Re: Highest Military Suicide Rates on Record (Neocons/Republicans, the U.S. Army needs you now!)

On Fri, 30 May 2008 15:56:26 -0700 (PDT),
hot-ham-and-cheese@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

On May 30, 1:02 am, Gene Duprés <bassgun...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On May 29, 7:40 pm, Curly Surmudgeon <CurlySurmudgeon_...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:





 U.S. Army suicides highest in 2007

By David Morgan Thu May 29, 6:49 PM ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army on Thursday said suicides among
active duty troops in 2007 had reached the highest level on record, due
partly to the stress caused by deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Army announced that 115 soldiers, including 22 National Guard and Army
Reserve troops, killed themselves last year. That marked a 12.7 percent
rise from the 102 suicides recorded in 2006. There were 85 Army suicides
in 2005.

It was the highest number of actual suicides in the military force since
record-keeping began in 1980 and Army officials said the rate has remained
at about the same level since, with 38 confirmed suicides recorded for
2008 as of last Monday.

The Army also said there were 935 suicide attempts in 2007.

Preliminary figures released in January had suggested the number of
suicides in 2007 could reach 121.

Thirty-two suicides, or more than one-quarter of the actual 2007 total,
occurred in Iraq as President George W. Bush poured extra forces into the
country in an effort to quell sectarian violence. Another four occurred in
Afghanistan.

Army officials said statistics did not show a direct link between repeated
deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and the rise in suicides.

But officials acknowledged that stresses caused by wartime Army operations
were taking their toll on soldiers including in their personal
relationships, the breakup of which was cited as a catalyst in 50 percent
of cases.

"We see a lot of things that are going on in the war which do contribute,"
said Army psychiatrist Col. Elspeth Ritchie.

She pointed specifically to long months away from home, the horrors of
combat, the ready availability of loaded weapons and the high activity
levels of current Army operations.

"All of those together we think are part of what may contribute,
especially if somebody's having difficulties already," she said.

While 24 percent of cases occurred among soldiers sent to a combat theater
for the first time, only 7 percent involved soldiers who had been deployed
two or more times. Twenty-six percent had never been deployed.

Forty-three percent of suicides occurred after soldiers had returned to
their home station.

But officials said the suicide rate for the Army remained below a civilian
rate of 19.5 suicides per 100,000 people in the general population.

Army rate stood at 18.8 suicides per 100,000 regular active duty troops
and at 16.8 per 100,000 when active duty National Guard and Reserve
members were included in the total.

Not included in the statistics were 53 suicides last year among National
Guardsmen and Reservists who were not on active duty.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080529/ts_nm/usa_army_suicides_dc

-- Regards, Curly
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               Torture is not American, It's Republican
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This sucks.  Too bad there aren't any news carriers much mentioning it.- Hide quoted text -

I've heard about it a lot. I think WTVN/610 AM carries Fox news now,
and they cover it.

FWIW, the suicide rates spiked under Clinton's "deployment of the
week." I even had to answer Congressional inquiries about particular
Airmen and NCOs being deployed too much way back then.

Got a credible cite, Cheese-Bob?
--

The last official act of any government is the looting of the nation.
.

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