Joint Base Lewis-McChord had one less suicide in 2013

Soldier suicides decline slightly at JBLM, first drop since 2007
The News Tribune
BY ADAM ASHTON
Staff writer
January 17, 2014

Joint Base Lewis-McChord recorded a small decline in soldier suicides in 2013, marking its first drop in self-inflicted deaths since 2007.

As many as 12 soldiers at the base took their own lives last year, down from 13 in each of the two previous years, according to the I Corps. Two of the deaths are confirmed as suicides and 10 remain under investigation.

While the numbers appear to have held fairly steady, Lewis-McChord’s stateside population grew by a lot between 2012 and 2013.

In 2012, all three of the base’s Stryker brigades deployed to Afghanistan at different times. Each took between 3,500 soldiers and 4,500 soldiers. By contrast, the base was full for most of 2013 with about 34,000 active-duty troops at home.

“We had one fewer (suicide) this year. You might say that’s not much progress,” I Corps Commander and Lewis-McChord senior Army officer Lt. Gen. Robert Brown said. “But we had 15,000 more people here.”

The slight decline is in keeping with an Armywide trend. In November, the Defense Department released a report indicating suicides declined by 22 percent compared to the same period in 2012, when a record 349 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines took their own lives.

The Defense Department has not updated its November report to include the entire year.

Some Army posts have reported steeper declines in suicides. The Austin American-Statesman this month reported that Fort Hood in Texas recorded up to seven suicides in 2013, down from 20 in 2012.

Self-inflicted deaths among active-duty soldiers began climbing steadily about 2005 and continued to rise despite an intense prevention campaign that steered tens of millions of dollars to research, outreach and training programs.
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