Army combats suicide surge in its ranks

Army combats suicide surge in its ranks
Article by: MARK BRUNSWICK Updated: June 15, 2011 - 7:05 AM
More service members now are taking their own lives than are dying in combat. As the toll mounts, family members are asking whether military leaders are responding properly to soldiers in crisis.

The text message from the young soldier to his mom ended with a short, shocking vow.

"I'm going to take my life. Sorry.''

Jeremy Campbell wrote it sitting alone inside a roadside room at the Comfort Suites hotel in Urbana, Ill., the day last September that he fled his Army base 300 miles away in Kentucky, despondent and ashamed.

Then he drank two bottles of cough syrup, put on his headphones, and lay down.

From her home in Cloquet, Minn., a frightened Corinne Campbell alerted military officials. With the help of cellphone tracking, they closed in on her son's location. A few hours later, police and medics burst into his hotel room and rushed him to a hospital.

Jeremy's life had been saved.

Or so it seemed.
read more here
Army combats suicide surge in its ranks




Death after face off with police