Army Suicides Set to Top Last Year's Mark

(AP)  Soldier suicides this year are almost sure to top last year's grim totals, but a recent decline in the pace of such incidents could mean the Army is starting to make progress in stemming them, officials said Tuesday.

Army Vice Chief of Staff General Peter Chiarelli said that as of Monday, 140 active duty soldiers were believed to have died of self-inflicted wounds so far in 2009. That's the same as were confirmed for all of 2008.

"We are almost certainly going to end the year higher than last year ... this is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way," he said.

But Chiarelli said there has been a tapering off in recent months from large surges in suspected suicides in January and February.

"Our goal since the beginning has been to reduce the overall incidence of suicide and I do believe we are finally beginning to see progress being made," Chiarelli told a Pentagon press conference.

He attributed those hints of a turning to some unprecedented efforts the Army has made since February to educate soldiers and leaders about the issue.

Officials are still stumped about what is driving the historically high rates across the military force. When asked whether the rates reflect unprecedented high stress from long and repeated deployments to provide manpower for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chiarelli said he didn't know.

"The reality is there is no simple answer," he said. "Each suicide is as unique as the individuals themselves."

The rising suicide rate is not unique to the Army. Marine Corps suicides also are higher again this year — there were 42 reported as of Oct. 31 compared with 42 for all of 2008, 33 in 2007 and 25 in 2006.

Though the two ground forces have borne most of the fighting in the two current wars, both the Army and Marines have found that about a third of the self-inflicted deaths were among troops that had never deployed to the battles.

Chiarelli said that on top of the 140 suicides reported from the active duty Army force, there were another 71 suicides by troops in the National Guard and Reserve.

All of the numbers are preliminary in that investigations into some of the deaths are still ongoing. Of the 140 so far this year among active duty troops, 90 have been confirmed as suicides and 50 are suspected but the probes are not yet finished.

Each year, nearly all suspected suicides are eventually confirmed. For instance in 2008, there were 143 suspected and 140 were eventually confirmed.

Chiarelli said officials will continue to focus on things that are symptoms of high-risk individuals such as undiagnosed brain injuries like concussions; on Post-Traumatic Stress, and on risky behavior such as poor diet and sleep habits as well as more serious behaviors such as drug and alcohol abuse.

The Army widened its suicide prevention in March in an attempt to make rapid improvements. In October, the service introduced its Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program, which Chiarelli called "the biggest step ... taken to enhance wellness in the entire force through prevention rather than treatment."

The program aims to put the same emphasis on mental and emotion strength as the military traditionally has on physical strength. Basic training now includes anti-stress programs as part of a broader effort to help soldiers deal with the aftereffects of combat and prevent suicides.

Also last month, the Army started using a new screening questionnaire to try to determine preexisting or current mental health issues among troops as part of the enlistment process.

Despite those campaigns, another jump in suicide figures for 2009 would make it the fifth straight year that such deaths have set a record within the military. Last year's 140 record erased a high 115 in 2007 and 102 in 2006.

Chiarelli said officials are concerned with increases this year at Fort Campbell, Fort Stewart and Schofield Barracks and are trying to learn why suicides rates are down at Fort Hood, Fort Bragg and Fort Drum.

At Fort Campbell in Kentucky there were 18, while at Fort Bragg, N.C., which has almost double the population, there have been six all year.

Using some bases as examples of the trend downward, Chiarelli said that of the 18 suicides reported this year at Fort Campbell, 11 of those were in the first four months of the year. At Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, there were seven all year so far — five in the first five months of the year and only two since.

The numbers kept by the service branches don't show the whole picture of war-related suicides because they don't include deaths after people have left the military. The Department of Veterans Affairs tracks those numbers and says there were 144 suicides among the nearly 500,000 service members who left the military from 2002-2005 after fighting in at least one of the wars.

The true incidence of suicide among military veterans is not known, according to a report last year by the Congressional Research Service. Based on numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the VA estimates that 18 veterans a day — or 6,500 a year — take their lives, but that number includes vets from all previous wars.

[SS_433]

People commit suicide when they feel things will never get better, when they are hopeless.

[SS_433]

Of course, the remedy is to give hope that there is 'a light at the end of the tunnel'.

[AttentionDeficit]

My heart goes out to all soldiers facing trying times, and to their families.

[wyodutch]

Your "heart going out" doesn't cut it... Instead, do something to really show you care. Either enlist and help 'em out, or do something to end these moronic wars.

[longtree-2009]

140 out of how many total? they are all volunteers. could they have already been suffering from some mental disorders before volunteering? are volunteers given psychological tests to ensure, as best as possible, that they are mentally capable for military service? are they given brain scans to determine any abnormalities before being sworn into the military? but really, 140 out of how many total military personnel? are other countries having the same problem or is it just the usa? lots of data missing from these reports on suicides, and perhaps, something is flawed in the whole process.

[formrusmcsgt]

People who have never faced combat have no clue whatsoever as to how justifiable combat needs to be in the first place for warriors to conduct same without self-destructing in the process.

The likes of dubya and Cheney (who both shirked their own resposibilitites during the Vietnam War) sending warriors into needless combat strictly for ideological or corporate gain makes a warrior feel prostituted and the suicide rates since 2003 reflect same.

Obama is now fighting inherited, needless wars, and the suicide rates will not achieve normalcy until our warriors are no longer asked to prostitute themselves for corporate gain.

Warriors sign contracts to defend the country, not be prostituted.

[daffy64]

Amen.

[justdatrooth]

This isn't surprising. Our president and our congressional leaders are sheep who risk our troop's lives at the whim of popularity polls. US Military morale is at the lowest it has ever been as this phony Community Organizer plays at being a military leader.

We have just witnessed our first terrorist attack on American soil in over 8 years. That this would happen on Obama's "compassionate watch" and that it will happen again were highly predictable.

[formrusmcsgt]

You need to check on the invasion dates for both wars, sonny.

Both occurred on dubya's watch, not Obama's....

And dubya couldn't get it done in 8 years, so it now falls to Obama.

If I were a neocon as you obviously are, I'd be thankful that someone was cleaning up what my idol caused through sheer ineptness....

[exusmc8541]

This is an awful subject but one that must be addressed. The biggest difference between the service branch of the Army and Marine as well as others is training. If we send our young men and woman out to do the job of war and battle they must be prepared.
Second when you tell a member of service they have one deployment and then when they hit that deadline turn them around and send them back because we are stretched too thin in our military forces what does this do for there confidence.
America is a military force designed to destroy an enemy and leave.
May I ask who in this great world of ours appointed us the American people as the world police force?
So my answer is simple look at the training from start to finish of the USMC and compare this with what other service members recieve.
You may find your answer there.
If you feel that the great country of America must go to war to get a job done. Fine send us in that is what we are here for.
But once the job is done and your enemy is destroyed go home.
Do not give them millions of dollars worth of our own front line fighting equipment and the training to use them. Like we always do.
And stop sending all of our hard earned money over to them to rebuild there country and make it better than it ever was.... We could use that right here at home or has no one noticed.
Bring our fighting men and woman home and give them a job well done pat on the back.
So the next time the country in question acts up and we have to go take care of business we are not staring down the barrel of our own hardware. By the way this is how we got into this mess in the first place. We gave those people the tools to fight the Russians and now they turn our training and tools against us.
Just some thoughts from an Ex Marine who did his part for our country.
I am sorry if you do not agree. Answer for this question is training.

[1American]

exusmc8541, You Sir, are quite correct. Thank you for your service to America. I believe that you "are" a Marine and not just one of many on this site that claim military service to add weight to their comments.

[inventagod]

When they find that 9/11 was all a huge Pentagoon lie...
They find who they are really working for.

[jsf14]

Are soldiers with emotional or mental problems sent to better psychiatrists than dr. Hasan?

[ladyang]

10 seconds before Maj Hasan pulled the trigger, no one would have thought twice about talking to him about thier problems.