"Losing a Marine to suicide is like abandoning a Marine in combat"

Marine Corps takes a new approach to suicide prevention
A dramatic, multimedia presentation is intended to get troops' attention. Suicide rates have shown an alarming increase.
By Tony Perry
March 28, 2009
Reporting from Camp Pendleton -- Forty-one Marines marched on command to the front of the hall and stared at hundreds of their comrades assembled Friday for a presentation ordered by top generals to try to stem a rising rate of suicide.

The Marines represented the number who took their own lives last year, more than were killed in Iraq (34) or in Afghanistan (27).


Losing a Marine to suicide, Col. Lori Reynolds told the group, is like abandoning a Marine in combat.

Marines must be more diligent in looking for signs that one of them is thinking of suicide, she said.

"Last year, we left 41 Marines out there on the battlefield," Reynolds said. "There were signs."


The suicides equaled a rate of 19 per 100,000 troops, up from 33 suicides and a rate of 16.5 in 2007, and 25 suicides and a rate of 12.9 in 2006.

Of the 41, 36 were junior enlisted, three were non-commissioned officers and two were officers. Twenty-nine shot themselves; 12 hanged themselves.
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Marine Corps takes a new approach to suicide prevention