Suicides once again surging among U.S. troops

By Robert Burns

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON ? Suicides are surging among America's troops, averaging nearly one a day this year the fastest pace in the nation's decade of war.

The 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of the year far outdistance the U.S. troops killed in action in Afghanistan ? about 50 percent more suicides than combat deaths ? according to Pentagon statistics obtained by The Associated Press.

At Fort Hood, suicides are also on pace to rise this year. Through the beginning of June, there have been seven confirmed or suspected suicides, compared with 10 in 2011. But Fort Hood is still not on pace to match its record 22 suicides in 2010, when the post's suicide rate was significantly higher than the Army's as a whole. That year, Fort Hood hosted a particularly large population as many units were between deployments. Troop levels are similarly high this year with the return of about 20,000 soldiers from Iraq.

Because suicides across the U.S. military had leveled off in 2010 and 2011, this year's upswing has caught some officials by surprise.

The reasons for the increase aren't fully understood. Studies have pointed to combat exposure, post-traumatic stress, misuse of prescription medications and personal financial problems. Army data suggest soldiers with multiple combat tours are at greater risk of committing suicide, although a substantial proportion of Army suicides are committed by soldiers who never deployed.

The war in Afghanistan is winding down, with the last combat troops scheduled to leave at the end of 2014. But this year has seen record numbers of soldiers being killed by Afghan troops, and there also have been several scandals involving U.S. troop misconduct.

The 2012 active-duty suicide total of 154 through June 3 compares with 130 in the same period last year, an 18 percent increase. It's more than the 136.2 suicides that the Pentagon had projected for this period based on the trend from 2001 to 2011. This year's January-May total is up 25 percent from two years ago and 16 percent ahead of the pace for 2009, which ended with the highest yearly total thus far. The suicide pattern varies over the course of a year, but in each of the past five years the trend through May was a reliable predictor for the full year, according to the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System.

The numbers are rising among the 1.4 million active-duty military personnel despite years of efforts to encourage troops to seek help with mental health problems. Many in the military believe that going for help is seen as a sign of weakness and thus a potential threat to advancement.

Kim Ruocco, widow of Marine Maj. John Ruocco, a helicopter pilot who hanged himself in 2005 between Iraq deployments, said he was unable to bring himself to go for help.

"He was so afraid of how people would view him once he went for help," she said at her home in suburban Boston. "He thought that people would think he was weak, that people would think he was just trying to get out of redeploying or trying to get out of service, or that he just couldn't hack it ? when, in reality, he was sick. He had suffered injury in combat and he had also suffered from depression and let it go untreated for years. And because of that, he's dead today."

Ruocco is now director of suicide prevention programs for the military support organization Tragedy Assistance Program.

Jackie Garrick, head of a newly established Defense Suicide Prevention Office at the Pentagon, said Thursday that the suicide numbers this year are troubling.

"We are very concerned at this point that we are seeing a high number of suicides at a point in time where we were expecting to see a lower number of suicides," she said, adding that the weak U.S. economy might be confounding preventive efforts.

Military suicides began surging in 2006. They soared in 2009 and then leveled off before rising again this year. The statistics cover only active-duty troops, not veterans who returned to civilian life. Nor does the Pentagon's tally include nonmobilized National Guard or Reserve members.

The Marines arguably have had the most success recently in lowering their suicide numbers, which are up slightly this year but are roughly in line with levels of the past four years. The Army's numbers also are up slightly. The Air Force has seen a spike, to 32 through June 3 compared with 23 at the same point last year. The Navy is slightly above its 10-year trend line but down a bit from 2011.

Dr. Stephen Xenakis, a retired Army brigadier general and a practicing psychiatrist, said the suicides reflect the level of tension as the U.S. eases out of Afghanistan though violence continues.

"It's a sign in general of the stress the Army has been under over the 10 years of war," he said. "We've seen before that these signs show up even more dramatically when the fighting seems to go down and the Army is returning to garrison."

Additional material from Statesman staff writer Jeremy Schwartz

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