Camp Lejeune continues battle against troop suicide

Camp Lejeune continues battle against troop suicide
February 19, 2012 4:15 AM

HOPE HODGE - DAILY NEWS STAFF
A 27-year-old Marine sergeant from New River Air Station completes two deployments in Iraq and re-enlists, then takes his own life with a handgun, leaving behind a wife and two children. A 19-year-old Camp Lejeune artilleryman with a fiancée hangs himself. A 21-year-old sergeant with three years of service and a single tour in Afghanistan dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

These are three of the seven local troops who died by their own hand in 2011, five of them within Onslow County or aboard Camp Lejeune.

A month-and-a-half into 2012, Camp Lejeune has lost two of its active-duty Marines to suicide. Spread across a base of more than 50,000 troops, the numbers are small making it difficult to determine if preventative measures are working, or even where to focus assistance, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Martin, suicide prevention manager for Marine and Family Programs.
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