We need to pay attention to National Guards and Reservists Suicides

Suicide seen as major threat to National Guard Soldiers
2007


The threat is suicide, which ranked as the No. 3 cause of death for Army National Guard Soldiers through Aug. 13, according to the Army National Guard’s Suicide Prevention Program. There have been 42 cases of suicide in the Army National Guard this fiscal year, and it narrowly trails only combat (47) and accidents (45) in terms of Soldier deaths.

National Guard statistics reveal 60 percent of Soldiers, who committed suicide this year, have been on a previous deployment.

Other National Guard suicide statistics from this fiscal year show that gunshot wounds are the most common method of suicide (67 percent) and lower enlisted ranks make up the majority of suicides (32 of the 42 suicides were committed by the ranks of sergeant and below). Thirty-nine of the 42 suicides this year were committed by male Soldiers.

Guard, Reserves Hit Hardest By Vet Suicide February 11, 2009

A Department of Veterans Affairs analysis of ongoing research of deaths among veterans of both wars - obtained by The Associated Press - found that Guard or Reserve members accounted for 53 percent of the veteran suicides from 2001, when the war in Afghanistan began, through the end of 2005.

According to the VA's research, 144 veterans committed suicide from the start of the war in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, through the end of 2005. Of those, 35 veterans, or 24 percent, served in the Reserves and 41, or 29 percent, had served in the National Guard. Sixty-eight - or 47 percent - had been in the regular military.

In October, the AP reported that preliminary VA research found that from the start of the war in Afghanistan in October 2001 and the end of 2005, a total of 283 troops who had served in the wars and later were discharged from the military had committed suicide.

The VA later said the number was reduced to 144 because some of the veterans counted were actually in the active military and not discharged when they died.

Army Reserve, National Guard Suicides Doubled in 2010
Jan 20, 2011

There was some good news in the data: Suicides among active-duty soldiers dropped slightly, from 162 in 2009 to 156 last year. It was the first such decrease in six years.

But the overall suicide rate across the Army was still up more than 24 percent. The reason was the spike in National Guard and Reservists' suicides. At least 145 such soldiers killed themselves in 2010, nearly twice as many as the year before, when 80 guardsmen and reservists took their own lives. More than half of them were at home in America and never deployed to a war zone, CNN quoted a senior military official as saying.

The rise in National Guard suicides was most pronounced in the Midwest. Missouri and Texas each reported seven suicides among their Guard troops in 2010 and Wisconsin had six, USA Today reported. There were five suicides each in the National Guards of Minnesota, Ohio, Arizona, California and North Carolina.

In some of those states, suicides even outnumbered combat deaths. In Missouri and Wisconsin, more guardsmen committed suicide in 2010 than were killed in action during any year since 2001, Army Lt. Col. Jackie Guthrie of the Wisconsin National Guard told USA Today. For example, in Missouri the highest number of combat deaths since then was three, in 2006. But seven guardsmen took their own lives in 2010.

"All of us are stunned by it, and we wished we knew why," Guthrie said. "It is especially hard when it's suicide, when it's someone hurting in our ranks."

Overall, Army troops -- active or inactive status -- committed suicide at a rate of 25 a month in 2010, the Army figures show. That's 301 suicides altogether last year, compared with 242 in 2009.

In the past five years, 975 U.S. soldiers took their own lives.

Army Releases January Suicide Data
The Army released suicide data today for the month of January. Among active-duty soldiers, there were 12 potential suicides: one has been confirmed as suicide, and 11 remain under investigation. For December, the Army reported ten potential suicides among active-duty soldiers. Since the release of that report, three have been confirmed as suicides, and seven remain under investigation.

During January 2010, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were 15 potential suicides. For December, among that same group, there were seven total suicides. Of those, five were confirmed as suicides and two are pending determination of the manner of death.

“In the new year, we won’t just maintain our current focus on suicide prevention, we’re going to sharpen that focus,” said Col. Christopher Philbrick, director, Army Suicide Prevention Task Force. “We’ve made significant changes in our health promotion, risk reduction, and suicide prevention programs, policies, and initiatives. But over the last year, you could describe our Army effort as shining a flood light on the problem of suicide.

Now in 2010, we’re going to move from a flood light to a laser light identifying our most effective programs, so we can target and reinforce what’s working and fix what isn’t.”