This year, as CNN reports. It would be the firs time since Vietnam, a prolonged war that had its ranks filled with draftees. This is significant. Under normal conditions the US Army (and the military in general) always maintains a significantly lower suicide rate than the national average.
I attribute this to three main reasons.
First, in the screening process. Any history of suicide attempts, depression, etc. bars you from joining.
The Army also has regular, required suicide prevention training. They also provide many outlets for help, and all leaders are required to look for signs an act upon them.
Lastly from basic training on up the Army trains its members to deal with stress, sometimes by actually applying it.
Without a doubt these measure are effective as historically the measures have worked.
But now, as CNN reports, this could be the first time since Vietnam that our suicide rates exceed the national average.
WASHINGTON (CNN)
The rate of suicides among-active duty soldiers is on pace to surpass both last year's numbers and the rate of suicide in the general U.S. population for the first time since the Vietnam war, according to U.S. Army officials.
As of August, 62 Army soldiers have committed suicide, and 31 cases of possible suicide remain under investigation, according to Army statistics. Last year, the Army recorded 115 suicides among its ranks, which was also higher than the previous year.
Army officials said that if the trend continues this year, it will pass the nation's suicide rate of 19.5 people per 100,000, a 2005 figure considered the most recent by the government.
The reported numbers are for active duty, but I'm curious how the reserves and national guard numbers are fairing.
The rise can be attributed to the increased pace of combat operations, the number of deployments and financial and family troubles connected with deployments, Army officials said.
"Army leaders are fully aware that repeated deployments have led to increased distress and anxiety for both soldiers and their families," Secretary of the Army Pete Geren said. "This stress on the force is validated by recent studies of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans reporting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression."
An important note is that they included the anxiety of Soldier and their families. A lot of people think of war as simple combat stress. There's also a huge strain on families. Like Soldiers missing their own children being born, or imagine coming home and your own kid doesn't even remember you. This can happen with very young children. Not to single out women but I've seen a LOT of spouses who cheat, clean out their Soldier's bank accounts and basically toss them aside while they're deployed. The point is when you're gone for a year, home for a year and then gone for a year; your relationships better be rock solid. Either that or just be single with no emotional ties.
And aside from family you can also ache for the basic freedoms you took for granted while you were living at home. This is not meant to be a "cry me a river" type of thing. But it's important to be aware about the human aspect of war. It goes beyond just combat stress, which itself, is not insignificant.
According to the VA, about 46 of 100,000 males between the ages of 18 and 29 utilizing VA services committed suicide in 2006, compared with about 27 the year before.
For female veterans in the same age group, about three in 100,000 killed themselves in 2006, compared with about eight per 100,000 in 2005.
The suicide rate for males is also higher than for the general United States population in 2005. The number for the general population is about 20 people per 100,000, according to the VA numbers. Numbers were not available for the 2006 general male population suicides.
In my opinion this is due to males-only filling the combat arms MOS's. Combat arms jobs generally breed a more stressful environment, especially during war but even during peacetime.
Veterans Secretary James Peake said the department would try to reduce the number of suicides by using recommendations by the mental health expert panel.
"The report of this blue-ribbon panel, and other efforts under way, will ensure VA mobilizes its full resources to care for our most vulnerable veterans," Peake said in a statement.
Although on this blog I've spoken about many of my personal opinions, by sharing this report I'm not attempting to make any sort of political statement. This is public information and I feel whether it be good, bad or ugly, our country should always be up to date on matters concerning the military that defends her.