Rate of US Army suicides at 20-year high
WASHINGTON (AP) - May 29, 2008 An Army official said Thursday that 115 troops committed suicide
in 2007, a nearly 13 percent increase over the previous year's 102.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because a full report
on the deaths wasn't being released until later Thursday.
About a quarter of the deaths occurred in Iraq.
The 115 confirmed deaths among active duty soldiers and National
Guard and Reserve troops that had been activated was a lower number
than previously feared. Preliminary figures released in January
showed as many as 121 troops might have killed themselves, but a
number of the deaths were still being investigated then and have
since been attributed to other causes, the officials said.
Suicides have been rising during the five-year-old war in Iraq
and nearly seven years of war in Afghanistan.
The 115 deaths last year and 102 in 2006 followed 85 in 2005 and
67 in 2004. The only Army records immediately available go back to
1990, and show no year with a higher number of suicides than 2007.
The figure in 1990 was 102.
More U.S. troops also died overall in hostilities in 2007 than
in any of the previous years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Overall
violence increased in Afghanistan with a Taliban resurgence and
overall deaths increased in Iraq, even as violence there declined
in the second half of the year.
Increasing the strain on the force last year was the extension
of deployments to 15 months from 12 months, a practice ending this
year.
The increases in suicides come despite a host of efforts to
improve the mental health of a force stressed by the long and
repeated tours of duty.
The efforts include more training and education programs, such
as suicide prevention programs and a program last year that taught
all troops how to recognize mental health problems in themselves
and their buddies. Officials also approved the hiring of more than
300 additional psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health
professionals and have so far hired 180 of them. They also have
added more screening to measure the mental health of troops.
Earlier this year, Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle, the deputy chief
of staff for personnel, directed a complete review of the Army's
suicide prevention program, according to the Army's Web site. He
called for a campaign that would make use of the best available
science, and would raise awareness of the problem.
"Since the beginning of the global war on terror, the Army has
lost over 580 soldiers to suicide, an equivalent of an entire
infantry battalion task force," the Army said in a suicide
prevention guide to installations and units that was posted in
mid-March on the site.
"This ranks as the fourth leading manner of death for soldiers,
exceeded only by hostile fire, accidents and illnesses," it said.
"Even more startling is that during this same period, 10 to 20
times as many soldiers have thought to harm themselves or attempted
suicide."
The numbers kept by the Army only show part of the picture
because they don't include guard and reserve troops who have
finished their active duty and returned home to their civilian
jobs.
The Department of Veterans Affairs tracks the number of suicides
among those who have left the military. It says there have been 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 veterans is not known,
according to a recent Congressional Research Service report. 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
own lives, but that number includes vets from all wars.