Suicide rate in Army at a 26-year high

WASHINGTON - Ninety-nine U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year, the highest rate of suicide in the Army in 26 years, a new report says.

More than one out of four soldiers who committed suicide did so while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to a report scheduled to be released Thursday. Iraq was the most common deployment location for U.S. soldiers who either attempted suicide or committed suicide.

The report, which The Associated Press obtained ahead of its public release, said the 99 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers compared to 88 in 2005 and was the highest raw number since the 102 suicides reported in 1991, the year of the Persian Gulf War, when there were more soldiers on active duty.

Investigations are still pending on two other deaths and if they are confirmed as suicides, the number for last year would be 101 instead of 99.

In a half million-person Army, last year's suicide toll translates to a rate of 17.3 per 100,000, the highest in the past 26 years, officials report. The rate has fluctuated over those years, with the low being 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.

Failed personal relationships, legal and financial problems and the stress of their jobs were factors motivating the soldiers to commit suicide, according to the report. It also found a significant relationship between suicide attempts and the number of days deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan or nearby countries where troops were participating in the war effort.

There was "limited evidence" to back the suspicion that repeated deployments are putting more people at risk for suicide, the report said. With the Army stretched thin by years of fighting the two wars, the Pentagon has had to extend normal tours of duty this year to 15 months from 12 and has sent some troops back to the wars several times.

The 99 suicides included 28 soldiers deployed to the Iraq and Afghan campaigns. About twice as many women serving in the wars committed suicide as did women not sent to war, the report said.

The Defense Manpower Data Center, which collects data for the Pentagon, said in late May that 107 suicides had been recorded in the Iraq campaign since its start in March of 2003.

Preliminary numbers for the first half of 2007 indicate the number of suicides could decline across the service but increase among troops serving in the wars, officials said.

The increases for 2006 came as Army officials worked to set up a number new programs and strengthen old ones for providing mental health care to a force strained by the longer-than-expected conflict in Iraq and the global counterterrorism war entering its sixth year.

In a flurry of studies in recent months, officials found that system that might have been adequate for a peacetime military has been overwhelmed by troops coming home from the wars.

Some troop surveys in Iraq have shown that 20 percent of Army soldiers have signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress, which can cause flashbacks of traumatic combat experiences and other severe reactions. About 35 percent of soldiers are seeking some kind of mental health treatment a year after returning home under a program that screens returning troops for physical and mental health, officials have said.

The Army has sent medical teams annually to the battlefront in Iraq to survey troops, health care providers and chaplains about health, morale and other issues. It has revised training programs, bolstered suicide prevention, is adding some 25 percent more psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to its staff and is in the midst of an extensive program to teach all soldiers how to recognize mental health problems in themselves and their comrades — and encourage them to seek help.

The Army also has been working to stem the stigma associated with getting therapy for mental problems, after officials found that troops are avoiding counseling out of fear it could harm their careers.

How is this bush's fault, when 2009 comes around it will be that presidents fault too cause they won't pull the troops, what a load of crap, why don't you people be here for the dating site it is, it's called JUST SAY HI ... Not Just say cry. Get over it, move on and live yer lives.

Since Im in Canada.....Im going to blame every president for not pulling out the troops. As for the suicides, its not the presidents fault but the war and its effects could have had something to do with it.

the question is who has the power to stop the war?
and why doesn't he stop it?
poor soldiers they are just victims as the iraqi people who is dying over there.
i do not cry, i just point out reality.

It most certainly IS that lying weasle in the awful office's
fault - or rather his handlers'...

You mean the Puppet Master????

One of the puppet masters resigned. That means the dummy will only have ONE hand up his ass now.

I guess some take it harder than others, and if push came to shove the president can be over ridden , the troops could come home, don't just blame Dubya, blame the whole government.

and who's government is it????


certainly not the people's, and that has been made explicitly clear.


by the way...even if BUSH has only one hand up his ass now, it's still pretty crowded with his head up there as well !! \

Congress just drew up a bill to bring them home a couple months or so ago.

Dubya vetoed it, and they didnt have the 60 votes to over ride his veto, Now, whose fault is every death, at least from that point?

His words, which you will find in a WH press confrence manuscript from June:

Here is why the bill Congress passed is unacceptable. First, the bill would mandate a rigid and artificial deadline for American troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq. That withdrawal could start as early as July 1st. And it would have to start no later than October 1st, regardless of the situation on the ground.

Even when Congress threatened to cut off funding for the war he still vetoed it!

I think,,,
No Im sure that what little support this president has (30%) comes from selective memory, selective reading, or just simple ignorance!
Pick your own definition!!!!
Im not labeling anyone, label your self!!!
It has to be one of the three though, cause the facts and fiqures (truth) is widely known (70%) by the population, and widely available for anyone to read.
If I were one of the Bushies, Id pick memory loss, otherwise its blind ignorance!!!

I don't support Bush, i am just tired of you cry babies like Bl8ant and you whinning on a dating site about something you can't change, Bush wins you lose, there isn't a damn thing you can do about it, like I said b4, you think he gives a rats a** what you or the 70% others think, he will get out of office soon(not soon enough) and the next one comes along, 10 top 1 you and your little cronnie will be crying about him/her too, get over it, why waste your time crying over something you can't change.

oh oh oh !!! do you think we pushed a button????

and what of those people who are crying because they are ill or depressed...do you think they should shut up also because there's nothing we can do about it on a dating site???

and discussing or stating our feelings are a way we come to know how compatible we are...if we cry about the same things..

and laugh about the same things...

like the fact that Fanta and i shouldn't really matter much

we both don't want to date you

Damn you turn me on when you talk politics!!

what about not having enought judges to run the social security

enrollment program and having to wait 18 to 36 monthes for a hearing because bush refuses to appoint judges to run the FEDERAL
program that takes your money every week that you work

yet is not good enough for ANY govt employee

maybe it should be mandatory that everyone should be in the social security system i bet things would change then

the only reason social security is in trouble is congress steals the money and uses it for other things

do that in private industry and it is a crime


ok i quit

dont get me started again

Dayv if you feel so offended stay away from this forum.
and conform yourself with the vanalities of other sections.
in other words live and let others live.
be careful with bl8nt you can get hurt.
I love you Alex.

gasp!!!!


i couldn't hurt a fly!!!

i know u r such a lovely flower dear.

but alex were not talking flys




pass

i mean ...not maliciously....


if they get too close though... well does that count???








signed ...venus