More military lives lost to suicide in 2012 than battle dead from three wars

I have been looking at these numbers for so long now that it has become infuriating to turn on the news and not hear one word about any of this.

Last year we lost more troops to suicide than we lost in battle during the Gulf War.
Gulf War
Persian Gulf War
Total Served 2,225,000
Total Deaths
382

2012 Military Suicides
449


Last year we lost more veterans to suicide than we did in 11 years of fighting two wars.

US Killed in Afghanistan
2001 12
2002 49
2003 48
2004 52
2005 99
2006 98
2007 117
2008 155
2009 317
2010 499
2011 418
2012 310
2013 3
Total Deaths
2,177


US Killed in Iraq
2003 486
2004 849
2005 846
2006 823
2007 904
2008 314
2009 149
2010 60
2011 54
2012 1
Total Deaths
4,486

Total Killed in Three Wars
7,045

2012 Veteran Suicides

8,030

Military/veteran families grieving by graves filled last year by suicide

8,479

UPDATE February 24, 2013
John Henry Parker, a friend, wrote on Huffington Post that this was happening and it was a big deal even before the new numbers came out. The veterans committing suicide figure went up along with military suicides. It you want to know why this is such a big deal to people paying attention, read this.

Veteran Suicides Each Year Eclipses Total OEF/OIF U.S. Military Killed in Action Since 9/11
Huffington Post
John Henry Parker
Co-Founder, Purple Star Veterans and Families (PSVF)

Wake Up, America.

We are crossing a serious milestone in our nation's history -- and nobody knows it.

The latest U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) report from the DEFENSE CASUALTY ANALYSIS SYSTEM puts the number of U.S. military killed in action (KIA) while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan at 6,567 as of December 14, 2012.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans are not correlating the lives lost in The War On Terror with the catastrophic loss of life occurring when warriors come home. In the United States, every 80 minutes a U.S. Military Veteran dies from suicide. That's 18 per day, 6,570 per year.