When I was in Afghanistan one of the biggest issues we had to deal with was suicides and suicide attempts.
Biggest reasons were that they had relationship and/or money issues back home.
This one caught my attention.
U.S. military officials are investigating the apparent suicide of a Navy SEAL commander in Afghanistan.
Navy SEAL Cdr. Job W. Price, 42, of Pottstown, Pa., died Saturday of a non-combat-related injury while supporting stability operations in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.
A U.S. military official said the death "appears to be the result of suicide." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the death is still being investigated.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
It's damn common.
According to a Pentagon report, more American active service members have killed themselves in the first six months of 2012 than in the first six months of any of the previous 11 years, The Associated Press reported.
http://www.armytimes.com/...
We say its the stress of deployments, the PTSD, TBI and even the quality of the food but I think is it much simpler.
All healthy humans think about suicide, and even homicide, from time to time. We just don't act on these thoughts.
When we become isolated we become depressed and the thoughts become louder.
If you have a ready weapon on you, it becomes way to easy to let that moment get you.
With nearly half of all suicides in the military having been committed with privately owned firearms, the Pentagon and Congress are moving to establish policies intended to separate at-risk service members from their personal weapons.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Military and police always have ready access to weapons and many have personal weapons because of the military/police subculture.
We need to discuss gun ownership and links to suicide.