING to help fix the problems. Politics are not the issue here, it is the fact that young men and women ARE having problems and the system has totally failed them. Stop your whining and roll up your sleeves, Go to your local VA and take a long look at how disgraceful these vets are being treated. - Reply to this comment
- yeah, but the war will only last 6 months, cost maybe 6 billion and it'll all be paid for with Iraqi oil
and besides, they were behind 9/11 and had all kinds of weapons of mass destruction....
oh...wait....never mind.
support out troops ( with a yellow ribbon bumper sticker and by supporting the policies that result in this kinda thing)
morons.
right wing radical (not conservative by any definition you can find...oh, they're against abortion, never mind, we'll support 'em )
morons.
THESE SOULS ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU
Posted by cosmicfluke at 9:31 PM : Mar 5, 2009
Great post! - Reply to this comment
- yeah, but the war will only last 6 months, cost maybe 6 billion and it'll all be paid for with Iraqi oil
and besides, they were behind 9/11 and had all kinds of weapons of mass destruction....
oh...wait....never mind.
support out troops ( with a yellow ribbon bumper sticker and by supporting the policies that result in this kinda thing)
morons.
right wing radical (not conservative by any definition you can find...oh, they're against abortion, never mind, we'll support 'em )
morons.
THESE SOULS ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU - Reply to this comment
- This is a matter that is very close to me. The number of young men and women that are committing suicide is staggering and the VA and other government officials are NOT giving you the correct numbers, nor is there any kind of programs set in place to help these new vets. The VA does NOT recognize PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) as a condition. The vets that are coming back are being denied any mental health benefits for this disorder that the psychiatric and other medical officials see as a Very REAL disorder that can make life very difficult for the person suffering from this. I have tried for 2 years now to get an internship through my college to offer FREE mental health workers to our valued vets and to this day I can't even get acknowledgment. I want to say this in parting; EVERY veteran from all branches and every war, police action and political misunderstanding DESERVES the eternal gratitude of each and every one that calls themselves American. What ever you position of the politics our vets need the system and the people running things to stop voting for pay raises and step up!!! To every service member that reads this, I THANK YOU!
Posted by jeny6271 at 8:52 PM : Mar 5, 2009
And thank you, jeny6271, for caring. I hope someone in authority hears you!
Our vets have done everything our country has asked of them....they deserve no less from us! - Reply to this comment
- This is a matter that is very close to me. The number of young men and women that are committing suicide is staggering and the VA and other government officials are NOT giving you the correct numbers, nor is there any kind of programs set in place to help these new vets. The VA does NOT recognize PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) as a condition. The vets that are coming back are being denied any mental health benefits for this disorder that the psychiatric and other medical officials see as a Very REAL disorder that can make life very difficult for the person suffering from this. I have tried for 2 years now to get an internship through my college to offer FREE mental health workers to our valued vets and to this day I can't even get acknowledgment. I want to say this in parting; EVERY veteran from all branches and every war, police action and political misunderstanding DESERVES the eternal gratitude of each and every one that calls themselves American. What ever you position of the politics our vets need the system and the people running things to stop voting for pay raises and step up!!! To every service member that reads this, I THANK YOU!
- Reply to this comment
- " No, what I'm saying is that the rate of suicides is being manipulated by the main stream media to be high when it's not. The main stream media is trying to sensationalize it into public panic by using trumped up data."
Posted by WillowOne at 7:03 PM : Mar 5, 2009
Then would you please tell Col. Thomas Languirand of your theory? The following is his take on this situation:
"It's a very high number, it's very disturbing," Col. Thomas Languirand, head of the Army suicide prevention program, said of February's toll. "We're taking every effort we can think of" to try to bring it down." - Reply to this comment
- so you are saying that the suicides are just myths, they died of heart attacks.
Posted by mejordelahistoria at 5:53 PM : Mar 5, 2009
No, what I'm saying is that the rate of suicides is being manipulated by the main stream media to be high when it's not. The main stream media is trying to sensationalize it into public panic by using trumped up data. - Reply to this comment
- IF YOU CONSIDER SUICIDE, IF YOU THINK OF IT, OR PLAN IT, TELL YOUR SERGENT OR COMMANDER. IT'S NOT A WEAKNESS, IT'S THE BEGINNING OF NEW STRENGTH.
- Reply to this comment
- Soldiers- YOU WILL GET THROUGH THIS. YOU WILL RECOVER. OUR NATION NEEDS EACH ONE OF YOU!
- Reply to this comment
- WE went astray with 'train and retain'. The greatest asset a military can give to a nation is not what soldiers do on the battlefield, but the citizens that they can become after the training. Now the enemy (other nations) have nearly managed to sever a generation of citizenship from our institutions when we need it most. Damn the British lies and the european project.
- Reply to this comment
- Has the pentagon realized that the world has got our military under siege? And a lot of that is coming from within our own borders and institutions!
- Reply to this comment
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