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MILITARY

U.S. Military Suicides At Record High

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta calls it an epidemic

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by Lisa Fine

Staff Writer t

Image: AP

Suicides in the U.S. military reached a record 349 last year, which is the highest it has been since the Pentagon began closely tracking the numbers in 2001.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has called military suicides an epidemic. The number of suicides in active duty service members is up from 301 in 2011 and exceeds the number of Americans who died in Afghanistan last year, which was 295, the Associated Press reports.

Experts say the problem has complex causes and reflects the strain on military personnel. Veterans could experience depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or substance abuse problems after combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Service members may also have increased anxieties over transitioning to life back home, or about the prospect of having to find different jobs as troops are brought back home and defense budgets are cut, the article said.

The Pentagon analyzes the circumstances of military suicides. In 2011, the most recent year examined, military members who took their own lives tended to be white men under the age of 25, in junior enlisted ranks, with less than a college education. The suicide rate for divorced service members was 55 percent higher than for those who were married, the AP reported.

Via the Associated Press

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What should be done to help prevent military suicides?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • ConserveUSA
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    Yes, America needs better mental health for all of Our Men & Women in the Armed Forces who defend our country. The Vietnam Vets and matter of fact, all of our Men & Women Vets are treated like dirt. There is strong need to for better Mental Health Care in Our Country!
  • John_Matrix
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    @MBernard

    Thanks for the laugh, and Democrats aren't? The whole mentality of liberals is that society is to blame for a criminals actions, never the person who committed the crime.
  • View all 9 replies >
  • Thunderchicken
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    Maybe we stop trying to be the world's police force? When we put soldiers on the battlefield it should be to fight a war and the only goal should annihilation of the enemy. These protracted limited engagements tie our soldier's hands and cause undue stress.
  • stepped_in_it
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    Dang, I was gonna say that! Amazing that we only started this in 2001....when we got into these 2 protracted limited engagements! Wonder what the suicide rate was for WW1, WW2, Korean and 'nam soldiers? Though not protracted wars (except 'nam), they were very upfront and personal wars...Either way, time to bring 'em home and stop with this policing of the world (at least with the "foot" soldier).
  • Thunderchicken
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    @stepped_in_it

    One of the things about WW2. After your tour was up, your troop usually came back as a unit on a boat. This gave the soldiers time to decompress and talk about things. In Nam, we treated soldiers more like they were chess pieces.(Pick them up and plop them down.) I think from that perspective, things are better today. But fighting and dying inside a box of arbitrary limitations isn't any way to run an army.
  • Rocker
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    @Thunderchicken - Now this is just my thoughts from personal experience. The wounds from the battlefield are not just physical, they are mental as well. I think Rudyard Kipling and others illustrate this quite well in their poems and writings. Using that statement, the psychological effects from battle have been around for some time. The underlying effect is noted by society and the behavior is described as 'came home wild as bucks','wanderlust','recklessn ess', etc. as well as substance abuse. Individuals deal with it in different ways. My belief is that the issue has, is, and always will exist. The difference today is that the medical field recognizes it and the data is tracked. I knew GIs that were 'back in the world' less than 36 hours from battlefield conditions.

    Basically - I have no answer for how one deals with their personal demons. Perhaps some decompression and transitional time for observation is needed. Basic training and preparedness is used prior to; nothing afterward. That's about all I have to say about it, except I will share the following Kipling verse in ending:

    "God and soldier, we adore,
    in time of danger, not before.
    The danger passed and all things righted,
    God is forgotten and the soldier slighted."
  • Thunderchicken
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    @Rocker

    I never served but I've talked to my dad about it. He was in WW2 in the South Pacific and came back still pretty hyped up. From what I can gather, him and my mom (she also served) were quite a pair. One of the things that mellowed them out was having a kid to take care of. And one of the things I noticed while growing up was that the couples that didn't have kids were much "cooler" than my parents. As I've told my kids, "Mom and I weren't this boring till you came along." ;-)
  • View all 7 replies >
  • DogLady_1
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    Yes, and we can take care of future generations of soldiers by ending the perpetual warring so we don't have one generation of PTSD veterans raising another!
  • DogLady_1
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    Well, we have now been in perpetual warring mode for a hundred years now... what did we expect to happen?! I saw this coming, and I think everyone else should have too, especially the warmongers who sent them to battle. When you have military people who are dedicated to defending their country, and we abuse their devotion by throwing them into unnecessary wars for indefinite periods of time, this is the blow-back, and none of us should act surprised at the numbers who are checking out. In a culture of alcoholism and untreated trauma, it makes perfect sense. Why do we think many veterans are homeless? Because they have checked out! They're done and they want it to be over. Suicide is just one more way to do that. If we want to see those numbers drop, then we will have to start using our heads to solve problems instead of futilely using bullets, and using our brave protectors as cannon fodder.
  • PNWest
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    Better mental health care for our soldiers and a massive attack on the Military Industrial Complex that gets us into these endless wars that kill and injure our loved ones and do nothing for America.
  • Mia
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    Wasnt the terrorist who murdered our soldiers at ft hood a psychiatrist for the very soldiers he murdered?
  • u
    culinary
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    Let me see...first, it is not our job to police the world. 99.9% of the people in these countries where our soldiers are sent hate us. This cant be good for morale when they give their all just to be #$%& on. Next, the US government needs to reprioritize how they deal with veterens coming home....better mental and physical health treatment, programs to help veterens reintegrate into the everyday life they are coming back to. But, its the government. What do you expect. Last, I have never been in the military, but I'm sure the support systems across the country could be better. Our soldiers main job should be to protect and defend the US, the US constitution, and its interests. NOT to go to every hole in the wall in the world to fight battles politicians think are in their best interest, or rather their pockets best interests.
  • DogLady_1
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    "War has all the characteristics of socialism most conservatives hate: Centralized power, state planning, false rationalism, restricted liberties, foolish optimism about intended results, and blindness to unintended secondary results." –Joseph Sobran
  • MadAmerican
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    First of all many soldiers were ordered to spend consecutive tours. Second, those that were wounded were not given the proper care and treatment. third-employers still refuse to hire vetereans and refuse to give those reservist and guardsmen who were called in their jobs back. When you serve and come back your government and the public does owe you. Yes they volunteered but this is where the government once again broke their promise. Alot of this veterans lost legs, arms, wives, and their homes. So what did they have to live for when they didn't feel human or wanted? But you let one idiot walk into a movie theater and shoot the place up and the government and the press are all to happy to address the issue. It's a matter of sensationalism and grandstanding. But they are happy to hide the disfigured and emotionally wrecked soldier.
  • Fishbone345
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    "third-employers still refuse to hire vetereans and refuse to give those reservist and guardsmen who were called in their jobs back"
    Actually, this is very much against the law and if someone is doing it, they need to be reported.
  • MadAmerican
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    @Fishbone345 Many companies are doing it and the law refuses to prosecute. Watch the news when the media elects to tell a story that means something.
  • kathyparsell
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    Soldiers aren't trained to be diplomats but today's soldiers are often expected to be. No proof but I think the same problem existed in Vietnam. You kill this one who looks and acts like an enemy and wants to kill you, but you can't kill that one that looks and acts like an enemy and wants to kill you because you need to convince him to be your country's friend when we go away and leave them here to the distruction we wrought.
    Come home to children you don't know or don't know you, to no job. Along with mandatory mental health counseling upon return soldiers should either have a guarenteed job or paid retraining for one.
  • Granny_Grey
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    Actually under USERRA they are to have the job (or one equal to with the same pay) as when they left. It is very different for a returning service member to fit back in to the unregulated society at times. For so many years the individual has been told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. There are solid rules and regulations to follow when suddenly there is total chaos to the world.
    We do need more health care and mental health services for those members who are returning from armed conflict. Regardless of whether or not it is called a war by Congress.
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
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    If you had to report to such horrible leadership and even more so, put your life on the line for that leadership, your head would be more suicidal too. I feel very bad for our armed forces personnel who have to commit their lives to a maddening agenda that they don't understand. First, let's have a surge of forces in Afghanistan and force people already on two or three tours already to do a few more tours. They after you do that, a month or so later, bring half of those troops home without completing the mission and leave the rest in Afghanistan as sitting ducks.

    Let me just take a moment out to say thank you to every last member of our armed forces for the sacrifices you make to defend our nation. I, as well as my family, and everyone else in this once great nation owe you a huge debt of gratitude. I want to especially thank those who soldiered on through this abysmal administration and continued to serve our nation. It had to be extraordinarily difficult for you to serve this last president. Thank you!
  • Dan_Tien
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    Mental health help after discharge will not help personnel who kill themselves while still in theater. No one in history has ever subjugated and pacified Afghanistan. Get out.
  • DARSB
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    There's a long history of the military grappling with internal problems. More mature Politixians may remember when PTSD was called "battle fatigue" - and it's hard to say we are any better today at treating the invisible wounds than in WWII.
  • u
    HungryJoe87111
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    For one thing, get our men and women out of Afghanistan, and any residuals in Iraq, or any Middle Eastern country. They not only have to contend with an armed enemy, but armed pseudo-allies who murder them any chance they get. Bringing our men and women back will not only do wonders for their MENTAL health, but for the USA's economic health as well. Get them out of places like Japan, Germany, Okinawa, Turkey, etc. where their dollars go into the local economies and US taxpayers pick up the bill for civilian labor like KPs in messhalls, civilian labor groups in places like Germany etc. and our tax dollars don't even go through our middlemen service members but directly into foreign economies. Bring them ALL home now!
  • Fishbone345
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    @HungryJoe87111 On this we completely agree. Something that was a main talking point of Ron Paul (something that endeared him to me in the first place) and Gary Johnson and other Libertarians as well.
    I know what they swear to do, I swore it as well. Lets bring them home where they can do what they signed up to do. Defend our borders.
  • u
    HungryJoe87111
    !
    @Fishbone345 Gary Johnson used to be our Governor. I really resented the heck out of the mainstream media for shutting him out and ignoring his campaign. He would have made a very good President. He's a very good, honest, and capable person. Thanks for your comments, Fishbone!
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