Army suicides at a record high last month

**Curt James** · 08-16-2011, 07:39 PM

Army suicides at a record high last month

August 16, 2011

By Larry Shaughnessy

The U.S. Army reported 32 suicides and potential suicides in the month of July, the highest total since the service began publicly releasing such statistics 2 ½ years ago. And the problem is even worse than the Pentagon’s news releases would indicate.

Each month the Army sends out a press report saying how many soldiers have committed suicide.

According to those news releases, as of July 31 of this year 151 soldiers had apparently taken their own lives.

But a document obtained by CNN shows that the Army has actually counted 163 suicides this year.

The Army counts them in terms of confirmed suicides and “potential” suicides, which are deaths that are suspected of being suicide but the official investigation has not been completed. Most of the time, potential suicides are confirmed as actual suicides.

As for why 12 of the suicides were not included in the news releases, Lt. Col. Laurel Devine explained that sometimes, long after the news releases go out, investigators realize a soldier’s death is at least a “potential” suicide.

The problem may also come from the fact that of the four branches of service, the Army is the most transparent about the issue of suicide.

The Army is the only branch that sends out a monthly news release, while the other services will release the suicide information only when asked. “Every suicide represents a tragic loss to our Army and the Nation. While the high number of potential suicides in July is discouraging, we are confident our efforts aimed at increasing individuals’ resiliency, while reducing incidence of at-risk and high-risk behavior across the Force, are having a positive impact,”*Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff and its point man on the issue of suicide, said in a statement.

“We absolutely recognize there is much work to be done and remain committed to ensuring our people are cared for and have ready access to the best possible programs and services.”

Chiarelli spends much of his time dealing with the suicide issue and looking for answers, in part because the problem appears to be much worse for the Army than the other branches. So far in 2011, the Air Force has had 28 suicides, the Marines 21 and the Navy 33. Even though those three services have a combined total force equal to the Army’s, their number of suicides are about half the Army’s 163.

No one knows why it’s worse among the Army other than the fact that it’s the biggest branch of service.

“Any act of suicide is a tragedy,” said Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for the Pentagon. “It’s often very difficult to have any sort of causal relationship to these trends. Each one of them is an individual set of circumstances that range from broken relationship to stress from deployments.”

338 Comments

1. From the Land of Obama Trama
August 16th, 2011 8:16 am ET
Good thing Obama fixed that pesky DADT problem this one can wait.

2. J
August 16th, 2011 8:23 am ET
“No one knows why it’s worse among the Army other than the fact that it’s the biggest branch of service.” Um, how about the fact that the army is the only branch that sits in a combat zone for longer than six months? Air Force and Marines rarely stay in a combat zone longer than six to nine months, and I can tell you from personal experience months nine to twelve are the hardest to get through. The navy can spend that much time on ships, but I imagine they have plenty of events and fun stuff to do when they get off work: there is no getting off of work in Iraq or Afghanistan for practically the entire time you are there. This seems self-evident to me, I can’t understand why it isn’t to the people creating this article or the people who’s job it is to make sense of these stats…

From CNN Blogs

**Prince** · 08-16-2011, 08:40 PM

sad.

**Muscle_Girl** · 08-16-2011, 08:58 PM

I want to know where these suicides are taking place. Are they oveseas, military hospitals, soldiers on leave. Injuries and deaths are a higher % in the Army compared to Navy and Air Force? I would think the majority are due to stress/emotional/mental issues. As for July, what significance does the month hold for the Army?

I think is more sad that these reports have only been released for just over 2 years.

**Curt James** · 08-16-2011, 11:33 PM

Originally Posted by Muscle_Girl

I want to know where these suicides are taking place. Are they oveseas, military hospitals, soldiers on leave. Injuries and deaths are a higher % in the Army compared to Navy and Air Force? I would think the majority are due to stress/emotional/mental issues. As for July, what significance does the month hold for the Army?

I think is more sad that these reports have only been released for just over 2 years.

Haven't found that specific info, however here are some related videos.

**mario_ps2** · 08-17-2011, 05:54 AM

stupid government and their politics..

**OMEGAx** · 08-17-2011, 06:00 AM

thankyou Rumsfled, cheney, and bush

fucking monsters

**KelJu** · 08-17-2011, 06:16 AM

Oh yeah, the good ole conservatives who love to mindlessly chant how much they love and support the troops, yet they cut the VA budget by billions right when the VA was asking for more funds to handle the influx of injured troops coming back from the middle east.

Even better, none of the conservative voters in the US made a stink about it. They need to change the words of their patriotic drivel to "We support the healthy troops, but fuck um if they get injured". But hey, I guess that doesn't exactly roll of the tongue, and I am sure it would be tough to fit on a bumper sticker.

**DOMS** · 08-17-2011, 09:00 AM

Originally Posted by OMEGAx

thankyou Rumsfled, cheney, and bush

fucking monsters

And kudos to Obama for keeping his promise to get us out of the wars.

**Curt James** · 08-17-2011, 09:55 AM

Originally Posted by DOMS

And kudos to Obama for keeping his promise to get us out of the wars.

I see what you did there.

I can tell you from personal experience months nine to twelve are the hardest to get through. The navy can spend that much time on ships, but I imagine they have plenty of events and fun stuff to do when they get off work: there is no getting off of work in Iraq or Afghanistan for practically the entire time you are there.

We had reel to reel movies on the messdeck when I served.

Also had VHS tapes played over the ship's CCTV system, episodes of popular TV show and movies.

CCTV also provided music.

Today, I believe sailors have Internet access.

Plus, I'm not sure if Navy personnel get any side trips for port calls. Either on the way over or before their return to home port.

Definitely would not recommend Army enlistment, but I enjoyed my five years in the Navy.

**IronAddict** · 08-17-2011, 10:10 AM

Oh, the people of this country get it. And the people higher up get it too. But, the fact remains, they just don't give a shiite and that's apparent.

It's a volunteer army, if men freely give themselves up and take their own lives it's their own fault. Cause it's not what you've done for me, it's what have you done for me lately.

Just step into a VA hospital and pay attention. This is the kind of shiite you hear.

phuqs

**DOMS** · 08-17-2011, 10:11 AM

Originally Posted by Curt James

Definitely would not recommend Army enlistment, but I enjoyed my five years in the Navy.

**IronAddict** · 08-17-2011, 10:18 AM

Originally Posted by Curt James

I see what you did there.

We had reel to reel movies on the messdeck when I served.

Also had VHS tapes played over the ship's CCTV system, episodes of popular TV show and movies.

CCTV also provided music.

Today, I believe sailors have Internet access.

Plus, I'm not sure if Navy personnel get any side trips for port calls. Either on the way over or before their return to home port.

Definitely would not recommend Army enlistment, but I enjoyed my five years in the Navy.

I got to make believe I was a mole & and I phuquin lived in a hole.

That shiite sounds like summer camp to me. And you got 3 squares too, and 2nds. And a clean bed to sleep in. What's wrong with me

**SloppyJ** · 08-17-2011, 10:29 AM

I assume a lot of these happen while they are deployed?

**Wookiemonster** · 08-17-2011, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by SloppyJ

I assume a lot of these happen while they are deployed?

Nope. The occur more often in the months leading up to a deployment and in the months following Homecoming.

Just last week a friends Husband walked into the ER at Jackson and said that he felt like he hand no control over himself and wanted to die. They send him home and told him to TRY and get an apointment with Mental Health the next morning.

His wife spent all night on suicide watch because the Army can't be bothered with taking care of their own.

**SloppyJ** · 08-17-2011, 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by Wookiemonster

Nope. The occur more often in the months leading up to a deployment and in the months following Homecoming.

Just last week a friends Husband walked into the ER at Jackson and said that he felt like he hand no control over himself and wanted to die. They send him home and told him to TRY and get an apointment with Mental Health the next morning.

His wife spent all night on suicide watch because the Army can't be bothered with taking care of their own.

That's fucked up bro. But I've heard stories from a friend about how he felt when he came home. It's some crazy shit. I cannot imagine what it feels like to come home and just leave all of that behind.... Reminds me of this song...

"Scared to make it out alive now murder's all I know"

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1d...fold-mia_music

**Wookiemonster** · 08-17-2011, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by SloppyJ

That's fucked up bro. But I've heard stories from a friend about how he felt when he came home. It's some crazy shit. I cannot imagine what it feels like to come home and just leave all of that behind.... Reminds me of this song...

"Scared to make it out alive now murder's all I know"

The worst part is without help it won't get better. My Husband has been out since '03...and he still deals with Suriviors Guilt, Mild PTSD and this heat wave has only made those issues worse.

I get so

when I talk about this stuff...I'm going to go breathe for a few minutes.

**myCATpowerlifts** · 08-17-2011, 10:49 AM

^ MIA is one of my favorite songs...

**myCATpowerlifts** · 08-17-2011, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by Wookiemonster

The worst part is without help it won't get better. My Husband has been out since '03...and he still deals with Suriviors Guilt, Mild PTSD and this heat wave has only made those issues worse.

I get so

when I talk about this stuff...I'm going to go breathe for a few minutes.

tell him to smoke pot/take shrooms/medidate

**SloppyJ** · 08-17-2011, 10:50 AM

M.I.A. is the bomb!

**OMEGAx** · 08-17-2011, 11:10 AM

the whole multiple deployment thing was all Rumsfelds design

**Wookiemonster** · 08-17-2011, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by myCATpowerlifts

tell him to smoke pot/take shrooms/medidate

No.

**AdmiralRichard** · 08-17-2011, 06:49 PM

**AdmiralRichard** · 08-17-2011, 06:49 PM

Originally Posted by DOMS

And kudos to Obama for keeping his promise to get us out of the wars.

**LAM** · 08-17-2011, 09:19 PM

Originally Posted by Curt James

We had reel to reel movies on the messdeck when I served.

Also had VHS tapes played over the ship's CCTV system, episodes of popular TV show and movies.

CCTV also provided music.

Today, I believe sailors have Internet access.

Plus, I'm not sure if Navy personnel get any side trips for port calls. Either on the way over or before their return to home port.

Definitely would not recommend Army enlistment, but I enjoyed my five years in the Navy.

I was TAD on an FFG for a short period of time and we (the IC's) also had porn stashes but for the obvious reason where not allowed to broadcast those.

port calls are quite regular for surface navy, subsurface no such luck very few stops for security reasons.

If anyone has seen the movie Stop-Loss it explains a lot and i'm sure contributes a lot to the increasing suicide rate that and the fact that those wars in the middle east are totally illegal. they have nothing at all to do with "democracy" or protecting the US. they are all about protecting the dollar hedge-money, the MIC and stock prices.

**LAM** · 08-29-2011, 12:21 AM

Soldier kills four, found dead in Pennsylvania - Yahoo! News

**crazyotter** · 08-29-2011, 09:44 AM

I don't know if it was because Marine deployments were shorter but I don't remember hearing about anyone on my base committing suicide. Army had it the worst tho. We would run 7 months and come home. They would be there over a year most of the time

**crazyotter** · 08-29-2011, 09:45 AM

Originally Posted by LAM

Soldier kills four, found dead in Pennsylvania - Yahoo! News

I saw that on the news. Crazy

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