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Subscribe to RSSThere were 38 suspected suicides among active-duty and reserve soldiers in July, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Army.
That figure outpaces the 24 active-duty and reserve suicides the Army reported for the month of June and is the highest monthly number of suicides since record-keeping began a few years ago.
The Department of Defense did not attempt to explain the abrupt surge in suicides for the month of July in a statement announcing the figures.
"I do believe suicide is preventable," Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, vice chief of staff of the Army, said in the release. "To combat it effectively will require sophisticated solutions aimed at helping individuals to build resiliency and strengthen their life coping skills."
Related: Survivors of military suicide victims come together to grieve
Bruce Shahbaz, a medical analyst on the Army’s Suicide Prevention Task Force, told Time that experts did notice the deaths of non-commissioned officers outnumbered those of junior enlisted members for the first time since 2001. NCOs are more likely to be older, married and at home between deployments, a period of time that can be turbulent and exacerbate stress, according to Shahbaz.
"Issues like minor depression, anxiety and sleep disturbances -- those things that are kind of related to post-traumatic stress -- begin to surface after a service member has been home for more than a year, and start to reintegrate with their family … I liken it to a pot that’s on simmer -- having that person stay back home and reintegrate with their family sometimes allows that pot to boil over," Shahbaz told Time.
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The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), a non-profit organization that provides counseling resources to suicide survivors, estimates that each death personally impacts 10 people. TAPS said that each week, eight to 10 people grieving for a service member who died by suicide seek its services.
"We are deeply saddened by these numbers, and renew our commitment to support the families left behind who are grieving the death of soldiers by suicide," the organization said in a statement.
So far in 2012, the Army has confirmed 66 active-duty suicides and continues to investigate 50 more, for a total of 116 cases. There were 165 confirmed active-duty suicides in 2011.
Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at NBC News. Follow her on Twitter here.
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are ye washed in the crude slick? are ye white as snow jo or are ye black as liquid gold squids, troops do as you are told and be bold for fortunes untold.
What is it going to take for our government to realize that we have already wasted too much time, resources, and people on Arab messes since desert storm and then 911? The whole Mideastern region has worsened as the more we get involved. Why do we care more about other countries people than our own? You don't see China running around the world flexing its muscles. We have way more problems than just unemployment in this country. I truly believe this country is falling apart and if we don't start focusing more on our own problems as if they were an emergency we will end up like the roman empire.
From a conservative vet,
Lets take a look at the 20th century;
WWI, after the wars end, many vets had to march and protest that the gov backed off promises to help them in several ways. The marchers were met with armed troops with loaded weapons and locked bayonets. Many vets were killed.
WWII, the records are there if you wish to look. Some took thier lives, some flipped out killing or trying to kill others, many took to booze trying to forget, some started a group called "Hells Angels", some found drugs.
Korea, many commited suicide, booze was again a great medicine and a greater number found drugs.
Viet Nam, the biggy here was drugs, with drawing into themselves causing problems with family resulting in high divorce rates.
A soldier in combat lives as a animal, sees things that are just impossible to explain, sees death all around, smells death, lives with death day after day, minute after minute. When the fighting is over, if he is lucky, he may get a 6 minute interview asking him if he is okay. Then he receives a discharge or is forced out of the military due to down sizing.
To the general that stated they need "to strengthen life coping skills", SHAME ON YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No way will a career NCO go ask for help because he knows full well in one way or another his career is over. It would be hard for advancement or he may just be given a medical discharge. Or, there is the V.A hospitals, there is a adventure from hell. This country has a great history of crapping on our vets that need help.
To my friends on the left, please keep your silly comments to yourself and for all of us to join looking for ways to help them. I just wish for no more of my brothers and sisters that were in harms way to be cast aside as yesterdays newspaper.
No way will a career NCO go ask for help because he knows full well in one way or another his career is over. It would be hard for advancement or he may just be given a medical discharge
I couldn't agree more with this statement. My boyfriend has been battling depression since he got back from his deployment in 2010. He keeps telling me that he can't see anyone because it would ruin his career. He finally broke down and went to his his doctor who told him he can't guarantee this won't affect his clearance and the rest of his career. It's so sad that these men and women need this help and they feel they can't get it because it will jeopardize their careers.
On another note. My boyfriend was refered to another office who referred him to a third office before telling him that the third office would then decide what organization he should be referred to next. So he's on his third appointment in the past month and still hasn't spoken to anyone that can help him and he's given up.
we have to grow thicker skin, why are the concerns of oil and cruel invasions even though of. Bathe in the sweet crude and feel free from opression and aggression we deserve the gold and the oily slick. chimpy and romnier love the wall street tricks done with trick in the shale and the nightingale flitting it tale. Love the Oil and we deserves the Oil yes we does ma frinds.
Further proof that war makes the rich richer and destroys those who aren't. Young people join the military who aren't even going in with adult brains. Their lives haven't prepared them for what they have to face, and the military has FAILED to find a way to care for their soldiers. There is no other "field of work" in which the rates of domestic abuse, divorce, and suicide even come close. You take a young person who is little more than a child and break them down mentally and emotionally and turn them into trained killers. When they can't handle what they see... what they experience...who is there to guide them through this?? These young service men and women may be trained by the military, but haven't experience life yet as an adult.. working out how to deal with the every day stressors, let alone what they'll face in combat. To leave them hanging with only spotty 'services available' shows a lack of concern and commitment to what they have created.
In addition to relationships and marriages that fall apart when the soldier is away, you have to wonder if the ARMY gives a damn at all about soldiers dying -- here or "over there". MAJ Hasan killed 13 people in broad daylight back in 2009, and the gutless dungheap of a judge (COL Gross) is pissing his pants over Hasan's grooming habbits -- not prosecuting him via a trial. Talk about a FAG! Leaders who are WIMPS, rules and regs (tatoos ring a bell, anyone?) that change at the whim of these wimps. No one knows what the rules are going to be from one day to the next. And how do you declare a "victory" in this so-called war? Are the Taliban going to wave a white flag BEFORE we leave Afghanistan? The USSA government makes me puke. GUTLESS AND CLUELESS. And all of them criminals.
grow some bauls bouys. suck it up and giter done vern.
I was in the Viet Nam and I seen destruction and all sorts of devils in action. Military Corporations love these wars and love the money while they get rich at the expense of our boys and girls. In one year I seen more troops and vietnamese murdered than all twelve years we have been in Afghanistan and ICrack put together. Religious wars, Oil wars and TERST wars are all crazy.
Sure you were..............right. I call B.S.
All I can say is WOW to some of you people. Some of you have your boots on correctly whereas some of you...I'm surprised you are able to remember where the toilet is in your home.
Why does EVERYTHING in here have to be a political problem? Why does it always have to devolve into certain persons blaming something as serious as this is on a damn politician? REALLY? REALLY????!!!!
Political parties be damned, we are talking about fellow AMERICAN human beings that took their own lives or plan to do so and many of you are concerned with your political affiliation? Hell, most of the folks (who I am speaking to, not you normal people) would likely offer up your first born for the sake of your political party! This is one of the primary reasons our nation is in the state it is in. So few elected officials these days will step before their peers and say "Although it's against my party's interests, my constituents desire that I vote nay on this bill and I will do just that". Cowardice and wealth mongoring run OUR, that's right OUR government. And we have only ourselves to blame. WE continue to allow special interest groups to buy our elected officials. WE continue to look at "ones chosen party" as the only way to vote in fear of reprisal from said party (it's the only way they can get more than their six figure salary by God).
But this is about volunteers (all by the way are usually less than 25 years in age and have the maturity level of the equivalent) who stated that they would follow orders and 99.99% do. And we repay them with ripping his or her family apart with anywhere from 2-6 deployments each for mostly a year. Make no mistake they did volunteer, as did I myself, but there are limits as to how much a person can withstand. And a perfect way to alliterate this is look at our Special Forces Units. If everyone in the military were able to complete the training and execution of those units, we would train each and every troop to said standards. But we don't because we cannot.
I could care less about any of your special interest quibbles, but by God, we owe it to these troops to take care of them before it comes to a suicide article on the damn Internet.
Follow orders? 99.99%? This is based on what? The number of males wearing earrings? The number of males and females with more than 3 different colors of hair (even as high in rank as MAJ)? The number of males that report for duty (on post, mind you) that have not shaved lately (not counting those with "profiles", of course)? The number of MP's on guard duty with their heads up their butts texting away on their cell phone? The number of soldiers who do not know who the Secretary of Defense is? Do I need to give you more examples?
over 56,000 americans, men and women both died in "Viet Nam. All young and loved. Some were pulled into the police action and many others voluntered. It was a war we could have won if the cause was just, and the right reason.
I joined on my 19 birthday and spent the night in a bunker, scared, hungry, and very confused. I soon learned to grow a pair and do my job.
When My year was up I left Viet Nam without any debreifing and arrived in the us the same way. I day we were fighting and the next day we are heading home to family and loved ones.
Before my family arrived I was spit at and called a murder, no one said welcom home.
In the next year in the army I discovered that our men and women who fought in Korea came home to basicly the same mentality. No parade no love. Our youth is better trained, better feed, have faster access to medical help, and supplied better than the averrage solder in Korea and Viet Nam. The VA is full of kids who cant sleep at night, cani keep a marriage going, who has turned to drugs and crime. Is this our fault or theirs, perhaps they shoud be kept for another year in the states helping communities,
or trained for a job that will be waiting for them upon leaving the service. I know for a fact thier is help out there but we who stand togeather we just have to reach for it.We the veterns of the other wars praise these young men and women for their service, carrying on the call to protect our great nation when called upon. We the older solders want you to know how important you are now that your back, why kill yourself when carry a vote which we could not due, run for offices ,become part of your church and schools, You and we both paid for a child to be safe in th streets and the right to free speech. And yes we all know that are those among us that bad mouth and turn into the same people they fought, they have learned to drain our Va system dry because they have given up and now just give me my money so I dont have to work.
Some day we will find the solution, Perhaps better testing to prevent these people from joining, or better yet stop the wars.
Here is how we stop military suicide very quickly- bring all of our troops home from Afghanistsan tomorrow and replace them with all the members of congress and their K street owners- after every member of congress is settled into their new digs, we drop 7 or 8 nukes on Afghanistan and be done with this mess once and for all. Everybody would be much happpier, and Allah would welcome more martyrs into paradise. Then after another day or two, we send Haliburton and their bitch Dick Cheney over to clean up the radioactvity.
it is far too easy to get into the army... there needs to be much better screening
Absolutely! 17 years old is not mature enugh to make the decision between life and death.
For some they see the only way off this sinking ship called USS US is to commit suicide, the rest of us will have to ride it all the way down.
General Austin, the Vice Chief of the Army says "To combat it effectively will require sophisticated solutions aimed at helping individuals to build resiliency and strengthen their life coping skills." So general when are the troops taught to be more resilient and strenghten their life scoping skills? We all go through a training cycle in Boot Camp, AIT, MOS School etc. We are taught to hunt down the enemy, close with them and kill them. That is our job. Along with that we see our troops killed, wounded, taken POW and all the other horrors of war.
Some of us do one tour, and some of us do countless. While we are not on the battlefield we are home waiting to go again and again and again. {At home} and {at combat} are two completely different enviornment. We that go are but a small number of the population. We are volunteers and it is what we wanted to do at the beginning.
We believe we are made out of twisted steel and panther piss and nothing bothers us. But some day all that has happened to us in combat will catch up with us. We store it in a part of the brain and there it is trapped until we let it out a small portion at a time and we learn to live with it, not let it out and forget about it BUT LEARN TO LIVE WITH IT. And the sooner the better because only so much can be stored. Then it becomes similar to putting 10 lbs of @!$%# in a 2 lb. bag, it bursts.
The "chain of command" makes it possible for all to have a leader. The leader looks out for the welfare of his troops. Admittance of the symtoms of PTSD is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. The leadership at the lower level, as well at the troops, and as well as at the General level need to get rid of the stigma and recognize that combat and all that comes with it changes us forever.
Untreated PTSD will not go away by itself. Seeking help is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength. Semper Fidelis. Blackcoat6 Captain USMC Ret. 100% Combat Disabled Veteran.
311.5M American citizens to 1.4M active military troops equals one soldier to every 222 civilians. Less than one half percent of able bodied Americans are carrying the burden of freedom abroad. While the unknowing, uneducated masses that enjoy freedom rest at peace in their beds, there are those that sleep haltingly, one eye open, a loaded weapon in their "bed" never knowing if they will ever enjoy a peaceful nights sleep again. They may leave the battlefield but it will remain in their dreams...those soldiers may never again get a good nights sleep...........Rest Well America!!! A soldier has already paid the price for your good nights sleep......
Is it any wonder, given Repugnican efforts to cut back on military benefits and support for veterans? Soldiers have realized that once they leave combat, a different kind of struggle awaits them at home. Some may well wind up tearing open their MREs in homeless shelters or on the streets of US cities, not in foreign barracks or urban warzones.
AL KYDA - you're a liar.
Al Kyda
The republicans have been pushing for more benifits for the veterans. BTW under Obama, unemployment for vets is running about 30%, I believe the latest rerports state. So shut up
I'm at the VA Hospital all the time-I have acute leukemia-agent orange caused, and the Obama regime recognizes it as service-connected (Viet Nam), yet, I get 0 compensation for it. I go for blood transfusions weekly, so do you think I'm employable? Yes, if you need a door stop. I am single with no bills. If I had a family like most people, my outrageous treatment by this administration would drive me crazy, no doubt.
I've been going to the VA hospital for over a decade. Since the Obama regime took over, our soldiers are coming home with terrible wounds. They get a quick fix, then, are thrown out of the service to fend for themselves. Once glorious troops serving our country are now pathetic "GOD! someone help me!" discards.
Hang in there Joe.......Keep in mind.....nobody has done more for the troops than President Obama..Montgomery GI bill extension for VETS over 35 years old.....9/11 Gi bill when McCain said dont do it....Finally Vietnam Vets Claims after decades(Yours is coming- But dont stop fighting for it).....Influx of money for troops coming back from AFGAN and IRAQ....plus even when the Repub wanted to leave the troops over there longer ....he insisted......NO bring them home......they will ALL be home soon...the largest amount EVER came home this month..... Our economy is a mess and people are hurting......We cannot blame that all on President Obama because he is the MOST visible......Saying a prayer for you Brother....You should not have to go through that...You deserve much better for your service to your country!!
Everybody Pray for our Men and Women in the military carrying the load of 3 to 4 soldiers to ONE and the Weight of the World on their shoulders. All the stressors and pressures that did not exists before so many draw downs and Force Shapings ago when more Bodies existed, trying to make their country proud of them..........Its a heavy burden, especially when many of them need help right NOW but PRIDE can be a loney Monster and has no EQUAL!!!!
These past generations has seen parent's right to discipline their children taken away and the fear of prosecution put into them for trying to do so. The result is we are now left with a bunch of sissies that have been raised on shoot'em up video games and hero movies thinking they can live out their fantasies by signing up.
It just doesn't work that way in real life. We are now left with a bunch of candy arses that can't handle reality when put into the real world outside the U.S.
Best post of all time, sir. I was never more ashamed in my life than to have to go through BASIC watching females and males crying because they were afraid to TRY to get through the obstacle course. Never mind first-graders would have loved it -- it was FUN! But let a child of 17 years be asked to do something for themselves, and their world ends. Pathetic. And the leadership is not much better.
War never determines who's right, only who's left. It hasn't worked as a solution since the dawn of time, but every generation in every culture seems to think they are the exception. Somehow the populace, usually but not entirely, are younger with a lack of real life experience and fail to see behind the ones who get them to put their lives at stake-the older politicians and businessmen who profit off their sacrifice. They will fill your head with nationalistic or religious propaganda after they have already planned what they will do when they win with the spoils they will gain. Are the politicians or religious leaders anywhere in the world the first to go and put their life on the front lines? No, but they convince you who do go to do so and make it an honor to die for your country. As Patton frankly said about the reality of war, "You don't win a war by dying as a hero for your country. You win a war by making the other bastard die as a hero for his".
Welcome to Obama's gay military. These numbers will continue to rise as statistics show that gay suicides are twice that of the heterosexual community. Let's not forget that the new number one crime in the military is man on man rape. Wait till the insidious diseases associated with the sodomite lifestyle hit. We won't need another country to defeat us when the enemy is within. What a sad day for our once strong, proud and straight military. May God spare us before it's too late.
What does MAJ Hasan have? 13 notches on his pistol. What does the ARMY have? June is now Gay Pride Month. GAY PRIDE keeps me ARMY strong!
west...hate to pop your balloon, but your pathetic homophobic diatribe hasn't got one thing to do with subject matter. Unless you can cite some credible sources of what you are claiming then all you did was yank that nonsense out of your ass.
and PS: Your god hasn't got anything to do with it either.
DSP - CAPT/USNR
OilmanMD: Do you know the words to the pledge of allegiance (to the flag of the USA)? Does "One nation under God" ring a bell?
Suicides by OUR military heroes are preventable...simply arrest those responsible for these illegal wars and prosecute them as the treasonous traitors they are...bush, cheney and oboma, and their supporters, the illuminati..!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVKGRB3cygg Why The Military Knows Israel Did 9/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K37x7oWfm_U&feature=fvwrel Bush Sr. New World Order Speech Rare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgusFMA7IG8 The Bush 9-11 Classroom Ritual, The Kids Recite KITE, HIT, STEEL, PLANE, MUST
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhdppHwUJ9k Pilots For 9/11 Truth Presents "9/11 INTERCEPTED" - (Full Film) MUST WATCH!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A3dW_gUwOg WTC 7 "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!" - short film by Architects & Engineers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgN080yySe0 WTC NORTH TOWER EXPLODING, David Chandler, AE911truth.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jazdG3-ZETM&feature=share 2012 - NEWEST 9/11 DOCUMENTARY - PROOF 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB.mp4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6pEZf8P_RE [Must Watch] The Painful Truth and lies behind 9/11 - A documentary you don't want to miss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da0oEBAqtmY 9-11 CONSPIRACY: The False Flag Attack, Part 1 of 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f98jxoUUrzg Israel's deadly attack on USS Liberty emerges from the past
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NeqTdS5nxc Former worker of Bohemian Grove speaks out about the club and its members
seriously....."you tube". oh yea, thats where I go to learn truth....get a clue
Better than corporate-owned brainwashing mainstream media...yeah, so snooki's pregnant? Who gives a rat's ass what you think, fool.
If the V.A. would open there ears and listen to what is going on with us and actuauly try to help would be a start. But treating us like drunks and drug addicts and pittifull people is never going to help. We need care takers not paper pushers.
C'mon guys, I know it's hard, I think about it sometimes too. Why did I make it back. We said whoever did wouldn't stand around and think why me, but instead would say, hell yeah, I made it. Good for me... But it doesn't feel like that every year when everyone else is enjoying the bbq. I hate that day. That's the one day I let myself think why not me, why aren't you guys here, giving me sh#t. Telling me I'm doing it wrong while I'm grilling. But then I remind myself it's NEVER going to be that bad agian. Life is never going to be that scary, that hard, and I'm never going to be that far from home again. The worst HAS to be behind me. And I'm ok. I wish more guys felt the same way. I AM glad I made it. And I'm sorry you didn't too. Next time it's your turn. The last thing I said to you was, tell them I'm coming. But then things didn't go the way we thought they were going too. I hope your not still waiting for me. I'll be there, I'm just running a little late. You can give me sh#t about that too when I get there.
I am truly sorry that you have had to relive that feeling over and over. This is why war hurts everyone involved on both sides. Tell me, knowing what you know now, would you believe the superficial realities fed to us by others and go off and do this all over again, or would you rather tell them who make the call to sacrifice to go & do it themselves if it is so glorious and worthwhile?
I'd go now if they'd let me.