US military suicides surged this year to a record high among active duty troops, continuing a deadly trend that Pentagon officials say is frustrating and they are struggling to counter.
The army, navy and marine corps all saw the rate of suicides go up as well as the overall numbers, with only the air force showing a decrease, according to data newly released by the Pentagon. Suicides among members of the reserves and the national guard also grew.
The difficulties involved in identifying service members with possible problems and finding ways to prevent suicides were underscored earlier this month when the navy reported that three crew members who served on the USS George HW Bush took their own lives within a week.
Asked about the deaths in the crew of the aircraft carrier, the defense secretary, Mark Esper, said: “I wish I could tell you we have an answer to prevent further, future suicides in the armed services. We don’t. We are caught up in what some call a national epidemic of suicide among our youth.”
The number of suicides across the military increased from 511 in 2017 to 541 in 2018. According to the Pentagon, the most at-risk population is young enlisted men, and at least 60% of the time they chose a gun as their suicide method. Army suicides went from 114 to 139, while the marines went from 43 to 58 and the navy went from 65 to 68. The air force dipped from 63 to 60.
“Our numbers are not moving in the right direction,” said Elizabeth Van Winkle, director of the Pentagon’s office of force resiliency. She said that most of the military rates are comparable to civilians, but added, “that’s hardly comforting”.
The rate of suicide among active-duty troops was 24.8 per 100,000 people in 2018. In 2017, that figure was 21.9 per 100,000 troops. Five years ago, the suicide rate among troops was 18.5 per 100,000 service members.
That compares with 18.2 people per 100,000 for all Americans ages 17 to 59. The report maintains that, adjusting for age and gender, the military’s rate is roughly the same as American society.
Military and defense leaders expressed dismay and a resolve to do more to increase resilience in the force, train service members how to handle stress better and encourage troops to seek help when they need it. Van Winkle said the military is also looking at increasing efforts to train troops on the safe storage of firearms and medication.
She and Karen Orvis, director of the suicide prevention office, said recognizing service members who may be struggling or at risk of taking their own lives is very difficult, and that sometimes suicide is a sudden, impulsive decision with little warning.
They also acknowledged that service members are still reluctant to come forward and seek help.
“Just as we talk about physical fitness, marksmanship, training and education, marines must also be comfortable discussing life’s struggles, mental wellness and suicide,” said Gen David Berger, commandant of the marine corps. “We must create a community where seeking help and assistance are simply normal, important decisions marines and sailors make.”
This year for the first time, the Pentagon included statistics for suicides by military spouses and dependents. Van Winkle said the most recent numbers available were for 2017, but officials are working to get better at collecting family data.
According to the report, there were 186 families that had suicides – 123 were spouses and 63 were dependents between the ages of 12 and 23.
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Looks like the troops are waking up to the fact that their only mission is to make the MIC rich.
WAR, WHO IS IT GOOD FOR?
LOCKHEED MARTIN
HALLIBURTIN
BOEING
RAYTHEON
NORTHROP GRUMMAN
SUPPORT OUR BRAVE CEO’S
DON’T QUESTION WARS
OH YEAH ! FIGHTING FOR THE ARROGANCE OF THEIR POWER OVER US.
The unforeseen consequence is that military leaders are looking toward their NEXT boss to make sure decisions help that guy sell more weapons to his current boss.
After the One Year hiatus after retirement, that is… wink, wink.
Maybe they are realizing that they are just pawns. The stress of having your friends killed or killing the ‘enemy ‘ in an endless ‘war’ can lead people over the edge. The existential enemies are right here in America in places like. D.C. stealing our money and freedoms.
Duh.
Vets can’t seek or say shit about mental health, including suicide, or they will get Red Communist Flagged.
22
Please explain red communist flagged. What difficulties will they endure?
Also, was it you who posted a link for “The 29 questions”? If so, can you post that again please?
See the old Section 8 comment I made.
It’s been replaced by more recent regulations governing discharge from active duty for personality disorders and emotional/mental/medical health reasons. AR 635-200, Ch.5 para 13.
If you refer yourself to “mental hygiene” for personal problems it “flags” you for promotions, assignments, and other favorable actions and basically hamstrings your career progression.
Simply being retired from the service (or discharged, whatever) will make you a target for the socialists / communists – and the first thing they want to do is take away your guns. After all, you have been trained and gained experience in USING them – you are their greatest nightmare. You should understand the Constitution, and recognize how Red Flag laws and Hate Speech laws are patently unConstitutional – you KNOW enough to make their illegalities obvious, and could convince others WHY. You probably have seen combat and lived through it – you KNOW enough to make their Antifa children shit bricks, and one or two of you could neutralize a company of Antifa just using sniper tactics. You have designed, built and manned fortifications that would stop an uncivil mob cold – how can they rule YOU?
And by the way, Donkey, “red communist flagged” probably refers to the fact that ALL communist governments have started by registering and then confiscating private firearms – like the current fashion, “red flag laws” do, by violating the first, second, fourth and fifth Amendments at the same time.
The Japanese have a name for what is going on with American military personnel, they call it karojisatsu, which means suicide from overwork. I saw this happen with my husband. When you add long hours, physical fatigue, stress and hostility in the work environment it ends up being a deadly combination; people end up losing their big picture perspective. The extreme mental fatigue causes people to lose hope, become confused, and believe that suicide is the solution to whatever they are struggling with. If you add psychotropic anti-depression drugs to the mix with the leading side-effect being suicidal thoughts; well it just gets more deadly. My advice if you are starting to feel like you want to end your own life is, PLEASE DON’T DO IT! Take a break, go for a hike, go for a swim, reconnect with family and friends, disconnect yourself from electronic media, talk about what you going through with parents, siblings, friends, someone, seriously do not do it!
Given the fact we now have more young vets created from the Forever Wars you’d think people would realize what you’ve experienced. Unfortunately, it’s a small minority of the same people doing Groundhog Day over and over again and it’s the people writing the stats on suicide who have no fucking clue … or rather they don’t want to admit the truth.
The wife wonders why I get livid angry and shout at the idiots on TV. I’ve practically ceased listening to commercial public radio or TV news because all it takes is 5 minutes of PC BS to piss me off nowadays. If she only knew the truth … but then again, some people have to live it in order to understand.
I am literally, hopelessly warped by certain things but alive. I know some who can’t say that because they didn’t have the opportunity to say “no”.
The wife got irritated when I read her an article last night – she wanted cuddling, not “lecturing”. OK – but it’s apparent she won’t really understand until it hits her personally. Once we are holed up fighting off the starving, desperate mob of unemployed citizens who have nothing left, she might understand – but won’t it be rather late then?
I hope I can prep enough by myself to get us through the Crunch, since she can’t believe Kunstler’s Long Emergency might last – from then on.
Maybe people are dumber than I thought. who hasn’t through television and the news figure out what a dumbass decision to volunteer for the military is at this time. other times also. They Volunteered.
Suck it up.
Many join because they have a family they can’t care for. The military offers housing, medical, dental, etc and employment they can’t find anywhere else. I wouldn’t be so smug about “suck it up”.
I was in charge of hundreds of enlisted and officers. Many had horrific stories of abuse, broken/ tortured upbringings- alienation from families, financial stressors, etc. Most are doing the best they can with what they have been given and are dam good people.
Steve.
Exactly. It’s just too easy to rag on kids whose lives we know little about.
Until recently I said there is no more excuse since Nam exposed the fraud of our banker wars. Then I took another look at how old the recruits since 911 were. Born post 1980 they were never educated about any thing, much less the trickery of banksters and their ilk. Being promised tuition etc. Few fathers and out to lunch mothers etc.
I linked a video, available on You Tube, of a group of survival school team members going through various stages of SERE training. I hope Admin posts it, as it will give me an opportunity to discuss my own training at Fairchild and how different the training many others received… for instance, paratroopers skipped the training at Fairchild because they needed to really know how to survive.
Not just how to survive for a week.
I imagine the morale issues are the same for all branches. When the military is used as a social engineering laboratory, you can’t expect the Mission to remain the focus.
That is disastrous for Morale.
It is an all-volunteer military. Simple solution – stop volunteering until there is actually a point.