Marine Corps reports record number of suicide attempts

Do you think they will finally figure out they have been wasting lives by wasting time and money on programs that do more harm than good? Suicides have gone up despite prevention programs. Attempted suicides have gone up despite "training programs" that claim to "toughen their minds" to prevent the ravages of PTSD. With all the evidence coming out over the last 10 years, now they are wondering why everything has failed?

MILITARY: Marine Corps reports record number of suicide attempts

By MARK WALKER
Posted: Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Eleven Marines who have taken their own lives this year were stationed at Camp Pendleton or assigned to a unit headquartered at the base, an official with the suicide prevention program said last month.

More U.S. Marines have attempted to take their own lives this year than ever before, according to the service's latest report from its suicide prevention program.

The report said that 176 Marines attempted suicide through November, more than double the 82 reported in 2002, the first year the Marine Corps began recording and reporting the statistics.
Officials say better reporting procedures and heightened awareness is largely responsible for the higher numbers. In 2010 there were 172 attempted suicides, up from 164 in 2009 and 146 in 2008.

The report also said three active-duty Marines committed suicide in November, raising the number of self-inflicted deaths for the year to 32.

Thirty-seven Marine suicides were reported in 2010 compared with a record 52 in 2009 and 42 in 2008.

Defense Department officials have struggled to prevent and reduce suicides among active-duty and reservists troops as well as veterans.

Last month, the Center for a New American Security in Washington, which analyzes Pentagon statistics, said service members or veterans were taking their own lives at a rate of one every 36 hours between 2005 and 2010.

This week, the issue went before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs in Washington, where an official with the Military Officers Association of America said a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan has placed unprecedented demands on troops and their families.

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