US army suicide rate hits the highest in more than a year

The US Army suffered 32 suicides in June, the highest number for a single month since January 2009, when the suicide rate in the army began to rise, The Washington Post reported.

The total number of army suicides in June was about the same as the number of army troops killed in Afghanistan last month, the deadliest month of the war for US and Nato forces.

The increase in suicides was likely driven by the “continued stresses on the force” caused by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, said Colonel Chris Philbrick, the director of the army’s suicide prevention task force. The army has tried to address the issue, by encouraging counseling and releasing a video to help troops combat self-destructive tendencies, among other measures. In fact, until last month, the army had begun to see some tentative signs that the rate was trending downward among active-duty troops.

The June numbers, however, show that it was not the case.

In January 2010, 80 active-duty soldiers committed suicide or are suspected of having committed suicide, down from 88 in the same period last year. The Army National Guard, by contrast, had 65 suicides in the first six months, up from 42 in that period last year.

The army’s suicide rate in 2009 exceeded the rate among civilians for the first time in decades. The army’s current suicide rate is about 22 deaths per 100,000.

US Army officials are at a loss to explain the increase in National Guard suicides, which could be linked to the combined stress of the war and the growing strain on the US economy. “There is no indication that the National Guard’s operational tempo has increased,” Philbrick said.

Seven soldiers killed themselves while in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan in June, according to the statistics reported by USA Today. Of the total suicides, 22 soldiers had been in combat, including 10 who had been deployed two to four times.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2010.