The situation with military suicides doesn’t seem to be improving: July was marked by the most such suicides in a one-month period in recent memory.
According to USA Today, last month there were 38 confirmed or suspected suicides in the Army, more than one a day.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-08-09/army-suicides/57096238/1
And at this point, Army suicides are outpacing last year’s figures, USA Today reported. To date there have been 116, compared with 95 during the same year-ago period.
And the profile of the soldiers who commit suicide most often has changed. The Army reported that there are now more suicides among veteran soldiers than younger enlisted men and women, with 54 suicides of enlisted soldiers who were sergeant or higher, compared with 46 for lower-ranking soldiers, according to USA Today.
Sadly, suicide — not combat or car accidents — is the biggest cause of death for enlisted personnel in the Army now.
Post-traumatic stress, depression, and the aftermath of concussions are weighing heavily on the Army, where many troops have been in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result, the number of military suicides is soaring. These soldiers want to put an end to their emotional pain.
In a previous story, USA Today wrote about research done on soldiers at Fort Carson, Colo., who had tried to kill themselves. The most common reason given by the 72 soldiers questioned was that they wanted to put an end to their emotional misery, according to USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-07-10/army-study-soldiers-suicides/56136192/1
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